“not one of us would have escaped”: Waxell, The American Expedition, 126.
“they were not shy astonished me exceedingly”: Steller, Steller’s Journal, 139.
“lairs up in the mountains or on the edges of the mountains”: Ibid., 213.
“because they wanted to tear the meat from our hands”: Ibid., 210.
“and they immediately ate up the excrement as eagerly as pigs”: Ibid., 211.
“ate the hands and feet of the corpses”: Waxell, The American Expedition, 127.
“Some were singed, others flogged to death”: Steller, Steller’s Journal, 212.
“Copulation itself takes place amid much caterwauling like cats”: Ibid., 213.
“necessity of eating the stinking, disgusting, and hated foxes”: Ibid., 148.
“a tower of strength when we were in trouble”: “Report of the Voyage of the St. Peter,” in Bering’s Voyages, by Golder, 1:281.
“I will divide with you equally until God helps”: Steller, Steller’s Journal, 141.
“You do not know what might have happened to you at home”: Ibid., 142.
“so as not to be laughed at afterward or wait until we were ordered”: Ibid., 148.
“miserable existence”: Ibid., 149.
“God’s judgement for revenge on the authors of their misfortune”: Ibid., 151.
“reproaches and threats for past doings”: Ibid.
“may God at least spare our longboat”: Ibid., 144.
crashing over the deck and pouring into the hold: See “Log of the St. Peter,” in Bering’s Voyages, by Golder, 1:220–221.
“died like mice as soon as their heads had topped the hatch”: Waxell, The American Expedition, 128.
“attending to the needs of nature where they lay”: Ibid., 129.
“we abandoned all hope for his life”: Steller, Steller’s Journal, 153.
“the enterprises necessary for our deliverance”: Ibid., 152.
“the ship would be driven out to sea”: “Log of the St. Peter,” in Bering’s Voyages, by Golder, 1:228.
“on the spot where we had planned to lay her up”: Ibid., 230.
“might ever have been done by human effort”: Steller, Steller’s Journal, 152.
“our bodies became distended like drums from flatulence”: Ibid., 160.
“alike in both regard to standing and work, food and clothing”: Waxell, The American Expedition, 207.
CHAPTER 11. DEATH AND PLAYING CARDS
“brown-black, grown over the teeth and covering them”: Steller, Steller’s Journal, 146.
“moving away from the dead”: Waxell, The American Expedition, 134.
“but becomes so depressed that he would far rather die than live”: Ibid., 200.
“even the bravest might lose courage”: Steller, Steller’s Journal, 151.
“men scarcely half his age and one-third his skill”: Ibid., 155.
“his lively and agreeable company”: Müller, Bering’s Voyages, 115.
“where there was no sign of fuel”: Waxell, The American Expedition, 131.
“I wonder at your taste”: Steller, Steller’s Journal, 150.
“out of his hands and put into those of a young and active man”: Ibid., 156.
“suffers from the cold”: Waxell, The American Expedition, 135.
“an earnest preparation for death”: Steller, Steller’s Journal, 156.
“died miserably under the open sky”: Steller letter to Gmelin, in Golder, Bering’s Voyages, 1:243.
“He died like a rich man”: Steller, Steller’s Journal, 157.
“they leaned so heavily on him that he himself must sink”: Ibid.
“by their too impetuous and often thoughtless action”: Ibid., 156.
“after Bering’s death his greatest accuser”: Ibid., 157.
“universally liked by the whole command”: Ibid., 155.
“leaving us lying under the open sky”: Waxell, The American Expedition, 139.
“clung to a stone or anything else that they were able to seize”: Ibid., 140.
“were the daily guests”: Steller, Steller’s Journal, 153.
“Severity would have been quite pointless”: Waxell, The American Expedition, 135.
“a special paragraph giving permission for all suitable pastimes”: Ibid., 136.
“my successors could deal with matters as they liked”: Ibid.
“that one has lost so and so much”: Steller, Steller’s Journal, 161.
“hate, quarrels and strife were disseminated through all the quarters”: Ibid.
“the fine sea otters had to offer up their costly skins”: Ibid.
“their skins, their meat being thrown away”: Ibid.
“raging among the animals, without discipline and order”: Ibid.
“cooked for the sick to eat”: Waxell, The American Expedition, 137.
“you have to swallow it in large lumps”: Ibid., 205.
“as we were never able to get all the oil out of them”: Ibid., 137.
“the meat almost like veal”: Steller, Steller’s Journal, 168.
“were in the proper place and home”: Ibid., 167.
“resulted in cheerfulness and good feeling among us”: Ibid.
“for He helps all who help themselves”: Waxell, The American Expedition, 143.
“was not fit for a continuation of our voyage”: “Log of the St. Peter,” in Bering’s Voyages, by Golder, 1:231.
“To His Highness Lieutenant Waxell”: Ibid.
“it is difficult to say how badly damaged the bottom is”: Ibid., 232.
“they had examined the ship and found it unseaworthy”: Ibid.
“small vessel should be made to take us to Kamchatka”: Ibid.
“if only we had acted upon this or that”: Waxell, The American Expedition, 146.
“violent northwest gale and a very high tide”: Steller, Steller’s Journal, 168.
“ever stronger the closer it came to us”: Ibid., 205.
CHAPTER 12. A NEW ST. PETER
“none of us became well or recovered his strength completely”: Waxell, The American Expedition, 142.
“to make a careful observation of the country”: “Log of the St. Peter,” in Bering’s Voyages, by Golder, 1:232.
“some mainland or the end of the island”: Steller, Steller’s Journal, 169.
“like immovable machines, they could hardly move their feet”: Ibid., 171.
“God, however, pulled him through without harm”: Ibid.
“tried to keep myself warm and banish the bitterness of death”: Ibid., 172.
“safe from the thievish and malicious foxes”: Ibid.
“The fat is yellow, the flesh hard and sinewy”: Waxell, The American Expedition, 141.
“snow dashing down from the mountains”: Steller, Steller’s Journal, 173.
“doubled the northern cape on the other side”: “Log of the St. Peter,” in Bering’s Voyages, by Golder, 1:233.
“escape from this wretched spot”: Waxell, The American Expedition, 142.
“therefore we should all stand together as one man”: Ibid., 143.
“digging for all eternity without making any progress”: Ibid., 145.
“all aboard her would be lost”: Ibid., 143.
“should find consolation together”: Ibid., 145.
“Decision Made on Determination That Land Is an Island”: “Log of the St. Peter,” in Bering’s Voyages, by Golder, 1:233.
“on the beach directly in front of the ship”: Ibid.
“crowbars, iron wedges and large hammers”: Steller, Steller’s Journal, 176.
“we should be able to put to sea in her without risk”: Waxell, The American Expedition, 148.
“I used my authority to force them to work”: Ibid., 147.
“erecting of the stern and the sternpost”: “Log of the St. Peter,” in Bering’s Voyages, by Golder, 1:234.
“crakeberry plants instead of tea”: Waxell, The Am
erican Expedition, 148.
“We enjoyed ourselves pretty well”: Steller, Steller’s Journal, 180.
“quite savage and attack people”: “Log of the St. Peter,” in Bering’s Voyages, by Golder, 1:238.
“attacks the men with his flippers and keeps on fighting”: Georg Wilhelm Steller, De Bestiis Marinis; or, The Beasts of the Sea, 60.
“without danger to life and limb”: Steller, Steller’s Journal, 225.
“white ring around the eyes and red skin about the beak”: Ibid., 237.
“was sufficient for three starving men”: Stejneger, Georg Wilhelm Steller, 351.
“among the animals without discipline or order”: Steller, Steller’s Journal, 161.
“it lies like a person, with the front feet crossed over the breast”: Ibid., 221.
“become sick and feeble, and will not leave the shore”: Ibid., 220.
“the blood gushed forth anew”: Ibid., 228.
“surpasses in sweetness and taste the best beef fat”: Ibid., 234.
“defiled by the blowflies as to be covered with worms all over”: Ibid., 235.
“we felt considerably better and became quite active”: Waxell, The American Expedition, 151.
“when I went there myself”: Steller, Steller’s Journal, 233.
“prospected the island for metals and minerals and had found none”: Ibid., 196.
“a capstan we had had on the old ship”: Waxell, The American Expedition, 152.
“much splintered and cracked from being wrenched loose”: Ibid.
“Our ship with God’s help will be soon finished”: “Log of the St. Peter,” in Bering’s Voyages, by Golder, 1:236.
“and there is great danger in wrecking the vessel”: Ibid.
“deliverance from this desert island”: Steller, Steller’s Journal, 181.
“much inner emotion”: Ibid., 182.
“clear with passing clouds”: “Log of the Hooker St. Peter,” in Bering’s Voyages, by Golder, 1:242.
“God’s wonderful and loving guidance”: Steller, Steller’s Journal, 184.
“fallen into the hands of strangers”: Ibid., 186.
“regarded the present circumstances as in a dream”: Ibid., 187.
“plunged into veritable superabundance”: Waxell, The American Expedition, 158.
“it just cannot be expressed in words”: Ibid.
EPILOGUE: RUSSIAN AMERICA
“reveal the pitiable state in which they then were”: Ibid., 203.
“[W]hen you have to eat them it requires a great effort”: Ibid., 205.
“lazy and pompous conduct of the officers”: Steller, letter to Gmelin, in Golder, Bering’s Voyages, 1:243.
Bering was never celebrated in his time: See Müller, Bering’s Voyages: The Reports from Russia, 3–68, for a detailed background and discussion, written by scholar Carol Urness, of the long list of leaked publications about the voyage and a discussion of the sources, possible authors, and their impact. Further academic study of the historiography of the Bering expedition should begin here.
Their work helped to tell the tale of the survivors: An account of the excavations is contained in Albrethsen, “Bering’s Second Kamchatka Expedition,” in Vitus Bering, edited by Jacobsen.
observe such violence or to enforce such a law: See Lydia Black, Russians in Alaska, 1732–1867, for a good overview of the history of the early Russian colonial period and the era of the Russian American Company.
“deep waters and exposed anchorages”: George Davidson, The Tracks and Landfalls of Bering and Chirikov on the Northwest Coast of America, 42.
Index
Academy of Sciences, Russian
curtailment of freedom/funding, 108
founding of, 23, 53–54
Great Northern Expedition and, 62–64, 87, 108, 114–115, 220
Joseph-Nicolas Delisle and, 114, 268
Steller and, 87, 265
Account of the Land of Kamchatka (Krasheninnikov), 70 (fig.)
Adak Island, 181
Age of Sail, 3, 170–171
Ainu, 100
Alaska
coast exploration by St. Peter, 139–140, 143
Russians in, 270–271
sale to United States, 273
sighted by Gvozdev, 60–61
Aldan River, 42
Alekseyev, Luka, 206
Aleutian island chain, 2
Aleuts, 122 (fig.), 164, 182, 184, 270
America
Bering’s proposal to sail to, 57–58
first sighting by St. Peter, 128–130
St. Paul arrival in, 147–152
St. Peter landing in, 130–140
See also Pacific voyage to America
Americans
St. Paul contact with, 150–151
St. Peter contact with, 162–166
Amsterdam, Peter’s Great Embassy and, 19–21
Amsterdam (frigate), 21
Amur River, 31, 35, 57, 98
Anadyr River, 48
Anchugov, Timofei, 217
Anna Ivanovna (Empress of Russia)
Bering’s proposed new expedition, 55–59
death, 107
deportations to Siberia by, 73
Great Northern Expedition and, 3, 59, 104, 114
personal appearance, 8 (fig.)
personality of, 55
Russian court under, 55
Anson, George, 169–171
Antipin, Mark, 201
antiscorbutic plants, 168, 175, 198–200, 215, 217, 236
The Apostles Peter and Paul, 20–21
Apraxin, Count (Fedor Matveevich), 25–26
Archangel Gabriel, 47–48, 50–51, 60, 98
Archangel Michel, 98
Archdeacon Stephen’s Island, 144
Arkhangelsk, 14, 21
Armand, Louis, 164
Attu Island, 262
Avacha Bay
description of, 107
illustration by Stephan Krasheninnikov, 70 (fig.)
naming of by Bering, 52
provisioning of St. Paul and St. Peter at, 116–117
punishment of conscripted Kamchatkans at, 110
sailing from Okhotsk by St. Paul and St. Peter to, 106–107
St. Paul and St. Peter depart from (June 4,1741), 117
St. Paul return to, 183–184
supplies transported overland to, 109–110
Azov, 14
Baltic Sea, Russian access to, 18
Bay of Islands, 158, 160
Beasts of the Sea (Steller), 123 (fig.), 188 (fig.), 265, 267
Berge (assistant surgeon), 207
Bering, Anna Christina (Piilse)
after husband’s death, 269
on Great Northern Expedition, 74, 76–78, 80, 82, 94
marriage, 29
return to St. Petersburg, 103–104
social status, 29, 36, 56
Bering, Jonas, 104
Bering, Vitus Jonassen
Alaska coast and islands, 139–140, 143, 152–153, 155
on America sighting, 129–130
on Bering Island, 209, 211, 217–219
business plans prior to First Kamchatka Expedition, 35–36
choice to head First Kamchatka Expedition, 26, 32
command of St. Peter, 116
on commemorate stamp, 189 (fig.)
contact with Americans, 163, 165–166
death, 219–221, 269
early life, 27–28
empress Anna’s demand for report, 104–105
ethnographic observations, 46
exploratory expeditions on Great Northern Expedition, 78–80
First Kamchatka Expedition, 32–52
Great Northern Expedition preparations, 59–66
Great Northern War, 28, 32
on halting the First Kamchatka Expedition, 49–50
honoring of at Petropavlovsk, 259
illness, 124, 154–155, 167, 169, 175, 177, 192, 194, 209, 211, 218–219
imposition of his commands, 85
inheritance donated by, 56
in Kamchatka on First Kamchatka Expedition, 45
Khitrov shore party and, 161
landing in America, 130–133
landmarks named after, 270
leader of Great Northern Expedition, 3
legacy of, 267–270
logistical problems of Great Northern Expedition, 72–75, 81
marriage, 29
naval career, 28–30, 32, 50
objectives of Great Northern Expedition, 3–4
Pacific voyage to America, 120, 124–127, 129–133, 137, 139–140, 142–145
personal trade goods, 41, 51, 56
personality traits, 28, 32, 49–50, 101
physical appearance, forensic reconstruction of, 27, 269
preparation for Pacific voyage, 110–117
promotions, 51, 56, 59
proposal for new expedition, 55–59
report on First Kamchatka Expedition, 56
report on servitor’s hardships, 97
return voyage, 192–194, 197
Russian government’s dissatisfaction with, 95–96, 101
scurvy, 154, 167, 175, 218–219, 269
shipbuilding in Okhotsk, 103
Skornyakov-Pisarev and, 84, 94
social status on Great Northern Expedition, 76–78
Steller and, 91, 109, 111–113, 120, 125, 127, 132, 144, 158, 169, 175, 197, 209, 218–222
from Tobolsk to Yakutsk on Great Northern Expedition, 75, 78
in Yakutsk on Great Northern Expedition, 78, 80–81
from Yakutsk to Okhotsk on First Kamchatka Expedition, 41–42
from Yakutsk to Okhotsk on Great Northern Expedition, 81, 97–98, 103
Bering, Vitus Pedersen, 27, 269
Bering Island
building of the new St. Peter, 242–245, 250, 253
celebrations, 230, 245
discipline/authority and, 205–206, 208, 214, 223–224, 226, 244
dismantling of St. Peter, 234–235, 241–243
earthquake, 235
foxes, 2, 203–205, 211, 215, 222–223, 227, 239, 247, 256
loading of new St. Peter, 256
materials left behind on, 254
new value system on, 207
organization into smaller groups on, 207
scurvy and, 2, 86, 201, 206, 210–219, 223, 225–226, 228–231
sea cows, 249–252
seals, 189 (fig.), 237, 239–240, 245–247
sketch of, 123 (fig.)
spring (1742), 236–253
St. Peter arrival and beaching, 1–2, 188 (fig.), 199–213, 222
Steller’s Cave, 239
transport of crew and supplies to, 201, 205, 209–210, 213
Island of the Blue Foxes Page 30