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Expedition on sloops “Otkrytiye” and “Blagonamerennyi” began
On July 4 (16), 1819 along with the Antarctic expedition on sloops “Vostok” (under the commandment of Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen) and “Mirnyi” (under the commandment of M. P. Lazarev) another expedition on sloops “Otkrytiye” and “Blagonamerennyi” set out. The idea was to try to pass from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic via the Arctic Ocean. The sloop “Otkrytiye” was commanded by Mikhail Nikolaevich Vasilyev and “Blagonamerennyi” – by lieutenant commander Gleb Semenovich Shishmarev.
The crew of the sloop “Otkrytiye” consisted of 74 men; “Blagonamerennyi” included 83 men.
On July 4 (16), 1819 the sloops left Kronstadt and, having touched at the port of Copenhagen, arrived to Portsmouth on July 29 (August 10).
When sextants, chronometers and other navigation and physics devices were delivered from London along with the provision, the sloops put to sea on August 26 (September 7).
On November 1st (13) “Otkrytiye” and “Blagonamerennyi” arrived to Rio de Janeiro.
Making continuous scientific observations Russian sailors headed for the Cape of Good Hope and from there they continued without stops to the port of Jackson (Sydney) in Australia.
This passage turned out to be very hard not only due to heavy gales but mostly due to the speed difference between the sloops: it was difficult for them to keep together.
In Australia the researchers carried out a series of excursions to inland regions, got to know the habitants and the nature of the country. F. Stein, researching Sinai Mountains, described their geologic structure, minerals and sulfury sources. The expedition gathered a rich collection of plants and birds. Moving toward Bering Strait the ships passed to the west of Fiji archipelago where Shishmarev discovered atolls which had been previously unchartered and which he named ‘Blagonamerennyi’ islands.
On May 13 (25), 1820 in latitude 33 North the ships set different courses: “Otkrytiye” headed to Petropavlovsk, Kamchatka; “Blagonamerennyi” – to Alaska. They were to meet in Kotzebue Sound where both ships had to arrive mid July.
During the summer of 1820 the sloops were carrying out hydrographic works at Bering and Chukchi Seas. In winter of 1820-1821 they took rest at San-Francisco and Hawaii islands and in summer of 1821 returned to Bering and Chukchi Seas.
On October 15 (27), 1821 both sloops left Petropavlovsk heading for Hawaii islands. “Blagonamerennyi” arrived there on October 24 (November 5) and “Otkrytiye” – on October 26 (November 7). Having set course for Honolulu on December 20 (January 1), the sloops doubled Cape Horn, touched the ports of Rio de Janeiro and Copenhagen and finally returned to Kronstadt on August 2 (14), 1822.
The navigation on sloops “Otkrytiye” and “Blagonamerennyi” had lasted 3 years and 4 weeks.
The main objective of the expedition, discovering a passage from Bering Strait to the Atlantic Ocean, was not achieved due to the ice field being impassible. Vasilyev, having passed near the coasts of America behind the Ice Cope, was obliged to return: he had reached the latitude of 70°41' and longitude of 161°27'; Shishmarev had only reached the Cope Sertse-Kamen near the north coast of Asia. Besides a hard naviation in the Arctic Ocean the expedition managed to make some observations in Bering Sea and discovered there the Nukivok Island and a group of 16 islands to the east of Caroline archipelago named after the sloop “Blagonamerennyi”.
Lit.: Есаков В. А., др. Русские океанические и морские исследования в XIX — начале XX в. М., 1964. Из содерж.: Экспедиция М. Н. Васильева и Г. С. Шишмарёва; Заметки об архивных источниках по истории Русской Америки // История Русской Америки (1732-1867). Т. 1. Основание Русской Америки (1732-1799). М., 1997; То же [Электронный ресурс]. URL: http://militera.lib.ru/explo/ira/prebibl.html; Шишмарёв Глеб Семёнович [Электронный ресурс] // Герои земли Тверской. 2011.
Based on the Presidential Library’s materials: