The first Kamchatka expedition began

“One or two boats with decks should be

sent to Kamchatka or another such place”.

Instructions given by Peter I to Vitus Bering (1725)

On July 13 (24), 1728 Russian Fleet officer, navigator Vitus Jonassen Bering put to sea on the boat “St. Gabriel” in search of the American land. This was the beginning of the first expedition to Kamchatka. Its main objective was to find out if Asia is connected to America or there is a strait between them.

Not long before his death in January of 1725 Emperor Peter I wrote with his own hand an instruction to Vitus Bering regarding the expedition. The most popular version in Russian as well as in foreign historiography is that Bering had to go North, in Chukchi Peninsula region, and define whether Asia meets America. Discovering of America was to become the final goal of the navigation; Emperor himself pointed out the necessity of reaching the “city of European possessions”, of “going ashore and drawing up a map”. It was planned to research thoroughly the part of a new land that will be discovered by Russian navigators and maybe even to obtain a certain international certificate of the Russian geographical discoveries.

Bering had manoeuvered in Chukchi Sea for 3 days but due to the maps error the expedition had gone too far north in the strait having left the continent (America) a long way behind. At 4 p.m. August 16 (27), 1728 the boat “St. Gabriel” not having found the unknown land, turned backwards. On its way back the expedition, having passed through the strait, did not see the shores of the modern Alaska either due to the fog. Finally, in summer of 1729 Bering made another effort to discover a land to the East of Kamchatka but strong winds and fog made him again return “empty-handed”.

Reports by Bering and other participants of the expedition, official information on its results in St. Petersburg press of March 16 (27), 1730 and works by many other researchers became legal evidences of geographical version of the first Kamchatka expedition results. In spite of the fact that the expedition had not achieved its main goal Bering had been promoted in rank and received a remuneration. He was also appointed the leader of the new large expedition with another itinerary: to the south-east of Kamchatka.

Lit.: Берг Л. С. Открытие Камчатки и экспедиции Беринга. М. ; Л., 1946; То же [Электронный ресурс]. URL:http://www.emaproject.com/lib_view.html?id=pb00001487#p2|1|n; Кушнарёв Е. Г. В поисках пролива. Первая Камчатская экспедиция. 1725—1730. Л., 1976; Махоркин И. Ф. Открытие и исследование Камчатки // Камчатская область. Петропавловск-Камчатский, 1966; Островский Б. Г. Первая камчатская экспедиция Беринга // Великая северная экспедиция. Архангельск, 1937; Пасецкий В. М. Витус Беринг. М., 1982; Первая камчатская экспедиция (1728) // История Русской Америки (1732—1867). М., 1997; То же [Электронный ресурс]. URL:http://militera.lib.ru/explo/ira/1_02.html; Русские экспедиции по изучению северной части Тихого океана в первой половине XVIII в. // Исследования русских на Тихом океане в XVIII — первой половине XIX в. Т. 1. М., 1984; То же [Электронный ресурс]. URL: ссылка; Сопоцко А. А. Плавание Первой Камчатской экспедиции на боте «Св. Гавриил» // История плавания В. Беринга на боте «Св. Гавриил» в Северный Ледовитый океан. М., 1983; Троицкий В. А. Камчатские экспедиции Витуса Беринга // Записки Харитона Лаптева. М, 1982; То же [Электронный ресурс]. URL:http://www.polarpost.ru/Library/Notes_Laptev/01.html; Экспедиция Беринга. М, 1941.

Based on the Presidential Library’s materials:

Reclamation of the Far East and Alaska // Territory of Russia: [digital collection]