Vitus Jonassen Bering (also, less correctly,
Behring) (August 12 1681 – December 8, 1741) was a
DanishDenmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe and the senior member of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries; southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and it is bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark borders both the Baltic and the North Sea...
navigator in the service of the
Russian NavyThe Russian Navy or VMF is the naval arm of the Russian Armed Forces. The international designation of Russian naval vessels is RFS—"Russian Federation Ship"....
, a captain-
komandor known among the Russian sailors as
Ivan Ivanovich. He is noted for being the first European to discover
AlaskaAlaska is the largest state of the United States of America by area; it is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...
and its
Aleutian IslandsThe Aleutian Islands are a chain of more than 300 small volcanic islands forming part of the Aleutian Arc in the Northern Pacific Ocean, occupying an area of 6,821 sq mi and extending about westward from the Alaska Peninsula toward the Kamchatka Peninsula...
.
Bering was born on August 12, 1681, in the city of
HorsensHorsens is a Danish city in east Jutland. It is the site of the council of Horsens municipality. The city itself has a population of 52,518 and the Horsens municipality has 81,565 ....
in
DenmarkDenmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe and the senior member of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries; southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and it is bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark borders both the Baltic and the North Sea...
.
After a voyage to the East Indies, he joined the fleet of the Russian Navy as a sublieutenant in 1703, serving in the
BalticThe Baltic Sea is a brackish inland sea located in Northern Europe, from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from 20°E to 26°E longitude. It is bounded by the Scandinavian Peninsula, the mainland of Europe, and the Danish islands. It drains into the Kattegat by way of the Øresund, the Great Belt and the...
FleetA fleet, or naval fleet, is a large formation of warships, and the largest formation in any navy. A fleet at sea is the direct equivalent of an army on land....
during the
Great Northern WarThe Great Northern War was a war in which the so-called Northern Alliance composed of Russia, Denmark-Norway, Poland-Lithuania and Saxony engaged Sweden for the supremacy in the Baltic Sea. The war ended with a defeat for Sweden in 1721, leaving Russia as the new major power in the Baltic Sea and...
.
Vitus Jonassen Bering (also, less correctly,
Behring) (August 12 1681 – December 8, 1741) was a
DanishDenmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe and the senior member of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries; southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and it is bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark borders both the Baltic and the North Sea...
navigator in the service of the
Russian NavyThe Russian Navy or VMF is the naval arm of the Russian Armed Forces. The international designation of Russian naval vessels is RFS—"Russian Federation Ship"....
, a captain-
komandor known among the Russian sailors as
Ivan Ivanovich. He is noted for being the first European to discover
AlaskaAlaska is the largest state of the United States of America by area; it is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...
and its
Aleutian IslandsThe Aleutian Islands are a chain of more than 300 small volcanic islands forming part of the Aleutian Arc in the Northern Pacific Ocean, occupying an area of 6,821 sq mi and extending about westward from the Alaska Peninsula toward the Kamchatka Peninsula...
.
Biography and voyages
Bering was born on August 12, 1681, in the city of
HorsensHorsens is a Danish city in east Jutland. It is the site of the council of Horsens municipality. The city itself has a population of 52,518 and the Horsens municipality has 81,565 ....
in
DenmarkDenmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe and the senior member of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries; southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and it is bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark borders both the Baltic and the North Sea...
.
After a voyage to the East Indies, he joined the fleet of the Russian Navy as a sublieutenant in 1703, serving in the
BalticThe Baltic Sea is a brackish inland sea located in Northern Europe, from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from 20°E to 26°E longitude. It is bounded by the Scandinavian Peninsula, the mainland of Europe, and the Danish islands. It drains into the Kattegat by way of the Øresund, the Great Belt and the...
FleetA fleet, or naval fleet, is a large formation of warships, and the largest formation in any navy. A fleet at sea is the direct equivalent of an army on land....
during the
Great Northern WarThe Great Northern War was a war in which the so-called Northern Alliance composed of Russia, Denmark-Norway, Poland-Lithuania and Saxony engaged Sweden for the supremacy in the Baltic Sea. The war ended with a defeat for Sweden in 1721, leaving Russia as the new major power in the Baltic Sea and...
. In 1710–1712 he served in the Azov Sea Fleet in
TaganrogTaganrog is a seaport city in Rostov Oblast, Russia, located on the north shore of Taganrog Bay , a few miles west ot the mouth of the River Don...
and took part in the Russo-Turkish War. He became engaged to a Russian woman, and in 1715 he made a brief visit to his hometown, never to see it again.
A series of explorations of the northern coast of
AsiaAsia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.6% of the earth's total surface area and with approximately 4 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population.Asia is traditionally defined as part of the...
, the outcome of a long-reaching plan devised by
Peter the GreatPeter I the Great or Pyotr Alexeyevich Romanov ruled Russia and later the Russian Empire from until his death, jointly ruling before 1696 with his weak and sickly half-brother, Ivan V....
, led up to Bering's first voyage to Kamchatka. In 1725, under the auspices of the Russian government, he went overland to
OkhotskOkhotsk is an urban-type settlement and a seaport at the mouth of the Okhota River on the Sea of Okhotsk, in Khabarovsk Krai, Russia.Located at the eastern end of the River Route from the Urals, Okhotsk was the first Russian settlement on the Pacific Coast. It was established as a wintering camp...
, crossed to Kamchatka, and established the ship
Sviatoi Gavriil (
St. Gabriel). Aboard the ship, Bering pushed northward in 1728, until he could no longer observe any extension of the land to the north, or its appearance to the east.
In the following year he made an abortive search for mainland eastward, rediscovering one of the
Diomede IslandsThe Diomede Islands , also known in Russia as Gvozdev Islands , consist of two rocky, tuya-like islands: the U.S...
(Ratmanov Island) observed earlier by Dezhnev. In the summer of 1730, Bering returned to St. Petersburg. During the long trip through
SiberiaSiberia , is the vast region constituting almost all of Northern Asia and for the most part currently serving as the massive central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, having served in the same capacity previously for the USSR from its beginning, and the Russian Empire beginning in the...
along the whole
AsiaAsia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.6% of the earth's total surface area and with approximately 4 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population.Asia is traditionally defined as part of the...
n continent, he became very ill. Five of his children died during this trip. Bering was subsequently commissioned to a further expedition, and returned to Okhotsk in 1735. He had the local craftsmen Makar Rogachev and Andrey Kozmin build two vessels,
Sviatoi Piotr (
St. Peter) and
Sviatoi Pavel (
St. PaulPaul of Tarsus, also called Paul the Apostle, the Apostle Paul, or Saint Paul, Paul of Tarsus, also called Paul the Apostle, the Apostle Paul, or Saint Paul, Paul of Tarsus, also called Paul the Apostle, the Apostle Paul, or Saint Paul, ...
), in which he sailed off and in 1740 established the settlement of
PetropavlovskPetropavlovsk-Kamchatsky is the main city and the administrative, industrial, scientific, and cultural center of Kamchatka Krai . Population: .-Geography:...
in Kamchatka. From there, he led an expedition towards
North AmericaNorth America is the northern continent of the Americas, situated in the Earth's northern hemisphere and in the western hemisphere. It is bordered on the north by the Arctic Ocean, on the east by the North Atlantic Ocean, on the southeast by the Caribbean Sea, and on the west by the North Pacific...
in 1741. A storm separated the ships, but Bering sighted the southern coast of
AlaskaAlaska is the largest state of the United States of America by area; it is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...
, and a landing was made at
Kayak IslandKayak Island , which includes the Bering Expedition Landing Site, is located in the Gulf of Alaska, 100 km SE of Cordova, Alaska Malaspina Coastal Plain. It has a land area of 73.695 km² and no population....
or in the vicinity. Under the command of
Aleksei ChirikovAleksei Ilyich Chirikov was a Russian navigator and captain who charted some of the Aleutian Islands and was deputy to Vitus Bering during the Great Northern Expedition efforts to Kamchatka and the Pacific.- Life and work :...
, the second ship discovered the shores of the northwestern America (Aleksander Archipelago of present-day Alaska). These voyages of Bering and Chirikov were a major part of the Russian exploration efforts in the North Pacific known today as the
Great Northern ExpeditionIn Russian history, the Great Northern Expedition , refers to a wide enterprise initially conceived by emperor Peter I the Great. The emperor had a vision for the eighteenth-century Russian Navy to map the Northern Sea Route to the East. This vast and far-reaching endeavour was sponsored by the...
.
Bering was soon forced by adverse conditions to return, and he discovered some of the
Aleutian IslandsThe Aleutian Islands are a chain of more than 300 small volcanic islands forming part of the Aleutian Arc in the Northern Pacific Ocean, occupying an area of 6,821 sq mi and extending about westward from the Alaska Peninsula toward the Kamchatka Peninsula...
on his way back. One of the sailors died and was buried on one of these islands, and the group was named after him (as the
Shumagin IslandsThe Shumagin Islands are a group of 20 islands in the Aleutians East Borough south of the mainland of Alaska, USA, at54°54'–55°20' North 159°15'–160°45' West. The largest islands are Unga Island, Popof Island, Korovin Island, and Nagai Island. Other islands include Andronica, Big Koniuji, Little...
). Bering became too ill to command his ship, which was at last driven to refuge on an uninhabited island in the Commander Islands group (
Komandorskiye Ostrova) in the southwest
Bering SeaThe Bering Sea is a body of water in the Pacific Ocean that comprises a deep water basin, which then rises through a narrow slope into the shallower water above the continental shelves....
. December 19, 1741 Vitus Bering died at
Bering IslandBering Island is located off the Kamchatka Peninsula in the Bering Sea. At long by wide, it is the largest of the Commander Islands with the area of ....
, near the
Kamchatka PeninsulaThe Kamchatka Peninsula is a 1,250-kilometer long peninsula in the Russian Far East, with an area of 472,300 km². It lies between the Pacific Ocean to the east and the Sea of Okhotsk to the west...
, reportedly from
scurvyScurvy is a disease resulting from a deficiency of vitamin C, which is required for the synthesis of collagen in humans. The chemical name for vitamin C, ascorbic acid, is derived from the Latin name of scurvy, scorbutus. Scurvy leads to the formation of spots on the skin, spongy gums, and bleeding...
(although this has been contested), along with 28 men of his company. This island bears his name. A storm shipwrecked
Sv. Piotr, but the only surviving carpenter, S. Starodubtsev, with the help of the crew, managed to build a smaller vessel out of the wreckage. The new vessel had a keel length of only 12.2 meters (40 ft) and was also named
Sv. Piotr. Out of 77 men aboard
Sv. Piotr, only 46 survived the hardships of the expedition which claimed its last victim just one day before coming into home port. Its builder, Starodubtsev, returned home with governmental awards and later built several other seaworthy ships.
The value of Bering's work was not fully recognized for many years, but
Captain CookCaptain James Cook, FRS RN , was a British explorer, navigator and cartographer, ultimately rising to the rank of Captain in the Royal Navy...
was able to prove Bering's accuracy as an observer. Nowadays, the
Bering StraitThe Bering Strait's technical name is Imakpik.The Bering Strait is a sea strait between Cape Dezhnev, Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, the easternmost point of the Asian continent and Cape Prince of Wales, Alaska, the westernmost point of the North American continent, with latitude of about 65° 40'...
, the
Bering SeaThe Bering Sea is a body of water in the Pacific Ocean that comprises a deep water basin, which then rises through a narrow slope into the shallower water above the continental shelves....
,
Bering IslandBering Island is located off the Kamchatka Peninsula in the Bering Sea. At long by wide, it is the largest of the Commander Islands with the area of ....
,
Bering GlacierBering Glacier is a glacier in the U.S. state of Alaska. It currently terminates in Vitus Lake south of Alaska’s Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, about 10 km from the Gulf of Alaska. Combined with the Bagley Icefield, where the snow that feeds the glacier accumulates, the Bering is the largest...
and the
Bering Land BridgeThe Bering land bridge was a land bridge roughly 1,000 miles north to south at its greatest extent, which joined present-day Alaska and eastern Siberia at various times during the Pleistocene ice ages...
bear the explorer's name.
Sources
- Frost, Orcutt. Bering: The Russian Discovery of America. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2003 (hardcover, ISBN 0300100590).
- Lauridsen, P. Bering og de Russiske Opdagelsesrejser (Copenhagen, 1885)
- Müller, G.F. Sammlung russischer Geschichten, vol. iii. (St Petersburg, 1758)
- Oliver, James A. The Bering Strait Crossing. UK: Information Architects, 2006 (hardcover ISBN 0954699572, paperback ISBN 0954699564)
- Under Vitus Bering's Command: New Perspectives on the Russian Kamchatka Expeditions (Beringiana, 1), edited by Natasha Okhotina Lind and Peter Ulf Møller. Aarhus: Aarhus University Press, 2002 (paperback, ISBN 87-7288-932-2).
External links
Bering, Vitus