Vitus Jonassen Bering

Vitus Bering was a Danish cartographer and explorer in Russian service, and an officer in the Russian Navy. He is known as a leader of two Russian expeditions, namely the First Kamchatka Expedition and the Great Northern Expedition, exploring the north-eastern coast of the Asian continent and from there the western coast on the North American continent. The Bering Strait, the Bering Sea, Bering Island, the Bering Glacier, and Vitus Lake were all named in his honor. Taking to the seas as a ship's boy at the age of 15, Bering travelled extensively over the next eight years, as well as taking naval training in Amsterdam. In 1704, he enrolled with the rapidly expanding Russian Navy of Tsar Peter I. After serving with the navy in significant but non-combat roles during the Great Northern War, Bering resigned in 1724 to avoid the continuing embarrassment of his low rank to his wife; and upon retirement was promoted to first captain. Bering was permitted to keep the rank as he rejoined the Russian Navy later the same year. He was selected by the Tsar to captain the First Kamchatka Expedition, an expedition set to sail north from Russian outposts on the Kamchatka Peninsula, with the charge to map the new areas visited and to establish whether Asia and America shared a land border. Bering departed from Saint Petersburg in February 1725 as the head of a 34-man expedition, aided by the expertise of Lieutenants Martin Spanberg and Aleksei Chirikov. The party took on men as it headed towards Okhotsk, encountering many difficulties before arriving at the settlement. From there, the men sailed to the Kamchatka Peninsula, preparing new ships there and sailing north – repeating a little-documented journey of Semyon Dezhnyov 80 years' previously. In August 1728, he decided that they had sufficient evidence that there was clear sea between Asia and America, which he did not sight during the trip. For the first expedition, He was rewarded with money, prestige, and a promotion to the noble rank of captain commander. He immediately started preparations for a second trip. Having returned to Okhotsk with a much larger, better prepared, and much more ambitious expedition, Bering set off for an expedition towards North America in 1741. While doing so, the expedition spotted Mount Saint Elias, and sailed past Kodiak Island. A storm separated the ships, but Bering sighted the southern coast of Alaska, and a landing was made at Kayak Island or in the vicinity. Suffering from scurvy, he was unable to maintain effective command, and the ship was wrecked early in November on the shore of Bering Island, near Kamchatka. After his death there, a few survivors were able to reach Siberia and brought news of excellent fur-trading possibilities in the Aleutians and Alaska.