mss142-vasilevShishmarev-i3-019

- 69 -

To the Aleutian Islands

Toward noon of the 21st, the wind gradually started to
abate, and toward evening, completely died down. Immense
heavy seas continued to rock the sloop and did not permit us
to begin the necessary repairs, which we could start only in
the evening of the next day. Hoisting new topsails and
attaching a brand-new suit of sails, we directed our course
with a steady SW toward a group of small islets. The usual
passage from the ocean into the Kamchatka Sea [i.e. the Bering
Sea] for ships sailing to Unalashka, goes through Umnak Pass,
in the middle of which stands a tremendous rock resembling a
ship under sail [Polivnoi Rock?] for which it is was so named.
For this reason, and because of the narrowness of the pass in
which the current sometimes is very strong; also because the
captain intended to examine John the Theologian Island [Bogo-
slof Island], which lay more to the west and which had sur-
faced at the end of the last century, we directed our course
toward the pass near Amchitka Island.

At dawn of the 27th we saw the whole northern horizon
bordered by a long chain of high wild islands, and directly
in front of us Amchitka. Toward midday we approached this
island, and toward three o'clock, safely sailed through the
pass and entered the Kamchatka Sea. Amchitka Island is lower
than all the rest of the Fox Chain [ Aleutian Islands ]. Its
length from E to W is about 1 1/2 miles and its width from N
to S is about 3/4 of a mile. [ Amchitka Island is 35 miles
long and about three miles wide.] It consists of bare red