Three Accounts of the Vasil'ev-Shismarev Expedition of 1819-1822

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by means of which the mentioned driftwood is carried out to the seacoast. The above-mentioned sea current, from NE to SW, also serves as new and very strong evidence in confirming this conclusion.

"Above latitude 68° 30' we did not see any inhabitants. From afar, their drying racks look like masts with yards." Cap. Vasilev concludes, "We had no intercourse with the inhabitants because of the inconvenience at shore anchorages, bad weather at times, and not having interpreters."

From Cape Prince of Wales, Cap. Vasilev went to East Cape, and passing the Gvozdev Islands [Diomede Islands], set his course for St. Lawrence Bay [Gulf of Anadyr], which was closed by ice. "This ice," he says, "must have been carried by the NE wind from the Arctic Sea. But one has to take into consideration that St. Lawrence Bay is still not free of ice." According to new infomation about the polar regions, and in considering the remarks of various travelers, one must conclude that arctic waters begin to be free of ice in the middle of August. The voyage of Cap. Parry serves as strong evidence to that. Among the journals of Captain Shmakva, at one time the commander of Izhiga, are found the answers of a Chukotski [Chukchi] chief to questions asked of him.

"The chief said when the Bering Strait becomes free of ice, then a multitude of whales, walruses, and seals go north and remain there until October and then return south. Therefore, it must be assumed that it is possible to sail in

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and saw the impossibility of going N because all the visible expanse of sea was covered with closely joined ice floes, forming an endless ice field,/on the edge of which were settled hundreds of thousands of walrus. Some swam around the ice and often approached the sloop. We tried to shoot at them from muskets and rifles, but without success; the bullets from the closest distance bounced off their thick skin. Their cry, like the bellow of an enraged bull, is deafening. Some plunged from the ice into the water; others, with the help of their long tusks, again climbed back out onto the ice with difficulty, throwing themselves with rage upon those who lay on the ice and were either thrown back into the water or succeeded in chasing away their enemies.

Bering Strait

Seeing the impossibility of penatrating the Bering Strait from this side of the island, the captain ordered us to turn and go along the southern shore of the island to its western cape. Having a favorable/wind, we started to measure the island by means of angles. Continuing this activity toward the southern cape, we were compelled to abandon this work because of descending fog, and continued our trip to the mentioned cape. We rounded it, and turning N, slowly moved ahead. On June 30th at eight in the morning, the fog lifted, and we saw in front of us in Bering Strait itself the Gvozdev Islands. In an hour appeared East Cape and Cape Prince of Wales. At three

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and after that, we weighed anchor, with a weak NW, taking a direction S along the American shore.

Turning southward

In Kronstadt, our sloop was loaded with pre–cut parts of a seagoing shallow draft single-masted vessel or boat, indispensable for exploration and survey of the shores of America from Cape Prince of Wales to the Aliaksa [Alaska] Peninsula. The intention was to assemble and build it in Kamchatka or in Sitka so that it would be ready for navigation in 1821. Having only eight ship's carpenters, it was necessary to begin building in good time so that it would be ready/on the scheduled time. Due to the condition of the ice, extending, as we mentioned before, to an infinite space northward, we could not hope, without a big waste of time, to penetrate farther to the pole. We took our present direction to the south.

Henceforth, although we did not have such frequent and thick fog as before, it was supplanted by snowstorms from the N and the NW from which we suffered cruelly, especially when they were accompanied by freezing. Moreover, scurvy began to appear among the sailors from wetness, cold, infrequent calms, and sailing near shores and ice where we were often forced to fight storms. This sickness, once it gets the upper hand on some vessel, is most terrifying. Its symptoms are so varied that sometimes one does not imagine that it is scurvy. It is even more dangerous when immediate aid is not given, and is always fatal. No matter how well our crew was equipped with coats