15 July 1741
Chirikov sights Southeast Alaska
St Paul reached the coast of Southeast Alaska after separating from Bering. The exact landfall and the fate of two boats sent toward shore remain uncertain.
maritime · scientific · surveying · polar
Great Northern Expedition
The Russian Empire’s vast 1733 to 1743 expedition surveyed Siberia and the Arctic while Bering and Chirikov’s Pacific detachment sailed from Kamchatka toward North America.
Dates1733–1743
Purposemapping, scientific research, route finding
Outcomepartially completed
Transportsailing ship, foot, horse
Historical significance
Its many detachments transformed imperial geographic knowledge of northern Asia and the North Pacific. This representative route follows the Bering and Chirikov Pacific detachment, not the entire multi-party enterprise.
Significant moments
20 July 1741
Steller goes ashore at Kayak Island
Georg Wilhelm Steller made a brief landing and recorded natural observations during St Peter’s passage along the Gulf of Alaska.
5 November 1741
St Peter is wrecked on Bering Island
Illness, storms, and navigational uncertainty forced the crew ashore on Bering Island, where the ship was wrecked and Vitus Bering died.
27 August 1742
Survivors return to Kamchatka
Survivors built a smaller vessel from the wreck of St Peter and sailed from Bering Island back to Petropavlovsk.
Bering and Chirikov in the North Pacific
St Peter crosses from Kamchatka to Alaska
4 June 1741–20 July 1741 · sailing ship · approximate route
Representative route: Petropavlovsk → Kayak Island
St Peter returns west and is wrecked on Bering Island
21 July 1741–5 November 1741 · sailing ship · approximate route
Representative route: Kayak Island → Bering Island
Survivors return from Bering Island to Kamchatka
14 August 1742–27 August 1742 · sailing ship · approximate route
Representative route: Bering Island → Petropavlovsk
St Paul to Southeast Alaska and return
4 June 1741–9 October 1741 · sailing ship · approximate route
Representative route: Petropavlovsk → Southeast Alaska
People
- Vitus Bering: Danish-born Russian naval officer who led the Great Northern Expedition’s Pacific detachment.
- Alexei Chirikov: Russian naval officer who commanded Saint Paul during the Pacific voyage.
- Georg Wilhelm Steller: Naturalist who joined Bering’s Pacific voyage and recorded observations in Alaska and on Bering Island.
Vehicles
Major places
- Saint Petersburg: Imperial capital from which the Great Northern Expedition was organized.
- Tobolsk: Major Siberian administrative centre traversed by the expedition’s overland parties.
- Yakutsk: Important logistical base during the expedition’s movement across Siberia.
- Okhotsk: Pacific port where vessels and supplies were prepared for the Kamchatka detachments.
- Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky: Kamchatka base from which St Peter and St Paul departed in 1741.
- Kayak Island: Alaskan island where Steller went ashore during Bering’s 1741 voyage; the surrounding coast was already homeland to Indigenous peoples.
- Southeast Alaska: Representative region of Chirikov’s July 1741 land sighting and attempted landings. The exact points remain disputed, and the coast was already the homeland of Tlingit peoples.
- Bering Island: Commander Island where St Peter was wrecked and Vitus Bering died during the return voyage.
Sources
- Bering Expedition Landing Site National Historic Landmark, U.S. National Park Service. Official account of the 1741 landing, Steller’s participation, and early European contact in Alaska, used with explicit recognition of existing Indigenous homelands.
- Documents of the Second Kamchatka Expedition, Francke Foundations. Scholarly project describing the 1733 to 1743 expedition’s Siberian research and searches for sea routes to America and Japan.
- Russian Discovery, Library of Congress. Curated account of Bering and Chirikov’s separate 1741 voyages along the Aleutian Islands and North American coast.