Vitus Bering

“ To Vitus Bering, the Dane, Peter gave the commission for the exploration of the waters between Asia and America. As a sailor, Bering had, of course, been on the borders of the Pacific. [5]
{9} The scientists of every city in Europe were in a fret over the mythical Straits of Anian, supposed to be between Asia and America, and over the yet more mythical Gamaland, supposed to be visible on the way to New Spain. To all this jangling of words without knowledge Peter paid no heed. "You will go and obtain some reliable information," he commands Bering. ”

“ It consisted of the chief Vitus Bering (his Russian name was Ivan Ivanovich Bering) , Captains Spangberg and Chirikoff, eight lieutenants, sixteen mates, twelve physicians, seven priests, skippers, stewards, various apprentices, ship-carpenters, other workmen, soldiers and sailors,—in all about five hundred and seventy men. Of these, three officers and one hundred and fifty-seven men—a number which was greatly increased in Siberia—were assigned duty in the Arctic expedition, the remainder in the Pacific expeditions. ”

“ It is downright absurd to hold the leader responsible for the moral weaknesses of his officers, for he had not chosen them, and was as dependent upon them as they upon him. "It seems to me," says Von Baer, "that Bering has everywhere acted with the greatest circumspection and energy, and also with the greatest forbearance. The whole expedition was planned on such a monstrous scale that under many another chief it would have foundered without having accomplished any results whatever." ”

“ Sokoloff says: "Bering was a well-informed man, eager for knowledge, pious, kind-hearted, and honest, but altogether too cautious and indecisive; zealous, persevering, and yet not sufficiently energetic; well liked by his subordinates, yet without sufficient influence over them,—too much inclined to allow himself to be affected by their opinions and desires, and not able to maintain strict discipline. Hence, he was not particularly well qualified to lead this great enterprise, especially in such a dark century and in such a barbaric country as East Siberia." ”

“ Dall had taken the trouble to study the Bering literature to which he himself refers in his bibliography of Alaska, he would have been in a position to pass an independent opinion of the navigator, and would certainly have escaped making this series of stupid statements. His words now simply serve to show how difficult it is to eradicate prejudice, and how tenacious of life a false or biased judgment can be. Death prevented Bering from defending and explaining his conduct. ”

“ Moreover, Bering Sea, Bering Strait, a peninsula in Asia, and a bay in America have been named in honor of him. But what is there in these regions to remind one of the immortal Steller, the Herodotus of these distant lands? Search the map of the island of which he has given such a spirited description. His name is nowhere to be found, while three capes have received the names of Bering's lieutenants and helmsmen, who were the authors of the whole misfortune: Waxel, Khitroff, and Jushin. The man that rescued and immortalized the expedition has fallen into oblivion. ”

“ He was an enthusiast in science, who heeded neither obstacles nor dangers, a keen and successful observer, who has enriched science with several classical chapters, and had an ardent and passionate nature that attacked without regard to persons every form of injustice. His pen could be shaped to epigrammatic sharpness, and his tongue spared no one. In 1741, he wished to extend his investigations to Japan, and had, when Bering sought to secure his services, sent to the Academy a request to be permitted to participate in Spangberg's third expedition. ”

“ As for sacrifice, disinterestedness, and zeal, Bering not only rises far above his surroundings—which is, perhaps, not saying very much—but his character is clean and unsullied. Even so petty a person as Sokoloff, who, in other respects, does not spare him, has for his character [Pg 95] unqualified praise. Nevertheless, all of these complaints and accusations caused Bering much trouble and vexation. The Admiralty, hard pressed by the Senate, found it difficult to furnish the necessary means for the continuation of the expedition, and treated Bering severely and unreasonably. ”

“ In all, thirty-one men out of seventy-seven died on this ill-starred expedition.
When Bering exerted his last powers to prevent the stranding of the St. Peter, he struggled for life. Before leaving Okhotsk he had contracted a malignant ague, which diminished his powers of resistance, and on the voyage to America scurvy was added to this. His sixty years of age, his heavy build, the trials and tribulations he had experienced, his subdued courage, and his disposition to quiet and inactivity, all tended to aggravate this disease ”

“ The only fault of which the brave man can be accused, is that his too great leniency was as detrimental as the spirited and oftentimes inconsiderate conduct of his subordinates." It is undoubtedly true that Bering was not fully equal to the task; but no one would have been equal to this task. It is possible that his humane conduct impaired the work of the expedition, but this allegation still lacks proof, and Sokoloff, who wrote his book as a vindication of Chirikoff against Von Baer's sympathetic view of Bering, must be read with this reservation. ”

“ It was these great and interesting questions that were to be settled by Bering's first expedition. Peter himself had no faith in a strait. He had, however, no means of knowing anything about it, for at his death the east coast of Asia was known only as far as the island of Yezo. The Pacific coast of America had been explored and charted no farther than Cape Blanco, 43° north latitude, while all of the northern portion of the Pacific, its eastern and western coast-lines, its northern termination, and its relation to the polar sea, still awaited its discoverer. ”

“ One might argue that it would have been better for Americans, therefore, if they had been presented with a simple and authentic biography of the immortal Danish-Russian, rather than with a book that is both a biography and a defense, but Lauridsen's work after all is the best, I think all will agree, as no biography of Bering could be complete without some account of that part in which he had no making and no share, as well as that better part which he chronicled with his own brain and brawn. ”

“ Our age, which still has in mind the Franklin expeditions—the English parallel—is able to form an idea of these gigantic demands, and yet the Senate did not hesitate to load the organization of all this upon the shoulders of one man. Bering was made chief of all the enterprises east of the Ural Mountains. At the Obi and the Lena, at Okhotsk and Kamchatka, he was to furnish ships, provisions, and transportation. ”

“ When, as a young man, he studied theology in Paris, his father found it necessary to send him to Canada, where he assumed his mother's name, La Croyère, and for seventeen years lived a soldier's wild life, until his brothers, on the death of the father, recalled him from his exile. In St. Petersburg his brother instructed him in the elements of astronomy, sent him upon a surveying expedition to Lapland, and finally secured him a position as chief astronomer of Bering's second expedition. ”

“ Steller has with far more delicacy and skill drawn the main lines of his mental physiognomy. "Bering was," he says, "a true and honest Christian, noble, kind, and unassuming in conduct, universally loved by his subordinates, high as well as low. Every reasonable person must admit that he always sought to perform the work entrusted to him to the best of his ability, although he himself confessed and often regretted that his strength was no longer sufficient for so difficult an expedition. ”

“ Peter should leave the island. "The only reason for this," he says, "was stupid obstinacy, fear of a handful of natives, and pusillanimous homesickness. For ten years Bering had equipped himself for this great enterprise; the explorations lasted ten hours!" Elsewhere he says derisively that they had gone to the New World "simply to bring American water to Asia."
These accusations must seem very serious to every modern reader. Unfortunately for Bering, his second voyage is of interest principally from the standpoint of natural history. It is especially naturalists that have studied it. ”

“ Here, too, many of the horses died for lack of food, and a herd of heifers sent there by Shestakoff was lost from the same cause. Only one survived the winter. It was now necessary to build huts for the winter. The whole of November was spent in felling trees, and not until December 2, could Bering take shelter under a roof of his own. On the other hand, the ship for the expedition was on the stocks, and in spite of all troubles and privations, Bering found time to push forward vigorously its construction. ”

“ It is well known that Cook called the naturalists "the damned disturbers of the peace," and that he more than once threatened to put them off on [Pg 138] some island or other in the ocean. Steller accuses Bering of having too much regard for his subordinate officers, but in all likelihood these had made the countercharge that he gave too much heed to the scientists. At any rate, Bering has often been blamed for—in accordance with his instruction—letting La Croyère take part in the councils at Avacha. ”

“ Peter. Of this animal life Steller gives us in his various works descriptions which are unexcelled in power and fidelity. These have made Bering's second voyage immortal. Naturalists will again and again turn to them. For this reason it would seem that Steller had no ground for complaint that Bering had taken him from his real field of investigation: Kamchatka—a complaint made in our day by O. Peschel—for on Bering Island he first found that field of labor and that material, the description of which has immortalized his name. ”

“ Bering had thus done good work in the service of Asiatic geography. He had shown that he possessed an explorer's most important qualification—never to make positive statements where there is no definite knowledge. By virtue of his extensive travels in northeastern Asia, his scientific qualifications, his ability to make careful, accurate observations, and his own astronomical determinations, and by virtue of his direct acquaintance with Kosyrefsky's and Lushin's works, he was in a position to form a more correct opinion than any contemporary concerning this part of the earth. ”

“ Such people are stern and severe judges. Bering was unfortunate enough to fall into the hands of the German Gerhard Fr. Müller and the Frenchman Joseph Nicolas De l'Isle.
Although Müller had not yet seen Siberia, and although it was not until ten years later that he succeeded in building that geographical card-house which Captain Cook so noiselessly blew down, he nevertheless, even at that time, on every occasion expressed the opinion that Bering had not reached the northeast point of Asia, and that his voyage had consequently not accomplished its purpose. ”

“ Here Bering remained until the 16th of August, busily engaged in making preparations for the difficult journey eastward. He had made two thousand leathern sacks for transporting [Pg 23] flour to Okhotsk, and gave the voivode orders to keep in readiness six hundred horses to forward other necessaries for the expedition.
From this point the expedition traveled an entirely untrodden path, and the 1026 versts (685 miles) to Okhotsk were a severe test of its endurance. Even in our day, this journey can be made only under the greatest difficulties. ”

“ His own map is based upon Bering's, as he had no other, but Bering's voyage did not, as is well known, end at any headland. Neither his chart nor his journal supports [Pg 47] any such theory, and hence Müller, either accidentally or purposely, does not in his book have a word about the voyage from the 10th to the 15th of August, and on his map (1758) Bering's "track" is broken off near East Cape. This headland is Müller's Serdze Kamen, [36] a fact of which even a very cursory glance at Müller's and Bering's maps will convince any one. ”

“ With a very good breeze, they had been enabled to sail 164 miles, and an observation showed that they were in latitude 64° 27'. According to this, Bering was out of the strait and getting farther and farther away from the American continent.
August 18, the wind was light and the weather clear. On the 20th, beyond the Island of St. Lawrence, he met other Chukchees, who told him that they had made journeys from the Kolyma River westward to Olenek, but that they never went by sea. They knew of the Anadyr fort which lay farther to the south; on this coast there dwelt people of their race ”

“ None of the participants would have seen Asia again, none would even have survived the winter 1741-42, for when the St. Peter stranded, there were on board only a few barrels of junk, a small quantity of groats, and some flour. The flour had been lying in leathern sacks for two years, and in the stranding had been saturated with turbid sea water, and hence was very unfit for food. How fatal, therefore, Waxel's and Khitroff's opposition to Bering might have been.
It was the night between the 5th and 6th of November that the St. Peter reached this coast. ”

“ The geographical explorer, as well as every other investigator, has a right to be judged from the standpoint of his times, and on the basis of his own premises. Bering had no apprehension of an adjacent continent, partly on account of the Koriak interpreter's imperfect knowledge of the Chukchee tongue, partly as a result of the fact that the knowledge of the times concerning the western coast of America was very meager. This knowledge extended no farther than to 43° north latitude,—to Cape Blanco in California ”