The first Russian expedition to Antarctica. Bellingshausen and Lazarev: discovery of Antarctica
IN early XIX in. ships of the Russian fleet made a number of round-the-world trips. These expeditions have enriched world science with major geographical discoveries, especially in pacific ocean. However, the vast expanses of the Southern Hemisphere still remained a blank spot on the map. The question of the existence of the southern mainland was not clarified either.
Sloops "Vostok" and "Mirny"
In 1819, after a long and very thorough preparation, a southern polar expedition set off from Kronstadt on a long voyage, consisting of two sloops-of-war, Vostok and Mirny. The first was commanded by Thaddeus Faddeevich Bellingshausen, the second - by Mikhail Petrovich Lazarev. The crew of the ships consisted of experienced, seasoned sailors.
The Naval Ministry appointed Captain Bellingshausen as head of the expedition, who already had extensive experience in long-distance sea voyages.
Bellingshausen was born on Ezel Island (Sarema Island in the Estonian SSR) in 1779. “I was born in the middle of the sea,” he later said about himself, “like a fish cannot live without water, so I cannot live without the sea ".
The boy was ten years old when he was sent to study at the Naval Cadet Corps in Kronstadt. As a cadet, young Bellingshausen during summer practice sailed to the shores of England. After graduating from the Naval Corps at the age of 18, he received the rank of midshipman.
In 1803-1806. the young sailor took part in the first Russian round-the-world voyage on the Nadezhda ship under the command of the talented and experienced navigator I.F. Kruzenshtern. During the expedition, Bellingshausen was mainly engaged in mapping and astronomical observations. These works have been highly commended.
The commander of the Mirny sloop MP Lazarev was born in 1788 in the Vladimir province. Together with his two brothers, he also entered the Naval Corps. During training, he first visited the sea and fell in love with him forever.
Mikhail Petrovich began his service in the Navy in the Baltic Sea. He participated in the war between Russia and Sweden and distinguished himself in sea battle August 26, 1808 In 1813, during the war for the liberation of Germany from the Napoleonic yoke, Lazarev took part in the landing and bombardment of the city of Danzig, and in this campaign he established himself as a brave, resourceful and diligent officer.
After the end of the war, Lieutenant Lazarev was appointed commander of the Suvorov ship sent to Russian America. This circumnavigation of the Russians enriched geographical science with new discoveries. In the Pacific Ocean, Lazarev discovered a group of unknown islands, which he named after Suvorov.
In sailing around the world, which was a good practical school for Lazarev, he proved himself to be a talented organizer and commander. And it is not surprising that it was he who was appointed assistant chief of the new round-the-world expedition.
On July 16, 1819, the ships Vostok and Mirny, which made up the Southern Division (see p. 364, Northern Division), weighed anchor and left their native Kronstadt roadstead to the salute of coastal artillery batteries. There was a long journey to unknown countries. The expedition was given the task of how to fully penetrate further to the south in order to finally resolve the question of the existence of the southern mainland.
In the major English port of Portsmouth, Bellingshausen stayed for almost a month to replenish provisions, purchase chronometers and various nautical instruments.
In early autumn, with a fair wind, the ships headed across the Atlantic Ocean to the coast of Brazil. The weather was favorable for swimming. Rare and weak storms did not disturb the routine of life on ships. From the very first days of the voyage, scientific observations were made, which Bellingshausen and his assistants carefully and in detail recorded in the logbook. Daily under the guidance of Prof. Kazan University astronomer Simonov officers were engaged in astronomical observations and calculations of the geographical position of the vessel.
After 21 days of navigation, the sloops approached the island of Tenerife. While the crews of the ships stocked up on fresh water and provisions, the officers explored the mountainous picturesque island.
Further navigation took place in the zone of constant northeast trade winds with a cloudless sky. The progress of sailing ships has accelerated significantly. Having reached 10 ° with. sh., the sloops entered a period of calm, common for equatorial places. Sailors measured air and water temperatures at different depths, studied currents, and collected collections of marine animals. The ships crossed the equator, and soon, with a favorable southeast trade wind, the sloops approached Brazil and anchored in a beautiful, convenient bay, on the banks of which the city of Rio de Janeiro stretches. It was a big, dirty city, with narrow streets filled with stray dogs.
At that time, the slave trade flourished in Rio de Janeiro. With a feeling of indignation, Bellingshausen wrote: “There are several shops here in which Negroes are sold: adult men, women and children. At the entrance to these vile shops, one sees several rows of Negroes sitting, covered with scabies, small ones in front, and large ones behind ... The buyer, having chosen a slave at his request, leads him out of the rows forward, examines his mouth, feels his whole body, beats with his hands but different parts, and after these experiments, confident in the strength and health of the Negro, he buys him ... All this produces disgust for the inhuman owner of the shop.
Stocking up on provisions and checking the chronometers, the ships left Rio de Janeiro, heading south into the unknown regions of the polar ocean.
In the temperate zone of the southern part Atlantic Ocean coolness began to be felt in the air, although the southern summer was already beginning. The farther south, the more birds were encountered, especially petrels. Whales swam by in large herds.
At the end of December 1819, the sloops approached South Georgia Island. The sailors began to describe and survey its southern coast. The northern side of this mountainous island, covered with snow and ice, was mapped by the English navigator James Cook. The ships moved slowly forward, maneuvering very carefully among the floating ice.
Soon Lieutenant Annenkov discovered and described a small island, which was named after him. Bellingshausen on the way forward made several attempts to measure the depth of the ocean, but the lot did not reach the bottom. At that time, no scientific expedition attempted to measure the depth of the ocean. Bellingshausen was many decades ahead of other researchers in this; Unfortunately, technical means expeditions failed to solve this problem.
Then the expedition met the first floating "ice island". The farther to the south, the more often giant ice mountains - icebergs - began to come across on the way.
In early January 1820, sailors discovered an unknown island, completely covered with snow and ice. The next day, two more islands were seen from the ship. They were also put on the map, naming the names of the expedition members (Leskov and Zavadovsky). Zavadovsky Island turned out to be an active volcano with a height of more than 350 m. Having landed on the shore, the members of the expedition climbed the slope of the volcano to the middle of the mountain. Along the way, we collected penguin eggs and rock samples. There were a lot of penguins here. The sailors took on board several birds that entertained the crews of the ships along the way.
Penguin eggs were found to be edible and were used as food. The open group of islands was named in honor of the then Minister of the Navy - the Traverse Islands.
On ships that made long voyages, people usually suffered from a lack of fresh fresh water. During this voyage, Russian sailors invented a way to obtain fresh water from the ice of icebergs.
Moving further south, the ships soon again met a small group of unknown rocky islands, which they called the Candlemas Islands. Then the expedition approached the Sandwich Islands discovered by the English explorer James Cook. It turned out that Cook took the archipelago for one large island. The Russian sailors corrected this mistake on the map.
Bellingshausen called the entire group of open islands the South Sandwich Islands.
Foggy, overcast weather made sailing very difficult. The ships were in constant danger of running aground.
With every mile to the south, it became more and more difficult to wade through the ice. At the end of January 1820, the sailors saw thick broken ice stretching to the horizon. It was decided to go around it, turning sharply to the north. Again the sloops passed the South Sandwich Islands.
On some Antarctic islands, sailors met a huge number of penguins and elephant seals. The penguins usually stood in tight formation, the seals were immersed in a deep sleep.
But Bellingshausen and Lazarev did not abandon their attempts to break through to the south. When the ships fell into solid ice, they kept turning to the north and hastily getting out of the ice captivity. Great skill was required to save ships from damage. Everywhere there were masses of perennial solid ice.
The ships of the expedition nevertheless crossed the Antarctic Circle and on January 28, 1820 reached 69 ° 25′ S. sh. In the foggy haze of an overcast day, the travelers saw an ice wall blocking the further path to the south. These were continental ice. The expedition members were sure that the Southern continent was hiding behind them. This was confirmed by the many polar birds that appeared above the sloop. And indeed, only a few miles separated the ships from the coast of Antarctica, which the Norwegians called the coast of Princess Martha more than a hundred years later. In 1948, the Soviet whaling flotilla Slava visited these places, and found that only poor visibility prevented Bellingshausen from clearly seeing the entire coast of Antarctica and even mountain peaks inland.
In February 1820, the sloops entered the Indian Ocean. Trying to break through to the south from this side, they approached the coast of Antarctica two more times. But heavy ice conditions forced the ships to move north again and move east along the ice edge.
In March, with the onset of autumn, the nights became longer, frost intensified, and storms became more frequent. Swimming among the ice became more and more dangerous, the general fatigue of the team from the continuous severe struggle with the elements affected. Then Bellingshausen decided to lead ships to Australia. In order to cover a wider band with the study, the captain decided to send the sloops to Australia in different ways.
On March 21, 1820, a severe storm broke out in the Indian Ocean. Bellingshausen wrote: “The wind roared, the waves rose to an extraordinary height, the sea seemed to mix with the air; the creaking of the parts of the sloop drowned out everything. We were left completely without sails to the mercy of a raging storm; I had several sailor's berths stretched out on mizzen shrouds, in order to keep the sloop closer to the wind. We were consoled only by the fact that we did not encounter ice in this terrible storm. Finally, at 8 o'clock they shouted from Baku: ice floes ahead; this announcement struck everyone with horror, and I saw that we were being carried onto one of the ice floes; immediately raised the fore-staysail 2 and put the rudder to the wind on board; but as all this did not produce the desired effect and the ice floe was already very close, we only watched how it brought us closer. One ice floe was carried under the stern, and the other was directly opposite the middle of the side, and we expected the blow that was to follow: fortunately, a huge wave that came out from under the sloop pushed the ice floe a few fathoms.
The storm continued for several days. The exhausted team, straining all their strength, struggled with the elements.
And albatross birds with outstretched wings swam between the waves as if nothing had happened.
In mid-April, the sloop "Vostok" anchored in the Australian harbor of the port of Zhaksoy (now Sydney). Seven days later, the Mirny sloop came here. Thus ended the first period of research.
During all the winter months, the sloops sailed in the tropical part of the Pacific Ocean, among the islands of Polynesia. Here the members of the expedition performed many important geographical works: clarified the position of the islands and their outlines, determined the height of the mountains, discovered and mapped 15 islands, which were given Russian names.
Returning to Zhaksoi, the sloop crews began to prepare for a new voyage to the polar seas. The preparation took about two months. In mid-November, the expedition again went to sea, keeping to the southeast direction. Soon, a leak opened in the bow of the Vostok sloop, which they managed to destroy with great difficulty. Continuing to sail south, * the sloops crossed 60 ° S. sh. On the way, floating ice floes began to come across, and then solid ice appeared. The ships headed east along the ice edge. The weather deteriorated noticeably:
the temperature was dropping, a cold gusty wind drove dark snow clouds. Collisions with small ice floes threatened to intensify the leak in the hull of the Vostok sloop, and this could have had disastrous consequences.
Suddenly, a violent storm broke out. I had to go north again. The abundance of floating ice and bad weather prevented progress to the south. The further the sloops moved, the more often icebergs were encountered. At times, up to 100 ice mountains surrounded the ships. Tacking between icebergs in strong winds and snowfall required enormous effort and great skill. Sometimes only the skill, dexterity and speed of the crew saved the sloops from inevitable death.
At the slightest opportunity, the ships turned again and again due south and went until solid ice blocked the way.
Finally, on January 22, 1821, fortune smiled on the sailors. A blackening spot appeared on the horizon.
“I knew at a glance through the pipe,” Bellingshausen wrote, “that I see the coast, but the officers, also looking into the pipes, had different opinions. At 4 o'clock I informed Lieutenant Lazarev by telegraph1 that we were seeing the shore. The Mirny sloop was then close to us astern and understood the answer ... It is impossible to express in words the joy that appeared on the faces of everyone when they exclaimed: “Shore! Coast!".
The island was named after Peter I. Now Bellingshausen was sure that there must be more dry land somewhere nearby.
Finally, his expectations came true. On January 29, 1821, Bellingshausen wrote: “At 11 o'clock in the morning we saw the shore; its cape, extending to the north, ended high mountain, which is separated by an isthmus from other mountains. Bellingshausen called this land the Alexander Coast 1.
“I call this finding a shore because” because the remoteness of the other end to the south disappeared beyond our vision. This coast is covered with snow, but the scree on the mountains and the steep cliffs had no snow. The sudden change in color on the surface of the sea gives the idea that the coast is extensive, or at least does not consist of the only part that was before our eyes.
Land of Alexander 1 is still insufficiently explored. Upon its discovery, Bellingshausen finally convinced that the Russian expedition had approached the still unknown Southern Continent.
Thus, the greatest geographical discovery of the 19th century took place.
Having solved the centuries-old riddle, the sailors decided to go to the northeast to explore the South Shetland Islands. Having completed the work on surveying their southern coast, the sailors were forced to urgently leave to the north: every day the flow in the ships, battered by storms, intensified. And Bellingshausen sent them to Rio de Janeiro.
In early March 1821, the sloops anchored in the roadstead of Rio de Janeiro. Thus ended the second stage of a wonderful voyage.
Two months later, after a thorough repair, the ships went to sea, heading for their native shores.
August 5, 1821 "Vostok" and "Mirny" arrived in Kronstadt and anchored in the same place from which they left more than two years ago.
They spent 751 days at sea and traveled over 92,000 km. This distance is two and a quarter times the length of the equator. In addition to Antarctica, the expedition discovered 29 islands and one coral reef. The scientific materials she collected made it possible to form the first idea of Antarctica.
Russian sailors not only discovered a huge continent located around the South Pole, but also spent key research in the field of oceanography. This branch of spiders was just in its infancy at that time. F. F. Bellingshausen for the first time correctly explained the reasons causing sea currents(for example, Canaries), the origin of the algae of the Sargasso Sea, as well as coral islands in tropical areas.
The discoveries of the expedition turned out to be a major achievement of Russian and world geographical science of that time.
The whole further life of Bellingshausen and Lazarev after returning from the Antarctic voyage was spent in continuous voyages and combat naval service. In 1839, Bellingshausen, in the chip of an admiral, was appointed chief commander of the Kronstadt port. Under his leadership, Kronstadt turned into an impregnable fortress.
Bellingshausen died in 1852 at the age of 73.
Mikhail Petrovich Lazarev did a lot for the development of Russian navy. Already in the rank of admiral, commanding Black Sea Fleet, he achieved a complete rearmament and restructuring of the fleet. He brought up a whole generation of glorious Russian sailors.
Mikhail Petrovich Lazarev died in 1851. Already in our time, the capitalist states sought to divide Antarctica among themselves. Geographic Society Soviet Union strongly protested against the unilateral actions of these states. In the resolution on the report of the late President of the Graphic Society, Acad. L. S. Berg says: “The Russian navigators Bellingshausen and Lazarev in 1819-1821 circumnavigated the Antarctic continent, approached its shores for the first time and discovered in January 1821 Peter I Island, Alexander I Land, the Traverse Islands and others. In recognition of the merits of Russian navigators, one of the southern polar moraines was named the Bellingshausen Sea. And therefore, all attempts to resolve the issue of the regime of Antarctica without the participation of the Soviet Union cannot find any justification ... The USSR has every reason not to recognize any such decision.
the Russian Empire
Ice mountains in Antarctica.
This article tells about the great discoveries for the glory of Russia, made under the leadership of Admiral Bellingshausen.
Bellingshausen Faddey Faddeevich admiral, Russian navigator of German origin, participant in round-the-world voyages, military governor of Kronstadt.
Lazarev M.P.
Round-the-world voyage of Bellingshausen and Lazarev in 1819.
In 1819-1822. the well-known Antarctic expedition of Captain F.F. Bellingshausen (the sloop-of-war "Vostok") and Lieutenant M.P. Lazarev (the sloop-of-war "Mirny") took place. This expedition descended to 70 ° south latitude, penetrated into completely new areas and made many discoveries. In the tropical waters of the Pacific Ocean, between New Zealand and Tahiti, a large archipelago of the Russian Islands was discovered; the islands were named after individual figures of the era (Volkonsky, Kutuzov, Raevsky, Suvorov, Chichagov, etc.). In the southern polar waters, the vast land of Peter I and the land of Alexander I (Antarctic continent) were discovered; in the Nova Scotia region, islands named after major battles were discovered: Borodino, Malo-Yaroslavets, Smolensk, etc. In total, this expedition discovered 29 islands and 1 coral chalk.
Officers on the sloop Vostok:
captain 2nd rank F.F. Bellingshausen;
Lieutenant Commander Iv. Zavodovsky;
lieutenant Ignatiev;
Lieutenant Thorson;
lieutenant Leskov;
midshipman Demidov;
Midshipman Adams;
astronomer Simonov;
painter Mikhailov;
lower ranks 105 people.
Officers on the sloop Mirny:
lieutenant M.P. Lazarev;
Lieutenant Obernibesov;
Lieutenant P. Annenkov;
midshipman Iv. Kupreyanov;
midshipman Pavel Novosilsky;
lower ranks 65 people.
Discoveries F.F. Bellingshausen and M.P. Lazarev and their teams
Expedition map
Notes of the scientific commission of the Naval Staff. XI, 208; Bellingshausen. Double surveys in the southern Arctic Ocean. 128-129. Notes of the Hydrological Department VII. 95; see June 4th.
Atlantic Ocean. Islands of the Arctic Ocean
1.1. Annenkov Island, (Southern Arctic Ocean), South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, British Overseas Territory, geographical coordinates: Latitude 54°28′8″S (-54.469001), Longitude 37°5′23″W (-37.089816)
Earth
View of Aneenkov Island
The captain of the 2nd rank Bellingshausen, with the sloops Vostok and Mirny (Lit. M.P. Lazarev) in latitude 54 ° 31′ S and longitude 37 ° 13′ W discovered the island, which he named “ Annenkov Island“In honor of the second lieutenant of the Mirny sloop, having opened the island in the evening, the sloops held out at night behind the darkness near the island; in the morning we saw that the coast consisted of stone mountains, the tops of which were covered with snow, the gorges were filled with ice, and no plants were visible except yellow-green moss.
For reference: The island was first discovered on January 31, 1775 (January 20, 1775) by James Cook during his second trip to the Southern Ocean and was named «
ABOUT Strov of Pickersgill" in honor of the lieutenant on the ship.
The island is uninhabited and there is practically no vegetation on it. However, the island can only be visited with a special permit, as it is the breeding ground for over 500 pairs of wandering albatrosses.
1.2. Island High, (Southern Arctic Ocean), South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, British Overseas Territory, geographic coordinates: Latitude 56°41’30.0″S Longitude 27°10’00.0″W.
01/03/1820 (December 22, 1819) The captain of the 2nd rank Bellingshausen, with the sloops Vostok and Mirny (Lit. M.P. Lazarev) in latitude 56 ° 41 ′ 30 ″ S and longitude 27 ° 10 ′ W discovered the island, which he named “ Leskov Island", in honor of the third lieutenant of the Vostok sloop. (erroneous entry, but the real one is High Island).
1.3. Island High, (Southern Arctic Ocean), South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, British Overseas Territory, geographic coordinates: Latitude 56°44’18″S Longitude 27°11’51″W.
Captain 2nd rank Bellingshausen, with the sloops Vostok and Mirny (Lit. M.P. Lazarev) in latitude 56 ° 44′ 18 ″ S and longitude 27 ° 11′ 51 ″ W discovered the island, which he named “ Island High“This island, which had a circumference of 12 miles (22 km.) Was higher than the island of Leskov.
1.4.Zavadovsky Island, (Southern Arctic Ocean), South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, British Overseas Territory, geographic coordinates: Latitude 56°18’S Longitude 27°28’53″W.
01/04/1820 (December 23, 1819) Captain of the 2nd rank Bellingshausen, with the sloops Vostok and Mirny (Lit. M.P. Lazarev) in latitude 56 ° 18'S and longitude 27 ° 28' 53 ″ W discovered the island, named by him "Island of Zavadovsky“, in honor of Captain Lieutenant Zavadovsky, senior officer on the Vostok sloop. The island had a vent on the southwestern side, from which thick, stinking vapors constantly rose; the circumference of the island is about 10 miles (18.5 km.), the height of the mountain is 1200 feet (366 meters).
All three islands (Leskov, Vysokiy and Zavadovsky, Bellingshausen called the islands of the Marquis de Traverse.
1.5.Montagu Island, (Southern Arctic Ocean), South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, British Overseas Territory, geographic coordinates: Latitude 58°27’S Longitude 26°14’W.
January 11, 1820 (December 30, 1819) Captain 2nd rank Bellingshausen, with the sloops Vostok and Mirny (Lit. M.P. Lazarev) approached in latitude 58 ° 27'S and longitude 26 ° 14'W to the coast, first discovered by the famous navigator Cook and named by him Cape Montague, Captain 2 rank Bellingshausen, making sure that in front of him was an island that had a circumference of up to 25 miles (46 km.), All covered with ice and snow, called this island Montague .
2. Islands in the Pacific Ocean.
View of Moller Island. F.F. Bellingshausen and M.P. Lazarev studied the nature and life of the population and the islands of the Pacific Ocean (drawing by P. Mikhailov, crew member of the sloop Vostok)
07/20/1820 (07/08/1820.) Captain 2nd rank Bellingshausen, with the sloops Vostok and Mirny (Lit. M.P. Lazarev), in latitude 17 ° 49 ′ 30 ″ S and longitude 219 ° 20 ′ O, the island named by him Moller Island; the hostile actions of the islanders prevented the boats from landing on the shore.
2.2. Island of Count Arakcheev
07/22/1820 (07/10/1820.) Captain 2nd rank Bellingshausen, with the sloops Vostok and Mirny (Lit. M.P. Lazarev), in latitude 15 ° 51′ 5 ″ S and longitude 119 ° 10′ 41 ″ O, discovered an island called the island Count Arakcheev, the circumference of the island is 16 miles (26 km.).
2.3. Prince Volkonsky Island and Prince Barclay de Tolly Island
07/24/1820 (07/12/1820.) Captain 2nd rank Bellingshausen, with the sloops Vostok and Mirny (Leutnant M.P. Lazarev), discovered two inhabited coral islands:
- the first, 12 miles (19 km) long, 3 miles (5 km) wide, lying in latitude 15° 47′ 20″ S and longitude 217° 49′ O, is called an island Prince Volkonsky;
- the second, 21 miles (34 km.) long, 7 miles (11 km.) wide, lying in latitude 15 ° 5 ′ 35 ″ S and longitude 217 ° 41 ′ O, is called an island Prince Barclay de Tolly.
2.4. Nashru Island and General Yermolov Island
07/25/1820 (07/13/1820
- the first inhabited, latitude 16° 42′ 40″ S and longitude 217° 15′ 10″ O, named after the natives who arrived on the sloop Nishru island;
- the second uninhabited, lying in latitude 16° 21′ 45″ S and longitude 216° 54′ 24″O is called an island General Ermolov, direction of the second island of WNW-OSO, length 15.5 miles (25 km.), Width 3.5 miles (5.6 km.), 34 miles (55 km.) in circumference .
2.5. Prince Golenishchev-Kutuzov Smolensky Island, General Raevsky Island, Count Osten-Saken Island
07/27/1820 (07/15/1820
- the first, 32 miles (51.5 km.) long, 7 miles (11 km.) wide, 71 miles (114 km.) in circumference, directed to WNW1 / 2 W-OSO1 / 2o, is called an island Prince Golenishchev-Kutuzov of Smolensk, The NO side of the island lies at latitude 16° 36′ 40″ S and longitude 216° 35′ 20″ O;
- the second island, lying in latitude 16° 43′ S and longitude 215° 49′ O, is called an island General Raevsky;
- a third island 12.5 miles (20 km) long, 6.5 miles (10 km) wide, about 30 miles (48 km) in circumference, lying in latitude 16° 28′ 35″ S and longitude 215° 42′ 27″ O, named the island of Graf Osten-Saken.
2.6. Admiral Chichagov Island, Count Miloradovich Island, Count Witenstein Island.
07/28/1820 (07/16/1820.) Captain 2nd rank Bellingshausen, with the sloops Vostok and Mirny (Leutnant M.P. Lazarev), discovered three islands:
- the first, 11 miles (18 km.) long, 35 miles (56 km.) wide, is called an island Admiral Chichagov, this island, covered with forest, had a lagoon in the middle and lay in latitude 16° 50' 5" S and longitude 215° 7' 17" O;
- the second island, having a length of 15 miles (24 km.), A width of 5.5 miles (9 km.), In a circumference of 39 miles (63 km.), received the name of the island Count Miloradovich, its latitude 16° 47′20″ S longitude 214° 47′ 17 ″O ;
- third inhabited island at latitude 16° 20′ 40″ S longitude 214° 27′ O, named Graf Witenstein Island.
2.7. Admiral A.S. Island Greig
07/30/1820 (07/18/1820.) Captain 2nd rank Bellingshausen, with the sloops Vostok and Mirny (Lit. M.P. Lazarev), discovered in latitude 16 ° 11′ 18 ″ S and longitude 213 ° 44′ 10 ″ O the island, which he called the island Admiral A.S. Greig; in addition to this island, Bellingshausen determined astronomically the position of the three Palliser Islands discovered by Cook. Since this entire group of islands, starting from the island of Arakcheev, discovered by Bellingshausen, and ending with the island of Kruzenshtern, discovered by Kotzebue, was known and described by Russian sailors, it received the name GROUP OF ISLANDS OF RUSSIANS.
2.8. Lazarev Island
08/11/1820 (07/30/1820) The captain of the 2nd rank Bellingshausen, with the sloops Vostok and Mirny (Lit. M.P. Lazarev), discovered an island in latitude 14 ° 56′ 20″ S and longitude 211° 21′ 30″ O, named Lazarev Island; this island, 2 miles wide (3.2 km.), 5 miles (8 km.) long, is ranked among the islands of the Russians.
2.9. Vostok Island
08/15/1820 (08/03/1820) Captain 2nd rank Bellingshausen, with the sloops Vostok and Mirny (Lit. M.P. Lazarev), discovered a small island in latitude 10° 5′ 50″ S and longitude 207° 43′ 10″ O, which he named after the sloop East.
2.10. Grand Duke Alexander Island
2.11. Grand Duke Alexander Island
08/18/1820 (08/06/1820) Captain 2nd rank Bellingshausen, with the sloops Vostok and Mirny (Lit. M.P. Lazarev), discovered in latitude 10° 2′ 25″ S and longitude 198° 57′ 42″ O an inhabited island, which he named Grand Duke Alexander Island, the length of the island is 2 1/2 miles (4 km.), The width is 3/4 miles (2 km.), The circumference is 8 miles (13 km.).
2.12. Mikhailov Island, Simonov Island.
08/31/1820 (08/19/1820.) Captain 2nd rank Bellingshausen, with the sloops Vostok and Mirny (Lit. M.P. Lazarev), discovered two islands:
- the first, at latitude 21° 1′ 35″ S and longitude 181° 19′ 47″ O, 1 mile (1.6 km.) long, 1/2 mile wide (800 m.), 2 1/2 miles (4 km.) named Mikhailov Island in honor of the painter Mikhailov, who accompanied Bellingshausen;
- second island, at latitude 21° 2′55″ S longitude 181° 13′ 37″ O in magnitude equal to the first, named Simonov Island, in honor of the astronomer Simonov who accompanied Bellingshausen.
2.13. Island Beware.
01 .09.1820 (20.08.1820.) Captain 2nd rank Bellingshausen, with the sloops Vostok and Mirny (Lit. M.P. Lazarev), discovered a chain of inhabited mountainous islands in latitude 20 ° 39′ S and longitude 181 ° 20′ O with a length of 7 miles (11.3 km.), near this place, the sloops almost crashed on a coral reef, defined in latitude 20 ° 45 ′ S and longitude 181 ° 10 ′ 11 ″ O, this shoal had a circumference of up to 10 miles (16 km.) And was called Beware, the native name for the islands It.
3. Coasts and islands of the Southern Arctic Ocean and islands of the South Atlantic Ocean.
3.1.Island of Emperor Peter 1
22 .01.1821 (10.01.1821.) Cap. 2nd rank F.F. Bellingshausen with the sloops Vostok and Mirny (Lit. M. P. Lazarev) discovered an island in the southern polar ocean, which he named island of Emperor Peter 1. The island, up to 4200 feet high, in latitude 68°57′ S and longitude 90°46′ W was all covered with snow, except for the capes, which emitted black—the length of the island is 9 1/2 miles, the width is 4 miles, and the circumference is 24 1 /2 miles.
1821. Captain 2nd rank Bellingshausen with the sloops Vostok and Mirny (Lit. MP Lazarev) discovered six previously unknown islands south of the New Scots Islands.
The first in latitude 62°58′ S and longitude 61°55′ W is named Teil Island in honor of the Russian envoy to Brazil, Major General Baron Theil; the island, the top of which was covered with clouds, had a circumference of 20 miles.
The second island, having a length of 41 miles, received the name of the island of Smolensk; the latitude of the eastern end of the island is 62°34′ S and the longitude is 60°3′ W.
The third island in latitude 62°31′30′′ S and longitude 59°58′ W was named Borodino Island, and the fourth in latitude 62°24′30′′ S and longitude 59°46′ W was named Polotsk Island.
The islands of Borodino and Polotsk are separated from each other by a strait 63 miles wide; the first island is mountainous and has a circumference of 22 miles; the second is level and has a circumference of 21 miles.
The fifth island, separated from the island of Polotsk by a strait 6 miles wide, was named Isles of Waterloo; the latitude of the SWth cape is 62°1′10′′ S, the longitude is 57°47′ W. All the islands are mountainous and covered with snow.
The island lying between the island of Waterloo and the island of Polotsk in latitude 62°17′30′′ S and longitude 59°24′ W with a circumference of 30 miles was called the island of Leipzig.
1821. Captain 2nd rank Bellingshausen with the sloops Vostok and Mirny (Lit. M. P. Lazarev) discovered the small island of Helena Stone in 24 miles from Waterloo Island in latitude 62 ° 5′ S and longitude 57 ° 56′ W.
Literature: Krotkov Apollon Semenovich. "Daily record of remarkable events in the Russian fleet" - St. Petersburg: Type. Naval Ministry in the Main Admiralty, 1894. and Indexes to the Daily Record of Remarkable Events in the Russian Navy.
To be continued.
Many books have been written about the Bellingshausen expedition, and films have been made. The ships "Vostok" and "Mirny" covered almost 50 thousand miles, their voyage lasted 751 days, of which 100 days they were in the ice zone. The most valuable information about the nature of the Southern Hemisphere was collected, in addition, the Russians made a number of geographical discoveries in other regions of the ocean. Nine times they approached the Ice Continent, having determined - in general terms - its borders. 29 new islands were discovered...
However, why am I talking about two ships? The fact is that only one of them, Vostok, returned to Russia. Mirny was so damaged during one of the storms that the crew left it and moved to an undamaged ship. And then the real action-packed mysticism began.
The next morning after the storm, the Vostok team saw that the Mirny was still following them. With torn sails, torn by a storm, the ship stubbornly followed the Vostok. And so it went on for several days. Like the legendary "Flying Dutchman", "Mirny" pursued the crew that had left it: and even tried to ram the "Vostok" several times. The team was gripped by mystical horror. Only a week later, it was finally possible to break away from the pursuer. Subsequently, everything was attributed to the winds and currents, but those who saw the ghost ship with their own eyes swore that he acted like a rational being. However, the veil of secrecy from Antarctica had already been torn off. Over the next decades, several expeditions went to its coast. Truth, special success they couldn't boast. At best, they managed to approach the land and examine it through telescopes in any one place. For example, the Antarctic Peninsula, the Kemp Coast, Adélie Land, Wilkes Land, and other coastal areas were discovered.
At the same time, several expeditions disappeared under mysterious circumstances. However, there was no radio then, the ships remained very imperfect, and their death could well be explained by natural causes. Even if we take into account that it was precisely those expeditions that perished that set themselves the task of landing on the mysterious mainland at any cost.
In 1840, the Ross expedition set off for Antarctica on two ships, the Erebus and the Terror. From the sea, she watched two high cone-shaped mountains, one of which curled clouds of smoke. Ross suggested that these were two volcanoes, one of which was active, and named them after his ships.
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| "Erebus" and "Terror" in the Antarctic, John Wilson Carmichael, 1847 |
And then the study of the southern mainland was abruptly interrupted. The reason is still unknown. But among the sailors there were dark - and, moreover, the most diverse - rumors about the horrors of the southern seas. Someone talked about sea monsters, someone about ghost ships ... In general, ordinary sailor tales. But someone very actively and purposefully engaged in their distribution. Therefore, the next ship approached the shores of Antarctica only in 1873.
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A surge of research interest in Antarctica occurred at the turn of the century. At the height of the industrial age, man believed that everything in this world was subject to him, and was not afraid of either ghosts or monsters. The VI International Geographical Congress, held in London in 1895, set the study of the southern continent as the primary goal of all geographers of the world. Following these recommendations, England, Germany, Sweden and France sent their expeditions to Antarctica in the first years of the new century. Moreover, scientists do not just land on the coast, but stay there for quite a long time. The concept of "Antarctic wintering" appears. In 1903, the first hydrometeorological station was created, which operates to this day.
For the first time, Scott's expedition tried to penetrate deep into the mainland in 1902-1903. Her goal was quite understandable - to reach the South Pole. Here, however, she failed, as did Shackleton's expedition in 1908. The researchers were forced to turn back, exhausted by the hardships of the transition - terrible cold, strong winds, rarefied air of the highlands. In addition, strange mirages appeared to them in the icy desert: the ruins of huge castles, oases with tall trees and running water. Shackleton's expedition diary, for example, states:
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Suddenly, a strong snowstorm hit, which lasted for several hours. We stubbornly moved forward, but in the end we were forced to stop. And at that moment it turned out that there was no Jerley next to us. It was a heavy loss. After spending the next day searching, which turned out to be fruitless, we moved on. And - about a miracle! - a week later Jerley caught up with us. As he himself said, he managed to randomly find our tracks - the weather was clear and sunny, unlike previous days. At the same time, he did not look exhausted at all and talked about some kind of deep basin, where hot springs beat out of the ground. Birds live there, grasses and trees grow there. He came across this basin by chance and spent the whole day there, restoring his strength. None of us particularly believed him - most likely the poor fellow was hallucinating. It is strange that he did not freeze in this icy desert ... |
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Shackleton did not believe in the existence of such a natural anomaly as the Antarctic oasis. Perhaps in vain, but in any case, you can’t check it now. The expeditions, instead of exploring the coastal regions and only gradually advancing inland, followed with a tenacity worthy of a truly better use, to one chosen goal - to the South Pole. Everyone wanted to get the glory of the conqueror of this "navel of the Earth." In the end, Amundsen and Scott in 1912 managed to achieve their cherished goal almost simultaneously. It seemed that it was possible to celebrate the victory - but the deep regions of the mainland again turned out to be unexplored. Scott decided to at least partially make up for this shortcoming on the way back, from the South Pole to the base. And - the whole expedition to the last person died! And literally next to the food warehouse, just a couple of tens of kilometers from it. The death was so mysterious that even a special investigation was carried out about it. The verdict was ultimately banal: hunger and cold. And what else, pray tell, could happen to people in the icy desert? After this, exploration of Antarctica continued at a rather slow pace. At least until they started using aviation. The first flights over the southern continent were made in 1928. The pilots explored quite extensive areas of the Antarctic Peninsula, discovering many interesting and mysterious things. For example, territories completely free from ice and snow in the depths of impenetrable mountains. Naturally, no one dared to land there, they noted only the existence of a green vegetation cover.
However, all these findings were given little importance. People continued, like a magnet, to attract the South Pole. In 1929, it was first reached by plane. Exploration of other interior regions continued at a rather slow pace. Where was the rush? Therefore, most of the southern continent remained unexplored by man. It was at this point, a few years before World War II, that Germany entered the race to explore. And she was very active...
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Bellingshausen and Lazarev: discovery of Antarctica
Faddey Faddeevich Bellingshausen (1778–1852), Russian navigator, admiral, participant in circumnavigations, leader of the first Russian Antarctic (circumnavigation) expedition on the sloops Vostok and Mirny, which discovered Antarctica and several islands in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans in January 1820 .
Mikhail Petrovich Lazarev (1788–1851), Russian naval commander and navigator, admiral, made three voyages around the world, including in 1819–1821 as commander of the Mirny sloop in the expedition of F.F. Bellingshausen, who discovered Antarctica. Since 1833 he was the commander-in-chief of the Black Sea Fleet and the ports of the Black Sea.
The fact that there could be a vast land beyond the Antarctic Circle, most geographers and navigators had no doubts. Another thing is that it was extremely difficult to swim in these icy latitudes. And after, in 1773, James Cook himself, confident in the existence of land there, declared its inaccessibility, attempts to break through to it ceased for a long time. Only at the beginning of the 19th century, English sailors discovered several small islands between 50 and 55 degrees south latitude. Captain W. Smith, passing in 1819 to the south of the Drake Strait, discovered an island there, which he called South Shetland.
By this time, Russia, inspired by the victory over the Napoleonic coalition and the increased influence in Europe and the world, realized itself as a great maritime power. Experienced sailors I.F. Kruzenshtern, O.E. Kotzebue and polar explorer Admiral G.A. Sarychev took the initiative to equip a Russian expedition to search for the southern mainland. After the highest approval of the project by Alexander I, the Naval Ministry already at the beginning of February 1819 formulated the scientific task of the expedition: “the discovery of the Antarctic Pole as close as possible” with the aim of “acquiring the most complete knowledge about our globe.”
Further, everything was done in the "best" traditions of the Russian authorities. It turned out that “the deadline is yesterday!” The start was scheduled for the summer of the same year. The sloop, a three-masted warship with guns on the upper deck, was recognized as the most suitable for carrying out such a serious state task. Such courts were navy Russia in the first half of the nineteenth century. In administrative haste, the expedition was composed of the sloop "Vostok" (with a displacement of 985 tons) and transport, which was urgently converted into a sloop with a displacement of 884 tons called "Mirny". At the same time, both ships were not adapted to sailing in polar waters. In addition, Vostok and Mirny had different speeds - 18.5 and 14.8 km / h, respectively.
Vostok and Mirny left Kronstadt on July 4, 1819. During December, while exploring the vicinity of the island of South Georgia, Russian sailors discovered several islands and gave them the names of members of the expedition of officers M.D. Annenkova, A.S. Leskova, K.P. Thorson and I.I. Zavadovsky. The group of islands of the Marquis de Traversay got its name in honor of the minister of the sea. To the southeast, the ships passed to Sandwich Land, discovered by D. Cook, and found out that it was an archipelago. It was given the name of the South Sandwich Islands. After the discovery of an underwater ridge stretching for 3.5 thousand km in the western part of the Atlantic Ocean, Mirny midshipman Pavel Mikhailovich Novosilsky wrote: “Now it is obvious that from the very Falkland Islands a continuous mountain range continues under water, emerging from the sea with the rocks of Aurora, South George, Clark's Stones, Marquis de Traverse, Sreteniya and Sandwich Islands; the volcanic nature of this ridge is undoubted: the smoking craters on the islands of Zavadovsky and Sanders are clear proof of this.” Now this underwater ridge is called the South Antilles and is presumably considered an underwater continuation of the Andes.
Swimming took place in difficult weather conditions. For long weeks and months it snowed incessantly, it was replaced by continuous fogs, the ships were forced to maneuver almost blindly between huge ice floes and whole ice mountains - icebergs. During snow storms, the temperature dropped to minus five degrees Celsius, which in a hurricane wind corresponds to a temperature of minus twenty degrees and below.
The clear weather, which delighted the sailors on January 3, 1820, made it possible to approach South Tula, the land closest to the Pole, discovered by D. Cook, and discover that it consists of three rocky islands covered with eternal snow and ice. This gave reason to assume that there must be new islands or even the mainland behind them.
From the book Encyclopedic Dictionary (L) author Brockhaus F. A.Lazarev Mikhail Petrovich Lazarev (Mikhail Petrovich) - a famous admiral of the Russian fleet (1788 - 1851). At the end of the course in the naval corps, he went to England, where he served as a volunteer until 1808. From 1813 to 1816, commanding the Suvorov, he lived in Sitkha; more than 2 years (1819 - 1821) stayed in the academic
From the book of 100 great geographical discoveries author Balandin Rudolf Konstantinovich From the book Great Soviet Encyclopedia (BE) of the author TSB From the book Great Soviet Encyclopedia (KO) of the author TSB From the book Great Soviet Encyclopedia (LA) of the author TSB From the book of 100 great navigators author Avadyaeva Elena Nikolaevna From the book of 100 great Russians author Ryzhov Konstantin Vladislavovich From the book 100 great records of the elements author From the book Encyclopedia of the most mysterious places on the planet author Vostokova Evgeniya From the book Geographical discoveries author Khvorostukhina Svetlana AlexandrovnaThaddeus Bellingshausen and Mikhail Lazarev The First Russian Antarctic Expedition of Captain 2nd Rank F.F. Bellingshausen and Lieutenant M.P. Lazarev, sea expeditions on the sloops Otkrytiye and Blagonamerenny under the command of M.N. Vasiliev and G.S. Shishmareva, on the brig
From the book 100 Great Records of the Elements [with illustrations] author Nepomniachtchi Nikolai NikolaevichVitus Bering - Thaddeus Bellingshausen As you know, Russia is relatively late, only at the beginning of the XVIII century, joined the number of maritime powers. Nevertheless, several remarkable discoveries fell to the share of Russian navigators, which constituted an era in the history of the world geographical
From the author's bookFADDEU BELLINGSHAUSEN The discoverer of Antarctica Thaddeus Bellingshausen was born in September 1779 near the city of Ahrensburg on the island of Saaremaa in Estonia. From early childhood, he dreamed of becoming a sailor. “I was born in the middle of the sea,” he later wrote. - Like a fish can't live without
From the author's book From the author's bookMYSTERIES OF ANTARCTIS A unique continent The sixth continent, discovered in 1820 by the Bellingshausen expedition, remains one of the most mysterious areas of the globe today. In my own way geographic location Antarctica is unique - it has access to the Atlantic,
From the author's bookDiscovery of Antarctica Geographers of the 19th century were convinced that there was a mainland at the South Pole. This was confirmed by sailors of whaling and research ships approaching the polar islands of Antarctica. The first to come close to the mysterious mainland were the participants of the Russian
From the author's bookThe most terrible secret of Antarctica English polar explorer Robert Scott sought to be the first to reach the South Pole, but he was not lucky; Norwegian Roald Amundsen overtook him. Scott found a pennant at the coveted point, left by an opponent just a week before him.
The ruling circles of the Western European states, as well as private trading companies, hoped to find new, rich natural resources colonies.
However, nature disappointed them and the discoveries at the South Pole did not promise them anything but expenses. The harsh polar nature, with impenetrable ice, could not serve to satisfy the greedy needs of the European bourgeoisie, which aspired to the rich countries of tropical and temperate latitudes.
Research and discoveries in the South Polar Sea were connected entirely, like others, with the economic interest of certain circles. Western Europe. Scientific research was of little interest to them.
J. Cook did not deny the existence of a continent or significant lands around the South Pole, but, on the contrary, argued that "there is such a land there." However, assessing the natural conditions of these countries, the extraordinary difficulties of their research, he came to the rather self-confident conclusion that hardly anyone would dare to undertake such a brave deed. These lands, doomed by nature to eternal cold and deprived of the warmth of the sun's rays, cannot, according to Cook, attract attention. “If someone shows determination and perseverance,” he wrote, “to resolve this issue, and penetrates further south than me, I will not envy the glory of his discoveries. But I must say that his discoveries will bring little benefit to the world.
Cook's research finally undermined interest in South Earth. The equipment of sea expeditions for the discovery of the southern mainland by Western European states after the Cook expedition almost completely ceased for many years. Brave pioneers in the scientific study of the South Polar Sea and the discovery of the Southern Continent were Russian sailors led by F. F. Bellingshausen and M. P. Lazarev.
The patriotic upsurge of the Russian people after the war with Napoleon in 1812, the strengthening of the economy and culture of Russia, its international prestige and the experience of the voyages of Russian sailors - all this predetermined the sending of Russia's grandiose scientific expedition to the South Polar Sea at that time. Russians geographical discoveries 1820-1821 made a radical revolution in the history of geographical exploration of the Earth's south polar sector.
The idea of exploring the Antarctic latitudes occupied many Russian scientists. It is known that almost simultaneously with the projects of the Antarctic expedition, several people came forward. At the same time, Russian scientists considered it necessary to simultaneously conduct research in the Antarctic and in the Arctic parts of the Earth. At the end of 1818, projects and comments on the organization of the expedition and its tasks were drawn up by G. A. Sarychev, I. F. Kruzenshtern and O. E. Kotzebue. So, G. A. Sarychev, indicating the area of study - the island of George, the Sandwich Islands and the oceanic waters of southern Tasmania, wrote: . After doing this, swim to the southeast or east, trying to get as close to the South Pole as possible.
I.F. Kruzenshtern noted that the “commander is preparing” the expedition should go further south than what was possible for Cook ... ". O. E. Kotzebue suggested sending two ships to the expedition. “Both ships,” he wrote, “direct their way to Sandwich Land, which they should try to explore further south. than Captain Cook succeeded, maybe it is part of solid land. The expedition can easily reach this place by the middle of December, then it is already here best time years, and should be divided in two. A ship destined to explore the Bering Strait directs its way to the west, always keeping in mind to penetrate as far as circumstances permit to the south, and another ship to the east with the same intention.
The first ship, according to Kotzebue's idea, after searching for Yuzhnaya Zemlya, should leave the waters of the South Polar Sea on March 1 and head for Kamchatka. The second will seek to penetrate the South Pole until the end of March, and then during the winter period in the southern hemisphere should explore New Guinea and the western part of Australia. In the last days of November, again "direct the path directly to the south (from New Zealand. - V. E.) for a secondary study of the south pole." The draft spoke in detail about providing the expedition with the necessary scientific equipment, food and uniforms for the team.
Already at the beginning of 1819, the Naval Ministry and its subordinate institutions were preparing for a "distant voyage": two sloops and two transports were being prepared for sailing.
The expedition was based on Kotzebue's proposal to organize two detachments. One detachment of the expedition was to explore the southern polar latitudes, penetrate as close as possible to the South Pole and try to finally solve the riddle of the southern mainland. The second detachment was to solve an equally important task - to explore and, if possible, pass the Northern Sea Route from the Bering Strait along the northern coasts North America into the Atlantic Ocean.
At the end of March 1819, Kruzenshtern sent a letter to the Minister of Marine, in which he already developed a plan for organizing expeditions to the South Pole and the Arctic Ocean in more detail and reported on their goals and expected results. He recommended that studies be carried out on the northwestern and northern coasts of North America on two vessels, one of which should be small in size and could carry out observations and inventory of the coast in shallow waters. The task of this detachment, in his opinion, should also include the study of the internal parts north coast North America. Pointing to the importance of the expedition to the South Pole, Kruzenshtern believed that it would reach more southern latitudes than the expedition of J. Cook.
Both detachments, according to Kruzenshtern, in addition to their main goals, were to explore at a convenient time for them the tropical latitudes of the Pacific Ocean, north and south of the equator. He also gave this great importance. So, having in mind the tasks of the detachment that was supposed to explore the South Polar Sea, Kruzenshtern noted that “this expedition, in addition to its main goal - to explore the countries of the South Pole, should especially have in the subject check everything that is wrong in the southern half of the Great Ocean and replenish everything the shortcomings in it, so that it (the expedition. - V.E.) could be recognized as, so to speak, the final journey in this sea. We must not allow the glory of such an enterprise to be taken away from us by others.
Given the different tasks of both detachments, he believed that they could not be subordinated to one chief. They could go sailing at different times. Kruzenshtern pointed out the importance of selecting a team, appointing natural scientists, and providing the expedition with physical and astronomical instruments. He named a number of instruments with which, in his opinion, the expedition should be equipped, and recommended Captain F. F. Bellingshausen, an excellent naval officer with "rare knowledge in astronomy, hydrography and physics," as the head of the expedition to the South Pole. “Our fleet,” he wrote, “of course, is rich in enterprising and skillful officers, but of all of them, whom I know, no one, except Golovnin, can equal Bellingshausen.” The ships, which received the names "Vostok" and "Mirny", were soon ready to sail. F.F. Bellingshausen was appointed head of the expedition and commander of the Vostok, M.P. Lazarev was appointed commander of the Mirny. The expedition also included astronomer I. M. Simonov and artist P. N. Mikhailov.
F. F. Bellingshausen
Bellingshausen's instructions were to begin exploration from South Georgia Island and Sandwich Land, then, bypassing Sandwich Land from the east, head to the South Pole and strive as far south as possible. As indicated in the "Instructions", the expedition will use all possible diligence and the greatest effort to move "as close as possible to the pole, looking for unknown lands, and will not leave this enterprise except with insurmountable obstacles." If the first attempts to penetrate the south were not crowned with success, Bellingshausen had to resume "his attempts" under other meridians and not lose sight of the main goal for a minute, "repeating these attempts hourly both to discover the lands and to approach the South Pole ". This voyage was to continue into the following year.
The expedition also received instructions on astronomical, hydrographic, ethnographic and other observations compiled by G. A. Sarychev. It pointed out that travelers should not disregard anything that "happens to see" and "not only related to maritime art, but generally serving to spread human knowledge in all parts." “You will pass,” Sarychev wrote, “vast seas, many islands, various lands; the diversity of nature in different places will naturally attract curiosity. Try to write everything down in order to inform future readers of your journey. For this, you must have descriptions of famous journeys in all those places that you will visit; reading them and comparing them with your own observations, you will notice where they are true and where they are wrong. In the hydrographic description, it was recommended “to describe these (lands. - V.E.) as accurately as possible, identifying the main points by observations of longitude and latitude” and to draw up a map with coastal views and detailed measurements, especially those places that can serve as marinas for ships. G. A. Sarychev recommended using the methods outlined by him in the course of marine geodesy when describing the coasts. Special observations were also made on phenomena inherent only in the polar regions. “It is necessary to make,” another document pointed out, “observations on ice of various kinds, both flat and towering like mountains, and to explain thoughts about the formation of these.”
July 3, 1819 "Vostok" and "Mirny" left Kronstadt. The expedition headed for the shores South America. Expedition of F. Bellingshausen - M. Lazarev in 1819-1821. went through three stages: sailing in the southern latitudes from Rio de Janeiro to the port of Sydney (Jackson) in Australia; sailing in the tropical waters of the Pacific Ocean and sailing in the south polar latitudes of the Pacific sector, from Sydney to Rio de Janeiro. On the way from South America to the South Polar Sea, the ships of Bellingshausen and Lazarev met and explored from the west the island of South Georgia, towering, according to P. M. Novosilsky, “like a giant in black armor, with a whitened head, like a formidable forward guard of the mysterious Arctic Sea » .
When describing the island, unknown and remarkable places were named after officers and other officials on the sloops, such as Capes Paryadina, Demidov, Kupriyanov, Novosilsky Bay. Near the island of South Georgia, Annenkov Island was discovered. The inventory of the west coast of South Georgia Island was linked to the inventory produced by Cook on its eastern side.
Moving further south, on December 20, 1819, at latitude 56°13" N and longitude 31°46" W, the expedition encountered for the first time a vast floating ice island. They were sometimes seen up to a hundred or more. The ice islands had very bizarre outlines, resembling huge buildings or fabulous monsters. On the third and fourth days after the encounter with floating ice, three small unknown high islands were discovered. On one of them thick smoke was rising from the mouth of the mountain. Here travelers had the opportunity to get acquainted with the nature of the southern polar islands, their inhabitants - penguins and other birds. The islands were named after the officers of the ship "Vostok" - Leskov, Torsoia and Zavadovsky, and the whole group - after Traverse, the Russian naval minister.
In the last days of December, the travelers saw the islands of Sreteniya and Kanders, discovered by Cook, and explored the land named Cook Sandwich. It turned out that Capes Montague and Bristol, designated by Cook, are actually islands, the Thule coast consists of three islands. These, as well as the previously discovered islands of Traverse, were one group related by origin, which Russian navigators called the South Sandwich Islands. M. P. Lazarev, in a letter to his friend A. A. Shestakov, described this sailing time as follows:
“In this barren country we wandered, or, rather, wandered like shadows for a whole month; incessant snow, ice and fog are not in vain, Sandwich land consists entirely of small islands, and to those that Captain Cook discovered and called capes, believing that it was a continuous coast, we added three more and, without erasing the name of Sandwich ..., we changed only instead of land we called the South Sandwich Islands. At the same time, an opinion was expressed about the commonality of their geological structure, the similarity of physical and geographical conditions and fauna.
The South Sandwich Islands are wild mountain peaks of volcanic origin, most of them are covered with snow, in the valleys, tongues of glaciers descend to the sea. There is no vegetation on them, penguins and other polar birds are the only inhabitants of the islands.
Fulfilling the main task of the expedition - to reach the greatest possible latitudes in the south, "Vostok" and "Mirny" on January 15, 1820 reached a point with coordinates 69 ° 23 "S. latitude and 2 ° 35" W. where they came close to the icy continent of Antarctica. For the first time, people saw the ice barriers of the sixth part of the world descending from the mainland to the sea. On January 20, the ships approached Antarctica for the second time (69 ° 19 "5" N and 1 ° 12 "W). Naturally, sailing ships could not overcome the ice barrier in order to get even closer to the continent. Some of expedition members left wonderful notes, expressing their impressions of the mainland discovered by Russian navigators.
Lazarev, for example, wrote as follows: “On January 16 (i.e., January 15, 1820 - V. E.) we reached latitude 69 ° 23 "S, where we met ice of extreme height and on that beautiful evening, looking at the salinga , it extended as far as sight could only reach, but we did not enjoy this amazing spectacle for long, for soon it clouded again and snowed as usual. It was in longitude 2 ° 35 "W from Greenwich. From here we continued our way to the east, encroaching at every opportunity to the south, but we always met the ice continent, not reaching 70 °. Bellingshausen, in a report on April 8, 1820 from Jackson to the Minister of Marine I. I. Traverse, wrote about the first meeting with the mainland: and longitude o 2 10 "W, met solid ice, at the edges one on top of the other, thrown in pieces, and inward to the south in different bridges, ice mountains are visible on it.
At the first stage of the voyage from Rio de Janeiro to Jackson (Sydney), the ships of the expedition approached the mainland of Antarctica four more times. This happened, judging by Bellingshausen's report card, in February 1820 (on the 5th, 6th, 12th, and 13th). On the last approach to the mainland on February 13, we reached a point with coordinates 66 ° 55 "N and 40 ° 54" W. e. All this gave reason to believe that the expedition met the coast of a new continent. With full confidence, P. M. Novosnlsky pointed out in his diary the existence of a coastline in this area. He wrote: “... there is no doubt that near 69 ° south latitude and longitude from 15 ° and further east, there should be a berg(underlined by us. - V. E.) ". About the meeting with the mainland on February 5-6, Bellingshausen wrote in a report: “Here, behind the ice fields fine ice and islands are visible to the mainland of ice, whose edges are broken off perpendicularly, and which continued as far as our vision, towering to the south, like a coast. Flat ice islands located near this mainland clearly show that they are fragments of this mainland, because they had edges and an upper surface similar to the mainland. Bellingshausen rightly noted that he did not meet the big South Earth (land), as previously assumed, although most made his voyage beyond the Arctic Circle, that the land, if it exists, is buried under massive ice and can be encountered in the ice when moving towards the pole.
The conviction of Russian sailors in the existence of a new continent near the South Pole was also supported by the theoretical assumptions of P. M. Novosilsky about the formation of ice floating islands. He pointed out that the ridge of the Sandwich Islands was not enough to form those bizarre ice giants that were found in the ocean. For this, in his opinion, more extensive lands are needed - continental coasts covered with glaciers.
Due to adverse conditions sailing at 90 ° E. the ships retreated to the north. Bellingshausen and Lazarev surveyed the expanse of the sea, 10 degrees in latitude and 50 degrees in longitude, which has not yet been visited by anyone and is located between the routes of Captains Cook and Ferno. Neither Bellingshausen nor Lazarev saw in the indicated latitude the islands of the Companian Land, supposedly discovered by the Spaniards and plotted on the maps of Arrosmeet south of Tasmania. “From 21 to 22 (March 1820), passing the parallel of the island of the Company and further to the east,” wrote Bellingshausen, “I did not see anything, nor did Lieutenant Lazarev, who passed near the same place, from which I conclude that this latitude incorrectly appointed, or this island does not exist at all.
After a rather long voyage across the South Polar Ocean, the ships came to the eastern coast of Australia, to the port of Jackson (Sydney). Thus ended the first stage of the voyage. At the beginning of May 1820, the expedition went to sea for research in the tropical part of the Pacific Ocean - from that time the second stage of its voyages begins (Fig. 9).
Bellingshausen and Lazarev headed for the northern tip of New Zealand, but headwinds carried the ships south and the expedition passed between the North and South Islands, that is, the Cook Strait. Here the travelers made a number of observations of nature and determined the coordinates of some points (Cape and Mount Egmont, capes Kamara, Jackson, etc.), the height of the mountains (Egmont, etc.). MP Lazarev made an excursion together with Zavadovsky from Korabelnaya Bay to the tropical forest.
The members of the expedition met the friendly attitude of the New Zealanders and were free to conduct observations. As a result, it was given detailed description nature and residents living on the shores of the Cook Strait.
Determining the heights of the mountain peaks, the navigators became convinced that the data of Forster, who made observations here during the voyage of Cook's expeditions, were incorrect, they turned out to be much more valid. Based on a comparison of the snow line in the mountains of Europe, Forster believed that the height of Mount Egmont in New Zealand was 14,760 feet. Using the astronomical geodetic method, the height of this mountain, determined by MP Lazarev, was 8232 feet. Forster's method of determining the height of mountains by comparing the lines of the snow border was criticized by Russian navigators.
“I believe,” Bellingshausen wrote, “that such a comparison of the lines where snow begins on mountains in different hemispheres is unfounded.” He cited a number of examples proving the discrepancy between the position of the border of the snow line in Greenland and Norway, the appearance of floating ice in the area of Sakhalin Island and its absence in the area of the Bay of Biscay, located on the same sprat. He pointed out that the border of the snow line is higher in the internal (continental) and lower on the coastal (seaside) mountains, and made a completely fair conclusion that it is impossible to determine the height of the mountains from the snow line and glaciers. “These examples,” he wrote, “prove the inequality of air temperature on the sea surface in the same latitude of the same hemisphere, and therefore I believe it is impossible to determine the height of mountains along the snow line in general, excluding only those mountains that are on different islands in a short distance between themselves » . In the equatorial part of the Pacific Ocean, travelers explored the coral islands in the Tuamotu archipelago. More than 20 islands were discovered here, called the islands of the Russians. The archipelago included the islands of Arakcheev, Volkonsky, Barclay de Tolly, Yermolov, Golenpshchev-Kutuzov-Smolensky, Raevsky, Osten-Saken, Chichagov, Miloradovich, Greig and others. All the islands discovered by Bellingshausen and Lazarev, as well as previously discovered by other navigators ( e.g. the Palizera Islands) have been described and mapped.
Bellingshausen and Novosilsky expressed an idea close to the views of Kotzebue and other participants in Russian round-the-world voyages about the origin of coral islands. They believed that coral islands were erected by "the smallest skull-skinned animals" that settled on underwater volcanic elevations in the ocean. When corals reached the surface of the ocean, they died and then other agents came into play: water (surf), air, animal organisms. “Coral islands and shoals are quietly erected by small craniums, over many centuries ...
Sea grass, litter, thrown out by the waves of the sea, bird feces and dead birds, all this rotting, laid the foundation for a land convenient for growth, and the seeds brought by the waves, washed away by rains from high islands, were the beginning of those growths, in the shade of which now from the heat of the sun the inhabitants of these low islands take refuge.
Bellingshausen's views on the structure of the ocean floor were very progressive. He compared the relief of the ocean with earth's surface. « Sea bottom in the same position,” he wrote, “this is evidence: the depth of the ocean, in some places immeasurable, the islands that make up the tops of high mountains, going from the very bottom, often the ridges of such islands show us the direction of the underwater mountain range, hidden from our eyes in an impenetrable depth; finally, underwater shallows and stone rocks, hiding under water or being on an equal footing with it, also underwater ridges, similar to the surface tops of mountains. He pointed to the tectonic connection of the coral islands in the Pacific Ocean with the Cordillera.
When returning to Australia, Russian navigators checked the coordinates of the islands they met on the way, for example, they found out that Rurik Island, so named Kotzebue, is one of the Palizer Islands discovered by Cook. They discovered several new islands, including the islands of Lazarev, Vostok, Grand Duke Alexander, Ono, Mikhailov and Simonov.
The third, final stage of the voyage began on October 31, 1820. The expedition went to Macquarie Island, determined its location and headed for the southern mainland. At the end of November, we met floating ice, which turned out to be three degrees south than in the southern part of the Atlantic Ocean. In the evening of the same day, they approached a continuous ice space and followed its edge further to the east. Frequent fogs, snowfalls and rain made navigation difficult. The expedition went beyond the Arctic Circle three times, but could not reach 70 ° S. sh. The maximum latitude that the ships reached was equal to 69 ° 48 ". Bellingshausen also tried to go here as far south as possible and not repeat Cook's route. The travelers sailed for more than two months and did not see the land. However, they were sure that for solid ice is the "Southern Great Continent". The proximity of the polar continent was confirmed by the birds and mammals encountered by the ships. In mid-December, following the ice field, we noticed a large seal and penguins on the ice cape. The skin brought by Lieutenant Ignatiev to the Vostok sloop from the king penguin he killed served as a good specimen for the collection. But the most amazing thing was that in the stomach of the penguin they found shrimp ("shrimas"), which he ate, as well as small pieces of rocks. This again served as confirmation of the proximity of the mainland.
Finally, on January 8, 1821, they saw the shore. The exceptionally clear weather made it possible to see open land, which turned out to be an island in a circumference of not more than 25 miles. A week later they saw land with a majestic mountain much larger than the first and continuing towards the pole. Both the island, called the island of Peter I, and the open coast - Alexander I Land, were covered with ice and snow. Steep sheer ice prevented us from approaching close to the shore and disembarking. However, due to good sunny weather, the coordinates of some points of Peter I Island and Alexander I Land were determined. The height of the island turned out to be 3960 feet. “This land,” wrote Novosilsky, “stretched in the ice to the south, but we did not see its further direction, and even more so the limit, and therefore could not conclude whether it constitutes a separate island or part of the southern mainland.” Bellingshausen Writes approximately both of them indicated a change in the color of the water, which confirms the vastness of the coast.
Rice. 9. The route of the circumnavigation of Bellingshausen and M. Lazarev on the sloops Vostok and Mirny (1819-1821)
Further, the expedition headed for the New Shetland, discovered by chance by an English merchant ship in early 1819 and considered part of the South Continent. As a result of the study, the expedition refuted these assumptions. The land of "New Shetland" turned out to be a group of mountainous islands.
Russian navigators discovered a number of islands and named them the glorious names of the battlefields Patriotic War 1812: the islands of Borodino, Maly Yaroslavets, Smolensk, Berezino, Polotsk, etc. Having traveled a few miles to the northeast, another group of islands was discovered. Russian names appeared again - the islands of the Three Brothers, Rozhnov, Mordvinov, Mikhailov and Shishkov. The entire archipelago of islands was named the South Shetland Islands. The expedition members examined some of them, made their hydrographic description and determined the geographical coordinates.
The expedition searched for Grande Island, marked on the Purdy map. Having passed the indicated latitude and longitude (42 ° 53 "7" S and 30 ° 20 "W), the navigators did not see anything. they didn’t notice anything, although by the clarity of the day they could see the island at a distance of twenty-five miles, if they were in this space on any side ". He concluded from this that Father Grande does not exist. For almost three months the sloops " Vostok and Mirny stood on the roads of Rio de Janeiro, from where they headed for Russia on April 24, 1821. Three months later they reached Kronstadt.
The expedition of F. Bellingshausen - M. Lazarev, having made a round-the-world trip that lasted 751 days, ended. In total, the ships traveled 86,475 versts (49,860 miles). The most important result of the expedition of F. Bellingshausen - M. Lazarev was the discovery of Antarctica. But the expedition not only discovered the new mainland of the Earth and some of the islands adjacent to it. She initiated the mapping of the coastal barrier of this continent in the area of the Princess Martha Coast and the Prince Olaf Coast and the study physical phenomena in adjacent areas of the ocean. It suffices to name only a few questions, to which the members of the expedition devoted their works, in order to understand the full importance and great theoretical significance of their research and conclusions.
For the first time in the history of science, the expedition gave a description of the glacial coasts (barriers) of Antarctica in several places, which were later encountered by explorers of all nations. The expedition paid much attention to the study of floating ice (ice islands, ice fields, etc.). Bellingshausen and Novosil'skii, on the basis of long-term observations, carried out a classification of ice and outlined the genesis of their formation.
Contrary to the opinion of many scientists, Bellingshausen showed that ice forms from salt water in the same way as from fresh water, but at a lower temperature. He traced and explained some features of the formation of ice fields, hummocked ice and ice islands. Quite rightly, he noted that the increase in the thickness of ice depends on several reasons - the accumulation of snow, as well as on freezing from below. He showed that the formation of ice consists in a successive change of its forms, starting from the primary - the so-called fat and up to ice fields. Forms of destruction of ice fields are hummocky ice and partially ice islands.
In the southern polar seas, according to Bellingshausen, the formation and movement of ice is fundamentally similar to what happens in the Arctic Ocean. However, he noted, "in the north, river water greatly contributes to the beginning of the formation of ice." Bellingshausen had in mind the rivers of Siberia and North America, which bring fresh water and contribute to more rapid freezing of the sea. At the same time, rivers also contribute to the destruction of ice in summer by the strong aspiration of spring waters that collect on the mainland.
Bellingshausen established the relationship between the volume of ice above water and the volume of ice under water. This ratio, in his opinion, is equal to 1: 7.
Of great importance for science was Bellingshausen's conclusion that huge ice, which he called “mature” and met by the expedition in the extreme south, are immovable ice, and they extend across the pole. They rest, as he wrote, on the mainland or on islands like the island of Peter I or Alexander I Land. Until recently, some scientists believed that Antarctica was not a whole continent, but an island region covered with a powerful glacier. Only the latest research by scientists during the International Geophysical Year seems to have refuted this view, although the existence of large expanses of land buried under ice and below the level of the ocean is not ruled out.
Similar ideas about the origin and classification of ice in the South Polar Sea were expressed by PM Novosil'skii. He distinguished four types of ice: a fixed ice shore, or ice wall; individual ice islands (flat and peaked); ice fields and broken ice.
An immovable ice shore, in his opinion, "is formed on the southern great continent" and cannot be formed in the open sea; ice islands "the essence of fragments from the ice coast"; ice fields are formed from the freezing of sea water: first fat is formed, which turns into a thin layer of ice, and then into vast ice fields with a bizarre relief. Broken ice - debris from ice fields and islands. Analyzing the origin of various forms of ice, Novosilsky made an important conclusion about the existence of the mainland. “A lot of broken fields and ice is a sure sign of islands and land, and reaching a real ice wall means the proximity of the southern mainland hiding behind it” (my discharge. - V. E.). Bellingshausen was the first to notice the features of the wind regime in the South Polar Ocean. This was pointed out by N. N. Zubov, noting that in the sprat ring of oceanic waters, covering Antarctica, westerly winds dominate, and easterly winds dominate near the coast of Antarctica. During the expedition of F. Bellingshausen - M. Lazarev, fairly accurate determinations of the location of ships were constantly made, and the coordinates of all remarkable points on newly discovered lands were determined.
Extremely interesting are observations of atmospheric phenomena (temperature, winds, pressure, etc.) and oceanographic observations (of water temperature, depth, transparency, etc.). These data were very valuable material for understanding the natural features of the South Polar region and elucidating general geographical patterns on the globe. Among the diaries and cartographic materials, the report map of the expedition was of great scientific importance. The reporting navigational map of the Bellingshausen-Lazarev expedition is among the largest works of Russian naval expeditions of the 18th-11th centuries.
An analysis of the map, as well as all known materials related to the expedition, convincingly shows the grandeur of the scientific event undertaken by Russia to explore the South Polar Region and discover Antarctica. Russian scientists and navigators successfully coped with the task assigned to them and passed the baton to their compatriots - Soviet scientists, who also successfully carry out Scientific research Antarctica today.
(1) So, a number of scientists considered the islands of Bouvet and Kerguelen, discovered in the first half of the 18th century. French navigators, for the northern extremities of the South Land.
(2) J. Cook. Journey to the South Pole and around the world. M., 1948. pp. 33 et seq.
(3) The project of the expedition to the South Pole of Vice-Admiral G. A. Sarychev. - In the book: M. P. Lazarev. Documents, vol. I. M., 1952, p. 81.
(4) From the remarks of Captain-Commander I.F. Kruzenshtern on organizing an expedition to the South Pole. - Ibid., p. 81.
(5) Plan of proposed expeditions to the South Pole and the Arctic Ocean, drawn up by Lieutenant Commander O. E. Kotzebue. - Ibid., pp. 83 et seq.
(6) From a letter from I. F. Kruzenshtern to I. I. Traverse regarding the organization of an expedition to the South and North Poles. - In the book: M. L. Lazarev. Documents, vol. I, p. 95.
(7) F. F. Bellingshausen. Double surveys in the Southern Arctic Ocean and sailing around the world during 1819, 20 and 21, part I. St. Petersburg, 1831, pp. 16-23.
(8) Instruction to F. F. Bellingshausen from the Admiralty Department on astronomical, hydrographic, ethnographic and other observations during the voyage to the South Pole (June 1819). - In the book:, M. P. Lazarev. Documents, vol. I, pp. 128-131.
(9) F. F. Bellingshausen. Double surveys in the South Arctic Ocean and sailing around the world in the course of 1819, 20 and 21, part T, St. Petersburg. 1831, pp. 37-41; see also: M. P. Lazarev. Documents, vol. 1, pp. 132-134.
(10) M. I. Belov. A sixth part of the world was discovered by Russian sailors (New materials ...). - Izv. All-Union. geogr. ob-va, No. 2, 1962, pp. 110-111. Based on the study of Bellingshausen's report card, the author of the article first drew attention to the difference in the number of days adopted in the civil calendar and used by Russian sailors. The account of the time of the latter until midnight was ahead of the calendar pas by 12 hours. By comparing the hours, conventional signs and inscriptions on the reporting chart with the text of Bellingshausen's book, where time is counted in sea days, M. I. Belov made significant adjustments to many dates of events that occurred during the Bellingshausen-Lazarev expedition (approaches to the icy continent, discovery of islands, etc.). In accordance with this, the dates in this work (according to the old style) are also given, which differ from the dates in previous works by other authors.
(11) [P. M. Novosilsky]. South Pole. From the notes of a former naval officer. SPb., 1853, p. 17. The author of this work was the midshipman of the Mirny sloop.
(12) Lieutenant Konstantin Petrovich Torson later took an active part in the Decembrist uprising of 1825. For this he was convicted and exiled to hard labor. The island named after him was renamed "Vysoky" and, unfortunately, is still indicated on maps. It is the duty of the scientific community to correct the historical injustice and restore the name of the fearless Russian patriot on all maps.
(13) M. P. Lazarev. Documents, vol. I, p. 150.
(14) Here we have taken the coordinates given by MP Lazarev.
(15) M. P. Lazarev. Documents, vol. I, pp. 150-151.
(16) From the report of F. F. Bellingshausen to I. I. Traverse on the passage of the sloops Vostok and Mirny from Rio de Janeiro to Port Jackson. - In the book: M. P. Lazarev. Documents, vol. I, p. 147.
(17) M. I. Belov. One sixth of the world was discovered by Russian sailors. [New materials...].-Izv. All-Union. geogr. ob-va, No. 2, 1962, p. 111.
