Vitus Jonassen Bering

Navigator

  • Born: August 12, 1681
  • Birthplace: Horsens, Denmark
  • Died: December 19, 1741
  • Place of death: Bering Island, Russia

Danish-born explorer

A sailor in the service of Russia, Bering confirmed the existence of a strait between Asia and North America, led the first European expedition to cross from Siberia to the northwest coast of America, and commanded the Great Northern Expedition of 1733-1742 in its exploration of Siberia.

Area of achievement: Exploration

Early Life

Vitus Jonassen Bering (VEE-toos YOH-nahs-suhn BAY-rihng) was born in Denmark, but he spent most of his adult life in the service of other countries. He sailed to the East Indies—then the object of exploitation by a number of European countries—on a Dutch expedition, returning to Europe in 1703. That same year, at the age of twenty-three, Bering entered the service of Russia as a sublieutenant in the Russian navy as one of a great number of non-Russians recruited by Czar Peter the Great in his attempt to modernize and “Europeanize” the Russian Empire. Serving in the Black Sea, the Sea of Azov (an arm of the Black Sea), and the Baltic Sea during the Great Northern War with Sweden (1701-1721), he received his first command in 1710. He was made captain second class in 1720 but was passed over for further promotion.

Bering was apparently the victim of bureaucratic infighting but may also have drawn criticism for his sometimes unimaginative and obstinate adherence to orders. In any case, he resigned his commission in disappointment in 1724 and withdrew to his estate at Vyborg, on the Gulf of Finland. Within weeks he had been recalled to service and appointed captain first class—but with a specific mission. He was then forty-four years old.

Life’s Work

Ostensibly concerned with the hypothetical Northwest Passage between Asia and North America but perhaps more preoccupied with identifying further sources of wealth for his rapidly expanding empire, the dying Czar Peter the Great had left somewhat vague instructions for the exploration of the frigid seas east of Siberia. Acting on the czar’s orders, Russian admiral Fyodor Apraksin appointed Bering to head the expedition Peter had envisioned, making fellow Dane Martin Spanberg (sometimes spelled Spangberg) and Russian Aleksei Chirikov his seconds-in-command.

The difficulty of the czar’s orders was compounded by the enormous extent of the Russian Empire. Okhotsk, the tiny Siberian port from which Bering was to mount his expedition, lay almost 3,500 miles east of the new Russian capital of St. Petersburg. Although Bering was able to follow Russia’s system of rivers for much of the way, merely guiding the expedition as far as its nominal point of departure was nevertheless already an extraordinary undertaking. The explorer departed St. Petersburg on February 5, 1725, several days behind the main body of his expedition, and reached Okhotsk on October 1, 1726—some twenty months later.

Bering’s party transported the tools, iron fittings, canvas, and rope necessary to build and outfit a ship on Siberia’s eastern seaboard, and they recruited hundreds of workers and artisans along the way. Expecting to cut the lumber necessary for the ship’s hull once he reached the coast, Bering was appalled to discover that only the most stunted trees and bushes grew in the region. He had no choice but to winter in Okhotsk, and in the spring he supervised the building of the Fortuna, a small ship whose timbers were secured with twigs and leather thongs. The Fortuna then carried men and supplies (in two trips) to the settlement of Bolsheretsk, on the southwestern shore of the Kamchatka Peninsula. After spending several more harrowing months crossing the peninsula’s mountainous spine to the Pacific coast fort of Nizhnekamchatsk, Bering found forests substantial enough to supply the timber for another, hardier ship, the St. Gabriel, which he launched in mid-July, 1728.

The rest of Bering’s voyage proved simple, if tantalizingly inconclusive. The St. Gabriel reached an island Bering christened St. Lawrence (now part of Alaska) and sailed as far north as 67° 18′. It is clear in retrospect that Bering had indeed passed between the westernmost tip of North America and the easternmost tip of Asia through what is now known as the Bering Strait, but poor weather conditions prevented him from sighting the American continent. Fearful of the approaching winter, he returned to Kamchatka, on whose eastern coast he and his crew spent the winter of 1728.

The following spring, the St. Gabriel rounded the southern cape of Kamchatka—a first for Europeans in these little-known waters—and returned to Okhotsk. Bering eventually returned to St. Petersburg on March 1, 1730, bringing to an end what would be known as the First Kamchatka Expedition. In recognition of his accomplishment, he was appointed captain commander, although officials unhappy with what seemed to be the inconclusive nature of his discoveries delayed his pay for several years.

Bering went on to propose a second expedition designed to facilitate Russian exploitation of the Far East. The Russian government commissioned him to lead such an expedition, but by the time he set off in 1733, the scale and scope of his already ambitious suggestions had been vastly expanded. As a result, the Second Kamchatka Expedition that Bering had envisioned subsequently became known as the Great Northern Expedition. Involving extensive exploration of both the interior of Siberia and its seacoasts, this project was to occupy Bering for the rest of his life.

The Great Northern Expedition was a logistical nightmare, yet its geographical importance proved to be unequaled in the annals of discovery. As envisioned by officials comfortably ensconced in St. Petersburg, several contingents of the expedition would explore the great expanse of Siberia’s northern seacoast from the port of Archangel (which lies only 10 east of St. Petersburg) all the way to the eastern tip of Asia. Another contingent was to follow the eastern coast of Siberia, chart the course of the Kurile Islands (which stretch southward from the tip of Kamchatka), and open trade with Japan (which lies even farther south).

The third component of the expedition, which Bering was to undertake personally but which he was not able to begin until 1740, involved confirming the existence of a strait between Asia and North America and exploring the nearer shores of the latter continent. In the meantime Bering had grown exhausted from crossing the breadth of Asia once again and overseeing the work of the thousands of men—scientists, artists, surveyors, craftsmen, and laborers—who were directly or indirectly under his command. Complicating the situation was the attitude of the Russian government itself, which had unrealistically high expectations of what Bering and his men might accomplish but unrealistically low expectations of what the grandiose scheme might cost. Thus, eight years passed before Bering could turn his attention to North America.

Bering was finally able to sail from Okhotsk on the ship St. Peter in September of 1740, taking with him as surgeon and naturalist Georg Wilhelm Steller. Bering’s lieutenant from the previous expedition, Aleksei Chirikov, had departed a few days before on the sister ship St. Paul. The crews wintered on the eastern coast of Kamchatka and set out on the final leg of their outward journey in early June, 1741. The two ships were almost immediately driven apart during a storm. On this expedition, however, the weather permitted Bering, in mid-July, to sight the mainland of North America in the shape of a volcano he named Mount St. Elias and to land a few days later on an island he named Kayak in order to take on fresh water.

By this time, Bering was suffering, like most of his men, from scurvy, a disease brought on by a lack of vitamin C, which is contained in fresh fruits and vegetables, and so he had little interest in these momentous discoveries. On its return trip, the St. Peter followed the chain of the Aleutian Islands back to Asia but ran aground on a desolate island off the coast of Kamchatka. Bering died on this island, subsequently named after him, on December 19, 1741.

Significance

Vitus Jonassen Bering’s status as an explorer is ambiguous, and the nature of his accomplishment—although of key importance to Russia’s movement into Asia—is a triumph of logistics rather than exploration. Reports of what is now known as the Bering Strait date from as early as 1566, and a Cossack named Semyon Ivanovich Dezhnyov sailed from the Arctic Ocean into the Pacific in 1648, but neither he nor anyone else realized the significance of his feat at the time. Surgeon and naturalist Steller complained bitterly that Bering showed no interest in the Alaskan lands he discovered in 1741, although by then he was fatally ill. Bering believed correctly that he had confirmed on his first expedition that Asia and North America were separate continents, but he seems to have been reluctant even then to seize the opportunity he had been given.

Bering’s most enduring accomplishment remains his management of the Great Northern Expedition, possibly the most involved undertaking in the history of exploration. Given the loftiest instructions but little in the way of practical support, Bering managed to lay the groundwork for the Russian exploitation of Siberia and Alaska, usually under the most appalling conditions of weather and terrain imaginable. That the many men under his command accomplished so much—and often went to their death—in the face of bureaucratic indifference and antagonism is a testament to Bering’s considerable organizational skills and moral character.

Bibliography

Bobrick, Benson. East of the Sun: The Epic Conquest and Tragic History of Siberia. New York: Poseidon Press, 1992. A popular but substantial history of Siberia, placing Bering’s expeditions in the context of Russian expansion across northern Asia and into North America. Map, chronology, illustrations, notes, extensive bibliography. A natural complement to W. Bruce Lincoln.

Fisher, Raymond H. Bering’s Voyages: Whither and Why. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1977. Examines the underlying reasons for the voyages undertaken by Bering at the behest of Peter the Great, concluding that Peter’s ultimate goal was territorial aggrandizement. Maps, bibliography.

Ford, Corey. Where the Sea Breaks Its Back: The Epic Story of a Pioneer Naturalist and the Discovery of Alaska. Boston: Little, Brown, 1966. A popular account of Steller’s contribution to natural history and his expedition with Bering. Ford creates a sympathetic portrait of a figure often criticized for his abrasiveness and impatience. Maps, short bibliography.

Frost, O. W. Bering: The Russian Discovery of America. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2003. Frost uses newly discovered materials, including personal letters and evidence derived from the discovery of Bering’s grave, to examine the personality, life, and voyages of Bering and his uneasy relationship with naturalist Georg Steller.

Golder, F. A., ed. Bering’s Voyages: An Account of the Efforts of the Russians to Determine the Relation of Asia and America. 2 vols. New York: American Geographical Society, 1922-1925. The best compilation of primary sources on Bering’s expeditions. The first volume translates the log books and official reports of the expeditions, while the second translates Steller’s journal. Extensive editorial material, illustrations, bibliography, and notes.

Hunt, William R. Arctic Passage: The Turbulent History of the Land and People of the Bering Sea, 1697-1975. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1975. Hunt discusses Bering’s voyages and Steller’s discoveries in the book’s opening chapters. Illustrations, bibliography.

Lincoln, W. Bruce. The Conquest of a Continent: Siberia and the Russians. New York: Random House, 1994. A comprehensive history of Russian expansion through Siberia. Unlike Bobrick, Lincoln finds Bering an unimaginative and limited commander. Maps, illustrations, notes, bibliography.

M ller, Peter Ulf, and Natasha Okhotina Lind. Under Vitus Bering’s Command: New Perspectives on the Russian Kamchatka Expeditions. Aarhus, Denmark: Aarhus University Press, 2002. Using evidence from newly discovered Russian documents, the authors recount the history of the two expeditions, the participants’ daily life, the beginnings of scientific ethnology, and other aspects of the voyages.

Neatby, L. H. Discovery in Russian and Siberian Waters. Athens: Ohio University Press, 1973. Several chapters are devoted to Bering, Chirikov, and the Great Northern Expedition. A sympathetic account that emphasizes the often heroic characteristics of the key figures. Brief bibliography.

Steller, Georg Wilhelm. Journal of a Voyage with Bering, 1741-1742. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1988. A complete and modernized translation of Steller’s account, rendered even more useful by an introduction, chronology, maps, extensive notes, and bibliography. An important supplement to Golder.

Great Events from History: The Eighteenth Century, 1701-1800: c. 1701-1721: Great Northern War; May 27, 1703: Founding of St. Petersburg; November 20, 1710-July 21, 1718: Ottoman Wars with Russia, Venice, and Austria.