188 ALASKA INDUSTRIES. 



expedition interesting in the relation whicli it bears to the subject of 

 my discussion. 



Homeward voyage and shipwreck. — In 1741, June 4, Bering 

 and Tschericov set sail from Petropavlovsky in two small vessels, 

 the St. Peter and the St. Paul; they proceeded as low as 50° lati- 

 tude, then decided to steer eastward for the reported American con- 

 tinent. On the 20th the rude ships wei*e separated by a storm, and 

 the two commanders never met in life again. Sunday, July 18, Ber- 

 ing, while waiting for the other vessel, drifted on our northwest coast. 

 He passed some six weeks in the new waters of liis discovery, when 

 bj^ the 3d of September a \4olent storm occurred and lasted seven 

 days, driving them back to 48° 18' north latitude and into the lonely 

 wastes of the vast .Pacific. The scurvj^ began to appear on board ; 

 hardly a day passed without the death of one of the crew, and men 

 enough in health were scarcel}^ left to manage the ship. A return to 

 Kamchatka was resolved upon. Bering became morose and seldom 

 appeared on deck, and the second in command, Stoorman Vachtel, 

 directed the dreary cruise. After regaining the land and burning a 

 sailor named Shumagin on one of the grouj) of Alaskan islets that 

 bear this title to-day, and discovering and naming several Aleutian 

 capes and islands, they saw two, which by an unfortunate blunder, they 

 took for the Kuriles, adjacent to Kamchatka; thus the,y erred sadly 

 in their reckoning and sailed out on a point of false departure. In 

 vain they craned their necks for the land. The shore of Kamchatka 

 refused to rise, and soon there was no liope of making a i)ort in that 

 goal so late in the year. The wonderful discipline of the Russian 

 sailors was strikingly exhibited at this stage of the luckless voyage; 

 notwithstanding their fearfully debilitated condition, and suffering 

 from cold and wet, they obeyed orders and attended to their duties. 

 We are told by Steller that the scurvy had already so far advanced 

 that the steersman was conducted to the helm by two other invalids 

 who happened to have the use of their legs and who supj)orted him 

 under the arms; when he could no longer steer from suffering, he was 

 succeeded by another no better able to execute the labor than him- 

 self; thus did the unhappj'^ crew waste away into death; the}^ were 

 obliged to carry few sails, for they had not hands to reef them, and 

 such as they had were nearly worn out, and in this case they could 

 not be replaced from the stores, since there were no seamen strong 

 enough ou the ship to bend new ones to the yards and booms. 



Soon rain was followed by snow, the nights grew longer and darker, 

 and now they lived in dreadful anticipation of shipwreck ; the fresh 

 water diminished, and the labor of working the vessel became too 

 severe for the few who were able to be about. From the 1st to the 

 4th of November the ship had lain as a log on the ocean, helpless, and 

 drifting at the sport of the wind and the waves. Then, again, they 

 managed to coaitrol her and set her course anew to the westward, with- 

 out knowing absolutely anything as to where they were. In a few 

 hours after the joy of the distressed crew can be better imagined than 

 described, for they saw the tops of high hills, still at a great distance 

 ahead, covered with snow. As they drew nearer, night came upon 

 them, and they judged best therefore to keep out, "off and on," until 

 daybreak, so as to avoid the risk of wrecking themselves in the dark. 

 In the morning they found that the rigging on the starboard side of 

 the vessel was giving away and the craft could not be managed much 

 longer; that the water was very low, and the sickness increasing 

 frightfully. The humidity of the climate was now succeeded by 



