278 REPORT ON VOYAGE OF THE "ST. PETER" 



Anchiugov with two other men along the shore to the south to explore 

 and to learn whether the land on which we were was the mainland or 

 some island. They came back on December 27 without any definite 

 information. 



On December 8, 1741, by the will of God, Captain Commander Bering 

 died of scurvy from which he had been suffering for four months, and we 

 buried him on the island where we lived. I succeeded him in command, 

 and, with the assistance of Fleet Master Khitrov, every effort was made 

 to find out where we were; but, owing to bad weather and other serious 

 obstacles, it was not before the month of April that we knew anything 

 certain. As soon as we were sure that we were on an island, we made a 

 general inspection of the St. Peter to determine whether she was in good 

 condition for going to Kamchatka and whether it was possible to get her 

 into the water. Our examination showed that the vessel was so badly 

 injured that she could not be repaired, that we had nothing to repair her 

 with, and that we had not the facilities for getting her off since she was 

 buried in something like seven feet of sand above the keel. We took 

 council together as to how to get away from the island, and we found 

 no other means (since the island was bare and treeless) than to break up 

 the ship and make out of her for our voyage to Kamchatka as large a vessel 

 as the timber would allow. To this plan all agreed, and we went to work 

 in April and continued operations until May 5. On the following day 

 (May 6), with the help of God, we commenced building the new vessel, 

 the keel of which was 36 feet, beam 12, and depth 5 feet 3 inches. We 

 worked as fast as we could, making use of every favorable moment. 



The island on which we wintered extends from 54 to 56 north latitude, 

 and from the southern cape, which we named Cape Manati, that is to say 

 Sea Cow, it stretches from NNW to SSE. It is about 130 versts long 

 and about 10 wide. There are no habitations on it and no signs that 

 people ever lived there. There are no trees of any kind except in some 

 places a few small willows. On the island are high mountains and vol- 

 canoes. In many places there are rocky bluffs, making it extremely 

 difficult for seagoing vessels to approach, for on the whole island there are 

 very few places where the beach is not full of rocks, stretching out into 

 the sea for a verst or more, which are submerged at high tide and exposed 

 at low tide. Where the beach is not rocky the surf runs high, and there- 

 fore it is quite dangerous to anchor in the roadstead. For ships that 

 draw five or six feet of water there is no place for wintering, for we looked 

 into the question of a harbor and sent for that purpose Fleet Master 

 Khitrov to the south and boatswain Alexei Ivanov to the north, but 

 they could not find one. When the wind blew from the west it brought 

 us from Kamchatka pieces of timber that had been used in the building 

 of huts, planks that had been used for fastening together rafts of logs, 

 and broken deer sleds such as are used by the wandering Koriaks. 



