30 GEOGRAPHIC DICTIONARY OF ALASKA. Ibiill.187. 



loiio- scries of Riissiiin voyaui's from Cronstadt to the Russian American 

 colonies. 



Prior to 1709 tli(MV were several Russian companies in Alaska. 

 They derived their su))])lies overland through Siberia. In 1799 a new 

 company— the Russian American Company— was organized and given 

 very large powers. This company completely supplanted all previous 

 ones, and it adopted the policy of sending to the colonies an annual 

 supply ship— or rather two of them, for they sailed, after the custom 

 of the time, in pairs for mutual assistance. Krusenstern commanded 

 the first one sent out, the Nadezhda, which, sailing from Cronstadt on 

 July 26, 1803, rounded Cape Horn and arrived in Petropavlovsk on 

 July 31, 1801. Refitting here, Krusenstern sailed on August 27, 1804, 

 on a diplomatic mission to Japan. The winter, one of disappointment 

 and failure, was spent in Japan, and on April 5, 1805, Krusenstern 

 sailed away and, cruising northward along the Japanese coast and 

 Kurile islands, arrived in Petropavlovsk in June. On board the 

 Nadezhda were, among others, the chancellor Resanof, Kotzebue, 

 Langsdorf, and Shemelin. Resanof and Langsdorf left the NadezMa 

 at Petropavlovsk, and on June 23, 1805, Krusenstern sailed for home, 

 arriving in Cronstadt on August 7, 1806. 



Both Krusenstern and Lisianski had served in the English navy. 

 Krusenstern became an admiral in the Russian navy and published 

 extensively respecting the hydrograph}^ of the North Pacific. In 

 1809-10 he published, in Russian, an account of this voyage. This 

 appeared in German in 1810-1812, in French in 1821, and in English 

 in 1831. He also pu])lished an atlas of the Pacific ocean in 1827, 

 accompanied b}^ a collection of hj'drographic memoirs explanatory 

 thereof. For a brief account of the voyage see Journal of the Russian 

 Hydrographic Ofiice, 1819, Vol. VII, pp. 6-26. The accounts by 

 Langsdorf, Lisianski, and Shemelin cover parts of the voj^age. 



KURITZIEN, 1849. 



Full Pilot Kuritzien made a survey of Umnak island in or before the 

 year 1819. His map is reproduced as a subsketch in Tebenkof's atlas 

 sheet XXV. No particulars concerning him are known to the writer. 



Langsuokf, 1804-05. 



Georg Heinrich von Langsdorf accompanied Krusenstern during 

 part of his voyage round the w^orld, in 1803-1806, and i)ublished in 

 two volumes an account of his voyages and travels, which appeared 

 in German in 1812 and in English in 1813-11. Apparently also there 

 was a Russian edition in 1811. Langsdorf was a member of the 

 Russian embassy to Japan, of which embassy Resanof was chief. 

 Resanof and Langsdorf parted company with Krusenstern at Petro- 



