PREPARATIONS FOR SAILING 



39 



help we should discover land then we should make explorations as the instructions 

 to the Captain Commander recommend. 



In making the voyage it should be planned to return to this harbor during the last 

 days of September. 



[Signed on the original: 



Bering 



Captain Alexei Chirikov 



Lieutenant Ivan Chikhachev 



Lieutenant Waxel 



Lieutenant Plautin 



Fleet Master Sofron Khitrov 



Louis Delisle de la Croyere 



For Fleet Master Avraam Dementiev 



Navigator Andreyan Eselberg 



Navigator Ivan Elagin 



VX 





our 





Fig. 9 — Facsimile of signatures of Bering and his officers, probably from the 

 "Decision on First Course to Sail" of May 4, 1741, which see for names. 



May 5, 1 741 



Wind from SW. Seventeen men at work. On the main and fore 

 shrouds the catharpings v^^ere fastened. Planed on the inside of the ship. 

 Strengthened the foremast and nailed planks near the windlass. 



