308 JOURNAL OF THE "ST. PAUL" 



Septetnber 23, 1741 



Latitude 51° 48'; from Vaua, longitude 3° 10' 4", rhumb S54°52'E, 

 distance 11 2.9 knots. 



September 24, 17 41 

 Latitude 51° 50'; from Vaua, longitude 1° 59' i", rhumb S49°o6'E, 

 distance 96.2 knots. 



September 25, 17 41 



Latitude 51° 27'; from Vaua, longitude 1° 03' i" E, rhumb S3i°io'E, 

 distance 100.5 knots. 



September 26, 1741 



Latitude 52° 16'; from Vaua, longitude 0° 6' 13" W,22 rhumb S5°45'W, 

 distance 46.8 knots. 



Assistant Constable Osip Kachikov died of scurvy and we lowered the 

 body into the sea. Captain Chirikov, Lieutenants Chikhachev and 

 Plautin, and six of the crew are very ill with scurvy; all the others are so 

 weak from long sickness, hard work, and lack of water that they can 

 barely come on deck and do their work. We have not more than seven 

 barrels of water on board. 



September 27, 1741 



Latitude 51° 44'; from Vaua, longitude 0° 38'27"E, rhumb Si8°44'E, 

 distance 72.9 knots. 



Captain Chirikov, Lieutenants Chikhachev and Plautin, Professor of 

 Astronomy Delisle de la Croycre, and twelve members of the crew are 

 very sick with scurvy; and the others are weak and get about with great 

 difficulty. We have only six small barrels of water, and the daily need is 

 five cups per person. We no longer cook kashaJ^^ 



22 All the longitudes ought, of course, to be E, as the whole voyage lay to the 

 eastward of Vaua. That their calculations from now on gave W longitudes (the 

 E positions of September 27 and 28 were temporary setbacks because of head winds) 

 made the officers of the St. Paul aware of the error in the ship's position: the total 

 error in longitude amounted to 11° 39' (see footnote 14, p. 322). The distances, 

 rhumbs, and longitudes become intelligible when referred to the assumed position 

 of Vaua, which was about in 170° 30' E of Greenwich (and 52° 53' N). 



In his report (Chapter VIII, p. 322) Chirikov discusses this matter of error in 

 longitude and its cause. He correctly ascribes it to lack of a known point at the 

 farther end of his journey wherewith to check his observations. He also correctly 

 infers that the currents are partially responsible; he made attempts to determine 

 this element but was not able to. It is precisely in the adjustment to known posi- 

 tions through the identification of landfalls and in the allowance made for currents 

 that lies the value of such modern reconstructions of Bering and Chirikov's tracks 

 as is afforded by PI. I. It is interesting to compare this chart with the reproduction 

 of the original chart of the navigators accompanying Sokolov's memoir in Zapiski 

 Hydrogr. Depart., Vol. 9, St. Petersburg, 1851 (copied on Lauridsen's "Vitus Bering," 

 1889, Map III.) — Edit. Note. 



23 Buckwheat mush. 



