n8 SIEGE OF THE SOUTH POLE 
The two expeditions sailed from Cronstadt on July 
15th, 1819, the Vostok and the Mirni leaving first, bound 
for the farthest south to supplement the voyage of Cook ; 
the Otkritie and Blagonamerennii following, bound for 
the farthest north with the special task of making the 
North West Passage from Bering Strait eastward. 
The Antarctic expedition reached Copenhagen on July 
25th, when Bellingshausen and LazarefE landed to pick 
up their German naturalists and lay in a supply of rum, 
wine and vinegar for the cruise. The latter pui'pose was 
speedily effected, but the naturalists did not appear. They 
wrote explaining that a long voyage demanded much 
time for preparation, that they found the time insufficient 
and so were sorry that they could not come. A desper- 
ate effort was made to find Danish substitutes but in vain. 
Bellingshausen says : “ We have lamented during the 
whole course of the voyage and still lament that two Rus- 
sians were not selected to carry out the natural history 
work of the expedition, as we had wished at the begin- 
ning instead of depending upon unknown foreigners.” 
Vice-admiral Lewenoren, a Dane, who was “ no friend 
of the English ” warned the captains against placing any 
reliance on the British Admiralty charts or the Nautical 
Almanack, the errors in which he assured them were the 
cause of many shipwrecks. However LazarefE had his 
four years of service in the British navy to judge by ; and 
the two ships made their way straight to Portsmouth to 
complete their equipment of charts and nautical instru- 
ments. On August 9th the Vostok anchored in Spithead, 
and three days later the two captains took coach for 
London to purchase charts, chronometers and sextants. 
The want of naturalists weighed heavily on Bellingshau- 
sen, the Emperor’s plan was made imperfect by it, the 
