Vitus Bering

Vitus Jonassen Bering (baptised 5 August 1681 in Horsens, Denmark – 8 December 1741 on Bering Island, Russia) was a Danish navigator, known among the Russian sailors as Ivan Ivanovich Bering. He is known for his two explorations of the north-eastern coast of the Asian continent and from there the western coast on the North American continent. The Bering Strait, the Bering Sea, Bering Island, Bering Glacier and the Bering Land Bridge have since all been (posthumously) named in honour of the explorer.

Taking to the seas at the age of 18, Bering travelled extensively over the next eight years, as well as taking naval training at Amsterdam. In 1704, he enrolled with the rapidly expanding Russian navy of Peter the Great. After serving with the navy in significant but non-combat roles during the Great Northern War, Bering resigned in 1724 to avoid the continuing embarrassment of his low rank to Anna, his wife of eleven years. Having obtained a promotion on his retirement to the level of first captain, Bering kept this rank when he decided to rejoin the Russian navy later the same year. He was selected by Peter to captain the first Kamchatka expedition, an expedition set to sail north from Russian outposts on the Kamchatka peninsula, probably with the greatest emphasis on mapping the new areas visited (and particularly establishing Asia and America shared a land border). Bering departed St. Petersburg in February 1725 at the head of a 34-man expedition, aided by the expertise of lieutenants Martin Spangberg and Aleksei Chirikov. The party took on men as it headed towards Okhotsk, encountering many difficulties (most notably a lack of food) before they arrived in the settlement. From there, they sailed to the Kamchatka peninsula, preparing new ships there and sailing north (repeating a little documented journey of Semyon Dezhnyov eighty years previously). In August 1728, Bering decided that they had sufficient evidence that there was clear sea between Asia and America, which he did not sight during the trip. For the first expedition, Bering was rewarded with money, prestige, and a promotion to the noble rank of Captain Commander. He immediately started preparations for a second trip.

Having returned to Okhotsk with a much larger, better prepared, and much more ambitious expedition, Bering set off for an expedition towards North America in 1741. While doing so, the expedition spotted the volcano Mount Saint Elias, and sailed past Kodiak Island. A storm separated the ships, but Bering sighted the southern coast of Alaska, and a landing was made at Kayak Island or in the vicinity. Adverse conditions forced Bering to return, and he discovered some of the Aleutian Islands on his way back. One of the sailors died and was buried on one of these islands, and the group was named after him (as the Shumagin Islands). Bering himself became too ill to command his ship, which was at last driven to seek refuge on an uninhabited island in the Commander Islands group (Komandorskiye Ostrova) in the southwest Bering Sea. On 19 December 1741 Vitus Bering died on the island, which was given the name Bering Island after him, near the Kamchatka Peninsula, reportedly from scurvy (although this has been contested), along with 28 men of his company.