EXPLORERS

 Hello ladies and gents this is the Viking telling you that today we are talking about 

Adam Johann von Krusenstern

 

Adam Johann von Krusenstern (also Krusenstjerna in Swedish; Russian: Ива́н Фёдорович Крузенште́рн, tr. Iván Fyodorovich Kruzenshtérn; 10 October 1770 – 12 August 1846) was a Russian admiral and explorer, who led the first Russian circumnavigation of the globe.

Adam Johann von Krusenstern in Avacha Bay by Friedrich Georg Weitsch, c. 1806, National Museum in Warsaw

Krusenstern was born in Haggud, Kreis Harrien, Governorate of Estonia, Russian Empire into a Baltic German family descended from the Swedish aristocratic family von Krusenstjerna, who remained in the province after the country was ceded to Russia. In 1787, he joined the Russian Imperial Navy, and served in the war against Sweden. Subsequently, he served in the Royal Navy between 1793 and 1799, visiting America, India and China.

After publishing a paper pointing out the advantages of direct communication by sea between Russia and China by passing Cape Horn at the southern tip of South America and the Cape of Good Hope at the tip of South Africa, he was appointed by Tsar Alexander I to make a voyage to the Far East coast of Asia to endeavour to carry out the project.

Under the patronage of Alexander, Count Nikolay Petrovich Rumyantsev and the Russian-American Company, Krusenstern led the first Russian circumnavigation of the world. The chief object of this undertaking was the development of the fur trade with Russian America (Alaska). Other goals of the two-ship expedition were to establish trade with China and Japan, facilitate trade in South America, and examine the coast of California in western North America for a possible colony.

The two ships, Nadezhda ('Hope', formerly the British merchant Leander) under the command of Krusenstern, and Neva (formerly the British merchant Thames) under the command of Captain-Lieutenant Yuri F. Lisianski, set sail from Kronstadt in August 1803, rounded Cape Horn of South America, reached the northern Pacific Ocean, and returned via the Cape of Good Hope at South Africa. Krusenstern arrived back at Kronstadt in August 1806. Both seafarers made maps and detailed recordings of their voyages.

Upon his return, Krusenstern wrote a detailed report, "Reise um die Welt in den Jahren 1803, 1804, 1805 und 1806 auf Befehl Seiner Kaiserlichen Majestät Alexanders des Ersten auf den Schiffen Nadeschda und Newa" ("Journey around the World in the Years 1803, 1804, 1805, and 1806 at the Command of his Imperial Majesty Alexander I in the Ships Nadezhda and Neva") published in Saint Petersburg in 1810. It was published in 1811–1812 in Berlin; this was followed by an English translation, published in London in 1813 and subsequently by French, Dutch, Danish, Swedish, and Italian translations. His scientific work, which includes an atlas of the Pacific, was published in 1827 in Saint Petersburg.

The geographical discoveries of Krusenstern made his voyage very important for the progress of geographical science. His work won him an honorary membership in the Russian Academy of Sciences. He was elected a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences 1816 and to the American Philosophical Society in 1824.

As director of the Russian naval school Krusenstern did much useful work. He was also a member of the scientific committee of the marine department, and his contrivance for counteracting the influence of the iron in vessels on the compass was adopted in the navy. Krusenstern became an admiral in 1841 and he was awarded the Pour le Mérite (civil class) in 1842. He died in 1846 in Kiltsi manor, an Estonian manor he had purchased in 1816, and was buried in the Tallinn Cathedral.

And as always have a chilled day from the Viking