Discovery of Bellingshausen and Lazarev during an Antarctic expedition. Thaddeus Fadeevich Bellingshausen, the famous Russian navigator What did Thaddeus Bellingshausen do
(1779-1852)
The outstanding Russian navigator Thaddeus Faddeevich Bellingshausen, who, together with M.P. Lazarev, discovered the mainland of Antarctica and thereby approved the priority of our Motherland in this remarkable geographical discovery, was born on September 20, 1779 near the city of Kingisepp (Arensburg) on the island of Saaremaa (Ezel), which is now part of Estonia.
From childhood, which the young F.F. Bellingshausen spent on the shores of the Gulf of Riga, either in Ahrensburg or in its environs, he dreamed of becoming a sailor and constantly said to himself: “I was born in the middle of the sea, and like a fish cannot live without water, so and I can't live without the sea." It is not surprising, therefore, that when he was 10 years old, in 1789 he was assigned as a cadet to the Naval Corps, which was then in Kronstadt. Thus, his dream was realized, and subsequently, until his advanced years, he spent almost every year on the voyage.
Thanks to his brilliant abilities, it was easy for F.F. Bellingshausen to study in the Naval Corps, but, according to his biographers, he was distinguished by a “somewhat frisky disposition”, as a result of which, at the end of the Naval Corps, he was not among the first in his graduation. In 1796, F. F. Bellingshausen was promoted to midshipman and, continuing to be listed in the corps, went on his first long overseas voyage to the shores of England. After being promoted to the first officer rank of midshipman in 1797, he was assigned to the Revel squadron, in which for six years he sailed on various ships in the Baltic Sea.
The young officer tried to improve his knowledge in the field of naval sciences and diligently carried out his official duties. With these qualities, F.F. Bellingshausen attracted the attention of the fleet commander, Admiral Khanykov, who recommended him for appointment to the first Russian round-the-world expedition of Kruzenshtern-Lisyansky. In 1803, he was transferred to the ship Nadezhda, which was commanded by the head of the expedition himself, Lieutenant Commander. Under the guidance of the head of the expedition, F. F. Bellingshausen improved his marine knowledge and took an active part in the marine inventory of the coasts under study and in the compilation of new sea charts. I. F. Kruzenshtern gives the following assessment of his hydrographic and cartographic work: “Almost all the maps were drawn by this last skilful officer, who at the same time shows the ability of a good hydrographer; he also drew up the general map. The Central Naval Museum has a whole atlas with numerous original maps of the young F. F. Bellingshausen.
During the circumnavigation of the world, F. F. Bellingshausen received the rank of lieutenant, and upon returning from the voyage, the rank of lieutenant commander.
After returning from the expedition, F. F. Bellingshausen sailed until 1810 on the Baltic Sea, successively commanding various frigates. In 1809, he took part in the Russian-Swedish war, commanding the frigate "Melpomene" and carrying a continuous six-month patrol in the Gulf of Finland to monitor the actions of the enemy, Swedish and English, fleets. In 1811, F. F. Bellingshausen was transferred to the Black Sea Fleet, in which he remained until 1819 as commander of the first frigate "Minerva", and then the frigate "Flora", and took part in the hostilities off the Caucasian coast. On the Black Sea, he paid great attention to hydrographic issues and greatly contributed to the compilation and correction of maps, determining the coordinates of the main points of the eastern coast of the Black Sea. In 1816, F. F. Bellingshausen was promoted to captain of the 2nd rank.
In 1819, he was urgently summoned by the Minister of Marine to St. Petersburg to receive a responsible appointment.
At that time, two expeditions were urgently equipped in St. Petersburg, each consisting of two ships: one of them, the so-called first division, consisting of the Vostok and Mirny sloops, was intended for research in the South Pole region; second expedition. representing the second division, consisting of the sloops "Otkrytme" and "Blagonamerenny" - in the region of the North Pole. The main task of both expeditions was scientific geographical research and discoveries, and the first Russian Antarctic expedition was intended to verify the statement of the English navigator James Cook, who, based on his own voyage, denied the possibility of the existence of the mainland in high southern latitudes, in places accessible to navigation. This opinion of Cook was accepted by geographers and navigators all over the world as an indisputable truth, and his mistake was the reason for the refusal of further scientific expeditions to the Antarctic regions for more than 40 years.
Outstanding navigators of that time took part in the organization of these expeditions, starting from the older generation in the person of the famous hydrograph Admiral Gavrila Andreevich Sarychev and ending with the young lieutenant O. E. Kotzebue, who had just returned from a round-the-world voyage on the Rurik brig. A detailed note on this subject, concerning mainly the Antarctic expedition, was also compiled by I. F. Kruzenshtern, who then, due to his illness, was living in the vicinity of the city of Rakvere (Vezenberg). Kruzenshtern considered the Antarctic expedition a great Russian patriotic deed and dedicated the following words to it in his note: “We must not allow the glory of such an enterprise to be taken away from us: it will certainly go to the British or French in a short time.” I. F. Kruzenshtern further drew attention to the need for the most thorough and comprehensive preparation of the expedition, including its scientific part and the appointment of a suitable leader. I. F. Kruzenshtern considered the most worthy head of the “first division”, intended for discoveries in the Antarctic region, to be the outstanding navigator Captain 2nd Rank V. M. Golovnin, who, however, at that time was on a round-the-world voyage on the sloop “Kamchatka” . In view of this, I.F. Kruzenshtern suggested appointing F.F. Bellingshausen instead of him, characterizing him with the following words: “he has special merits for commanding such an expedition: he is an excellent naval officer and has rare knowledge in astronomy, hydrography and physics. Our fleet, of course, is rich in enterprising officers, however, of those whom I know, no one except Golovnin can compare with Bellingshausen. The appointment of F.F. Bellingshausen took place: on June 4, 1819, he took command of the Vostok sloop and at the same time took command of the "First Division".
At that time he was 40 years old, and he was in the full bloom of his powers and abilities. Service in his younger years under the command of an experienced old sailor Admiral Khanykov, participation in the first Russian circumnavigation under the leadership of I.F. Kruzenshtern, and finally, 13-year-old independent command of ships developed the main business and personal qualities of F.F. Bellingshausen. His contemporaries portray him as a brave, resolute, knowledgeable commander, an excellent sailor and a learned hydrograph-navigator, a true Russian patriot. Remembering the joint voyage, M.P. Lazarev subsequently called him nothing but "a skillful fearless sailor", and added to this that "he was an excellent, warm-hearted person." Such a high appraisal, coming from the mouth of one of the largest Russian naval commanders MP Lazarev, is worth a lot. F. F. Bellingshausen was a strict but humane boss. He repeatedly showed his humanity in the cruel age of the Arakcheevshchina and during his round-the-world voyage he never used corporal punishment in relation to the sailors subordinate to him, he cared about their living conditions and health.
F.F. Bellingshausen had very little time left for the final preparation of the expedition for leaving on a dangerous and responsible long-distance voyage - a little more than a month. The commander of the second of them, Mirny, Lieutenant Mikhail Petrovich Lazarev, who was appointed much earlier and was a worthy subordinate and comrade of F. F. Bellingshausen, did a lot for the proper supply of both sloops.
In view of the hasty preparation of the expedition, it included not ships specially built for navigation in ice, but ships already under construction and intended for other purposes. The Vostok sloop, which was being built at the Okhten shipyard in St. Petersburg, was of the same type as the Kamchatka sloop, which was already on a round-the-world voyage under the command of V. M. Golovnin (the latter gives the following data on the size of these sloops: a displacement of about 900 tons , length 39.5 m, width 10 m, draft with a full load of 4.5 m). "Vostok" had a number of design flaws (excessive height of the masts, insufficient hull strength, poor material, careless work), in which F. F. Bellingshausen directly blames the builder V. Stoke. The second ship of the expedition, commanded by MP Lazarev, was originally built as a transport for sailing in the Baltic Sea; it was built at the shipyard in Lodeynoye Pole by the Russian master Kolodkin. In preparation for the campaign, Lazarev made a number of changes to the design of the Mirny, as a result of which it turned out (according to its commander) to be “the most convenient in terms of its strength, spaciousness and peace”, its only drawback was its slow speed, which required special naval art M P. Lazarev, so as not to be separated during the voyage from the faster Vostok (the dimensions of the Mirny sloop: displacement 530 tons, length 36.5 m, width 9.1 m, draft 4.3 m). The personnel of the expedition included: 9 officers and 117 sailors on the Vostok sloop, 7 officers and 72 sailors on the Mirny sloop. On the sloop "Vostok" were, in addition, astronomer, professor of Kazan University I. Simonov and painter P. Mikhailov seconded to the expedition.
There was not a single foreigner on the ships of F. F. Bellingshausen and M. P. Lazarev. This circumstance is emphasized by Professor Simonov, a member of the expedition, who, in his speech delivered at a ceremonial meeting of the university after his return in July 1822, stated that all the officers were Russian, and although some of them had foreign surnames, but, “being the children of Russian subjects born and raised in Russia cannot be called foreigners.”
Among the officers of the expedition were many leading representatives of the Russian liberal intelligentsia, including the future participant in the Decembrist uprising, Lieutenant K.P. Torson.
Despite the great haste with the equipment of the expedition, it was, in general, well equipped. Particular attention was paid to providing the ships with the best nautical and astronomical instruments for that time.
The expedition was well supplied with all kinds of antiscorbutic food products, which included coniferous essence, lemons, sauerkraut, dried and canned vegetables; in addition, on every suitable occasion, the commanders of the sloops bought and bartered (on the islands of Oceania from local residents) a large amount of fresh fruit, which was partially prepared for the future for the upcoming voyage in Antarctica, and partially provided for use by personnel. To warm the sailors, who were freezing while working on masts and yards during icy winds and frosts in the Antarctic, there was a supply of rum; red wine was also purchased to add to drinking water when swimming in hot climates. All personnel, on the basis of a special instruction, were obliged to observe the strictest hygiene; living quarters were constantly ventilated and, if necessary, heated, frequent washing in the bath was ensured, requirements were made for the constant washing of linen and beds and for airing clothes, etc .; thanks to the above measures and the high qualification of the ship's doctors, there were no serious illnesses on the sloops, despite the difficult climatic conditions of navigation and frequent transitions from heat to cold and back.
Each of the sloops had a significant library containing all published descriptions of sea voyages in Russian, English and French, marine astronomical yearbooks, essays on geodesy, astronomy and navigation, sailing directions and navigation instructions, various nautical tables, essays on terrestrial magnetism , celestial atlases, notes of the Admiralty Department, etc.
The main goal of the expedition was determined by the instructions of the Minister of Marine as follows: after exploring the island of New Georgia and the area of \u200b\u200bthe so-called “Sandwich Land”, Bellingshausen was to “go south” and “continue his research to the remote latitude that he could reach”, use “every possible diligence and the greatest effort to reach as close as possible to the pole, looking for unknown lands, "and he was allowed to stop these searches only" with insurmountable obstacles.
The sloops "Vostok" and "Mirny" left Kronstadt on July 16, 1819, and after short stops in Copenhagen, Portsmouth and the Canary Islands, arrived on November 14 in Rio de Janeiro, where they spent three weeks to rest the crew before a tiring and difficult voyage in the Antarctic, to prepare sloops for stormy trips and to receive fresh provisions.
According to the instructions received, the expedition was to begin its research work from the island of South Georgia and the “Sandwich Land” discovered by Cook, the nature and size of which were not determined. F. F. Bellingshausen explored the southern coast of the island of New Georgia and put it on the map, marking a number of geographical points with Russian names in honor of the expedition members.
Then the expedition went to the notorious "Sandwich Land" on the way to this "Earth" was made on January 3, 1820. The first major discovery was the discovery of a group of islands, which was named by Bellingshausen by the name of the then Russian naval minister the islands of the Marquis de Traverse, and its individual islands - by the names of the expedition members (Zavadovsky Island, Leskov Island and Torson Island, renamed Vysokiy Island after the Decembrist uprising). On January 11, the expedition approached the area of "Sandwich Land" and discovered that the points that Cook considered to be her capes were in fact separate islands. F. F. Bellingshausen showed exceptional tact, retaining for the islands discovered by Russian navigators the names that Cook gave to the capes, and for the entire group - the name of Sandwich (South Sandwich Islands). Then the expedition proceeded to those "attempts" to reach the mainland, which the instruction prescribed to it.
With the entry of the ships of the expedition into the high southern latitudes, the navigation conditions became very difficult, requiring from Russian sailors the greatest art of sailing ships, attention, observation, endurance and perseverance in achieving the goal. From the beginning of January 1820, the ships entered the zone of Antarctic floating ice and icebergs, maneuvering between which in fog and snow, stormy winds, heavy seas and swell required great skill and courage. The difference in the speeds between the two sloops made it very difficult to sail together: the Vostok had to reduce its speed all the time, and the Mirny, on the contrary, despite the storm winds, had to force sails. F. F. Bellingshausen in his reports repeatedly notes the merits of M. P. Lazarev, only thanks to whose maritime art the ships never parted even in conditions of poor visibility and all dangerous areas passed together. The sloops were repeatedly close to death when, in stormy winds and in fog, they made their way between huge floating ice and icebergs that swelled, locating the latter only by the noise of breakers. Despite his exceptional courage and experience, M.P. Lazarev believed that Bellingshausen was taking too much risk by maneuvering with large moves between ice fields in conditions of poor visibility. In his remarks, M.P. Lazarev said: “although we looked ahead with the greatest care, it seemed to me not entirely prudent to go on a cloudy night at 8 miles per hour.” To this remark, F.F. Bellingshausen replied: “I agree with this opinion of Lieutenant Lazarev and was not very indifferent during such nights, but I thought not only about the present, but disposed of actions so as to have the desired success in our enterprises and not remain in the ice during the upcoming equinox” (during the equinox, severe storms are common). This was, perhaps, the only disagreement during the voyage between him and his companion, with which he was connected by cordial friendly relations.
Both sloops nevertheless did not avoid collision with ice fields and received serious damage to their hulls. The Vostok received especially serious damage, the state of this sloop by the end of the expeditions generally aroused fears: its hull was very loose and took a lot of water, dampness and rot developed in the interior, the team had to continuously pump out the water entering the ship through the hole with hand pumps. F. F. Bellingshausen, in describing his voyage, writes on this occasion that he found "one consolation in the thought that courage sometimes leads to success."
During the voyage, the expedition members used every opportunity to determine their location astronomically. In addition to the navigators and astronomer Simonov, both commanders also participated in the observations. The accuracy of observations by Russian navigators still amazes the participants of modern Antarctic expeditions.
The Russian expedition came close to the mainland of Antarctica for the first time on January 16, 1820, during its first "attempt" to penetrate south, and we consider this day as the date of its discovery. The visibility conditions, however, were not good enough, and the exceptional honesty and exactingness with regard to the reliability of the discovery did not allow the Russian sailors to claim that they actually saw the low part of the mainland, and not the ice fast ice. Now, however, no one doubts that F. F. Bellingshausen and M. P. Lazarev discovered the sixth part of the world on that very day. For the second time, the expedition was close to the mainland on February 2, 1820. In the same place in 1948, the Soviet whaling expedition Slava was located, which, under excellent visibility, clearly saw the entire coast and mountain peaks in the depths of the continent. He characterizes his impressions of the ice that F.F. Bellingshausen saw before him from February 17 to 18 during the next approach to the mainland with the following words: measure of our vision, rising to the south like a shore. This characterization shows that F. F. Bellingshausen himself doubted whether he saw a shore in front of him. The very description of the ice, made by the Russian navigator, fully corresponds to the view of the coast of Antarctica in this region, as we know it from later research. Many of the expedition officers were confident in the proximity of the coast. Perhaps the most convincing in this regard is the conclusion of F.F. Bellingshausen, made by him at the end of the voyage, after the expedition discovered the island of Peter I. This conclusion is, as it were, the result of his idea of the polar regions. He writes: “The huge ice, which, as it gets closer to the South Pole, rises into sloping mountains, I call seasoned, assuming that when the frost is 4 ° on the best summer day, then further south, of course, the cold does not decrease, and therefore, I conclude that this ice goes through the pole and must be immobile, touching in places shallow water, or islands like the island of Peter I, which are undoubtedly located in high southern latitudes and also adjacent to the coast, which exists (in our opinion) in the vicinity of that latitude and longitude in which we met sea swallows" [vol. e. February 5-7, 1820].
During this period, the expedition crossed the Antarctic Circle three times.
In early March 1820, due to unfavorable weather and the need to stock up on fresh provisions and firewood and give rest to the personnel, F.F. Bellingshausen decided (which was in accordance with the instructions) to leave the high southern latitudes, head to the Australian Port Jackson (Sydney) for long stay, and after that, according to the instructions, for the duration of the winter of the southern hemisphere, begin research in the southeastern part of the Pacific Ocean.
After a month's stay in Sydney, both sloops on May 22, 1820 headed for the area of the Tuamotu archipelago and the Society Islands. To the east of the island of Tahiti, in June 1820, a Russian expedition discovered a whole group of islands, called the islands of the Russians (the islands of Kutuzov, Lazarev, Raevsky, Yermolov, Miloradovich, Greig, Volkonsky, Barclay de Tolly, Wittgenstein, Osten-Saken, Moller, Arakcheev ). After that, the sloops "Vostok" and "Mirny" visited the island of Tahiti and went back to Sydney for rest, repairs and acceptance of various supplies before a new trip to Antarctic waters. On the way to Sydney, the expedition discovered a number of islands (Vostok, Grand Duke Alexander Nikolayevich, Ono, Mikhailov and Simonov).
In early September 1820, the expedition returned to Sydney, where they began the most thorough repair of both ships, especially the sloop Vostok. The expedition stayed in Sydney for almost two months and on November 11, 1820, again went to sea to reach high latitudes in other sectors of the Antarctic that had not yet been visited. From the end of November, the expedition resumed its attempts to reach the mainland of Antarctica. "Attempts" to penetrate possibly further south during this period were made four, and three times the ships penetrated beyond the southern polar circle.
However, in this sector of the Antarctic, the mainland does not reach the Antarctic Circle far, and only the fourth attempt was successful: on January 21, 1821, Peter I Island was discovered, and on January 18, the Alexander I Coast, about which F. F. Bellingshausen writes: “I I call this acquisition a shore because the remoteness of the other end to the south has disappeared beyond our vision. On February 1, Bellingshausen headed for the archipelago of the South Shetland Islands, the discovery of which he learned while in Australia. From February 5 to 8, the expedition explored the southern shores of the archipelago, discovering that it consists of a dozen larger islands and many smaller ones. All the South Shetland Islands were put on the map, and names were given to all of them (Borodino, Maly Yaroslavets, Smolensk, Berezina, Polotsk, Leipzig, Waterloo, the island of Vice Admiral Shishkov, etc.). After surveying the South Shetland Islands, the expedition headed back to their homeland, calling at Rio de Janeiro, where the sloops were again carefully repaired, and to Lisbon.
Finally, on July 6, 1821, the sloops Vostok and Mirny anchored in the Small Kronstadt roadstead in the places from which they set off on their glorious and dangerous journey more than two years ago.
The expedition lasted 751 days (including 527 sailing days and 224 anchoring days); the ships traveled about 49,000 nautical miles, which is 2.25 times the length of the equator.
What were the results of the first Russian Antarctic expedition? The expedition discovered the mainland of Antarctica and walked around it. In addition, she has rediscovered 29 previously unknown islands, including 2 in Antarctica, 8 in the southern temperate zone, and 19 in the hot zone.
The enormous merit of the Expedition consisted in accurately determining the geographical position of islands, capes and other points and compiling a large number of maps, which was a favorite specialty of F. F. Bellingshausen himself. These definitions have not lost their significance and differ very little from the latest definitions, produced on the basis of more accurate methods and more advanced nautical instruments. The map of the South Shetland Islands was the most accurate until the second half of the 20th century, and the sketches of the islands made by the artist Mikhailov are still used. Astronomer Simonov made systematic observations on changes in air temperature, navigators - on the elements of terrestrial magnetism. The expedition made many important oceanographic studies; she was the first to take water samples from the depths with a primitive bathometer made from improvised means; experiments were made with lowering the bottle to a depth; for the first time, the transparency of water was determined by lowering a white plate to the depth; the depths were measured, as far as the length of the existing lotline allowed (apparently, up to 500 m); an attempt was made to measure the temperature at depth; the structure of sea ice and the freezing of water of different salinity were studied; compass deviations were determined at various courses and wind direction at various altitudes using balloons, which was a novelty at that time.
The expedition collected rich ethnographic, zoological and botanical collections, which were then transferred to various museums in Russia, where they are still kept.
The expedition was greeted in the homeland with great solemnity. Her discoveries were of great importance. In foreign countries, the priority of the Russian discovery was recognized indisputably.
Only after more than 20 years was the first foreign expedition sent to Antarctic waters. The leader of this English Antarctic expedition 1839-1843. James Ross wrote: "The discovery of the most southern of the known continents was valiantly conquered by the fearless Bellingshausen, and this conquest remained with the Russians for a period of more than 20 years."
In 1867, the German geographer Peterman, noting that in the world geographical literature the merits of the Russian Antarctic expedition were completely underestimated, points to the fearlessness of F. F. Bellingshausen, with whom he went against the opinion of Cook that had prevailed for 50 years: Bellingshausen can be put along with the names of Columbus, Magellan and James Ross, with the names of those people who did not retreat before the difficulties and imaginary impossibilities created by their predecessors, with the names of people who went their own independent way, and therefore were the destroyers of barriers to discoveries, which epochs are marked.
Academician Yu. M. Shokalsky, comparing the achievements of the Antarctic expeditions of Cook and Bellingshausen, made the following calculation: the first of them was south of the parallel 60 ° for 75 days, the second - 122 days; Cook was in the ice for 80 days, Bellingshausen - 100 days; Cook's ships parted, and both Russian sloops, in the most difficult conditions, went all the time together.
F. F. Bellingshausen himself showed himself in this voyage not only as a talented expedition leader, an outstanding sailor and an excellent comrade, but as a highly educated scientist and observer.
F. F. Bellingshausen solved many complex physical and geographical problems, however, unfortunately, scientific fame did not go to him, but to foreign scientists who dealt with the same issues much later. Thus, long before Darwin, F. F. Bellingshausen quite correctly explained the origin of coral islands, which had been a mystery before him; he gave a correct explanation of the origin of algae in the Sargasso Sea, challenging the opinion of such an authority in the field of geographical science of that time as A. Humboldt; he has many correct thoughts in questions of the theory of ice formation, which have not lost their significance; they also resolved many questions of oceanography. Finally, one cannot ignore the statements of F.F. Bellingshausen, directed directly against racial theory and concerning Australians (in describing his voyage, he says: “the consequence showed that the natural inhabitants of Australia are capable of education, despite the fact that many Europeans in their offices do deprived them of all abilities).
As a reward for the successful completion of the assignment, F. F. Bellingshausen “was promoted to captain-commander and received a number of other awards. From 1822 to 1825, he held positions on the coast, apparently in order to be able to process the materials of his voyage for publication. For this purpose, he used his diaries and notes, the journals of the Vostok and Mirny sloops and the notes of all members of the expedition, as well as the observations of the astronomer Simonov and maps and drawings by the artist Mikhailov. This work was completed in 1824, when the author submitted to the Admiralty Department a manuscript containing 10 notebooks. However, this work was published under the title "Double surveys in the Southern Arctic Ocean and voyage around the world in the course of 1819, 1820 and 1821, carried out on the sloops Vostok and Mirny only in 1831. This first edition consisted of two volumes without all kinds of illustrations, and all the maps and drawings were collected in the "Atlas" attached to it (19 maps, 13 types, 2 types of ice islands and 30 different drawings depicting various animals, birds and fish, etc.).
All further service of F. F. Bellingshausen proceeded in almost continuous voyages, military and combat service and in senior command positions. In 1821-1827. we see him commanding a detachment of ships in the Mediterranean. In 1828, being rear admiral and commander of the guards crew, he, together with the latter, left Petersburg by land and went to the Danube to participate in the war with Turkey. On the Black Sea, he played a leading role in the siege of the Turkish fortress of Varna, and then, having his Rear Admiral's flag on the ships "Parmen" and "Paris", and in the capture of this fortress, as well as a number of other cities and fortresses. In 1831, already Vice-Admiral F.F. Bellingshausen was the commander of the 2nd Naval Division and annually cruises with it in the Baltic Sea.
In 1839, the last stage of his life and career begins: he is appointed to the highest military post on the Baltic Sea - the chief commander of the Kronstadt port and the Kronstadt military governor. This position was combined with the annual appointment as commander of the Baltic Fleet during his summer voyages, and until his death (at the age of 73), F.F. Bellingshausen continued to go to sea for combat training of the fleet entrusted to him.
As the chief commander of the Kronstadt port, Admiral (since 1843) F.F. Bellingshausen took an exceptionally large part in the construction of new granite harbors, docks, granite forts, preparing the Baltic stronghold to repel an enemy invasion, just as he performed a similar task the former co-sailor Admiral M.P. Lazarev in the south - in Sevastopol. F. F. Bellingshausen diligently trained his fleet and, in order to improve the quality of artillery fire, developed and calculated special tables published under the title "On aiming artillery pieces at sea." As already noted, F. F. Bellingshausen was an excellent sailor and until the end of his days he skillfully taught his commanders in maneuvering and evolution. Contemporaries who participated in these evolutions gave him the certification of a “master of his craft”, and the Swedish Admiral Nordenskiöld, who was present at the naval maneuvers in 1846, exclaimed: “I bet with anyone that not a single fleet in Europe will make these evolutions.” To the honor of the old admiral, it must be said that he highly appreciated the courage and initiative of young commanders, and when (in 1833) during the autumn voyage at the mouth of the Gulf of Finland on a stormy autumn night, the commander of the frigate Pallada, the future illustrious naval commander P.S. Nakhimov raised the signal “the fleet is heading for danger” to his admiral, the latter unquestioningly changed the course of the wake column, thanks to which the squadron was saved from an accident on the rocks.
F. F. Bellingshausen was interested in geographical issues all his life, re-read all the descriptions of circumnavigations and transferred all new discoveries to his map. His name is listed among the first elected full members of the Russian Geographical Society.
When he was the chief commander in Kronstadt, he showed much concern for raising the cultural level of naval officers; in particular, he was the founder of one of the largest Russian libraries of that time - the Kronstadt Marine Library. His great practical experience owes much to the success of the Russian round-the-world expeditions of the period when he was in charge of their equipment in Kronstadt.
F.F. Bellingshausen was also engaged in ship architecture: during the overhaul of ships in Kronstadt, their contours were improved, and he himself was the author of the project for the large military schooner "Whirlwind", for which he himself made all the drawings and calculations.
F. F. Bellingshausen is characterized by his humanity in relation to the sailors and constant concern for him. In Kronstadt, he significantly improved the living conditions of the teams by building barracks, arranging hospitals, and planting greenery in the city; especially much was done by him to improve the nutrition of the sailors in the sense of increasing the meat ration and the extensive development of vegetable gardens to supply them with vegetables. After the death of the admiral, a note was found on his desk with the following content: “Kronstadt should be planted with such trees that would bloom before the fleet goes to sea, so that a particle of the summer woody smell gets to the sailor’s share.”
Faddey Faddeevich Bellingshausen died on January 25, 1852 in Kronstadt and was buried here. In 1870, a monument was erected in Kronstadt in memory of F. F. Bellingshausen. Subsequently, the following geographical objects were named after F. F. Bellingshausen: 1) the Bellingshausen Sea - in Antarctica, in the area of the islands of Peter I and Alexander I Land discovered by the Russian expedition, and 2) Bellingshausen Island - in the group of the South Sandwich Islands. Bellingshausen left a noticeable mark on the history of the Russian fleet and raised the world prestige of Russian navigators and Russian oceanographic and hydrographic science with his remarkable voyage to the shores of Antarctica.
Bibliography
- Shvede E. E. Faddey Faddeevich Bellingshausen / E. E. Shwede // People of Russian Science. Essays on outstanding figures of natural science and technology. Geology and geography. - Moscow: State publishing house of physical and mathematical literature, 1962. - S. 419-431.
Bellingshausen Faddey Faddeevich (Fabian Gottlieb) (1778-1852), Russian navigator.
Born on September 20, 1778 in the Pilguze family estate on the Baltic island of Ezel (now Saaremaa, Estonia). From childhood, Bellingshausen dreamed of becoming a sailor: “I was born in the middle of the sea; just as a fish cannot live without water, so I cannot live without the sea.”
In 1789 he entered the Naval Cadet Corps in Kronstadt. Upon graduation (1797), he sailed the Baltic for six years on the ships of the Revel squadron.
Bellingshausen's abilities were noticed by the commander of the Kronstadt port, who recommended him to I.F. Kruzenshtern, under whose leadership in 1803-1806. Bellingshausen made the first round-the-world voyage on the Nadezhda ship, compiling almost all the maps included in the Atlas for Captain Kruzenshtern's trip around the world.
When preparing a new round-the-world expedition, organized with the approval of Alexander I, Krusenstern already recommended Bellingshausen as its leader. The main task of the expedition was defined by the Maritime Ministry as purely scientific: "discovery in the possible vicinity of the Antarctic Pole" with the aim of "acquiring the most complete knowledge of the globe."
On July 16, 1819, the sloops Vostok under the command of Bellingshausen and Mirny under the command of MP Lazarev left Kronstadt, and on January 28, 1820 reached the coast of Antarctica. Bellingshausen led the ships to the east, trying at every opportunity to move further south, but not reaching 70 ° south latitude, he invariably met the "ice mainland". Three times during this Antarctic summer, Russian sailors crossed the Antarctic Circle. On February 11, when it turned out that the Vostok was leaking, Bellingshausen turned north with stops in Rio de Janeiro and Lisbon. August 5, 1821 arrived in Kronstadt. For 751 days of navigation, the expedition discovered 29 islands in the Pacific and Atlantic oceans and 1 coral reef, covered 92,000 km.
In 1826, Bellingshausen led a flotilla in the Mediterranean Sea, participated in the siege and capture of the fortress of Varna in the Russian-Turkish war of 1828-1829.
From 1839 until the end of his life (he died on January 25, 1852), Bellingshausen was the military governor of Kronstadt and did a lot to strengthen and improve it. In 1843, the navigator received the rank of admiral. A sea in the Pacific Ocean, a cape, an island, a basin, an ice shelf are named in his honor.
Biography
Thaddeus Bellingshausen was born on September 9, 1778 on the island of Ezel. In 1789 he entered the Naval Cadet Corps, located in Kronstadt. In 1795 he received his first naval rank, in connection with which he became a midshipman. In 1796 he traveled to the shores of England. In 1797 he became a midshipman.
In the period from 1803 to 1806, he took part in the first round-the-world voyage of Russian ships on the Nadezhda sloop under the command of Ivan Kruzenshtern. At the end of the voyage, become a lieutenant commander. In the period from 1826 to 1827 he commanded a detachment of ships in the Mediterranean Sea. In the period from 1828 to 1829 he took part in the Russian-Turkish war, where he was awarded the Order of St. Anna, I degree. In 1839 he became the chief commander of the Kronstadt port. In 1840 he was awarded the Order of St. Alexander Nevsky.
Remark 1
Named after him:
- Bellingshausen Sea in the Pacific Ocean;
- Cape located on Sakhalin;
- Glacier;
- Crater on the Moon;
- Bellingshausen scientific polar station in Antarctica.
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Discovery of Antarctica
Since ancient times, people believed that in the southern polar region there is a large land that no one had previously explored. There were a lot of legends about her. Most believed that she was rich in gold and diamonds.
One of the famous English navigators, James Cook, made a trip in 1775 in order to find this mainland, but nothing came of it due to weather conditions.
The main task of the expedition was to get an answer to the question of whether there really is a sixth continent called Antarctica. But no one could have imagined such stunning results in the form of the discovery of the sixth continent called Antarctica, as well as a large number of completely new and unexplored islands. This contribution is undoubtedly the main contribution of Russian sailors to the exploration of our planet.
During the journey, the expedition almost came close to the coastal cliffs of the ice continent. After that, during the Antarctic winter, the expedition set sail in the Pacific Ocean, where several new islands were discovered.
After that, the expedition returned to the polar latitudes. The expedition members were awarded orders and were also promoted in their ranks.
The expedition of Fadey Fadeevich Bellingshausen made one of the main significant geographical discoveries. For the entire time of their journey, the ships circled around the entire Antarctic continent. During this time, a large number of completely new islands were discovered and mapped. In addition, unique scientific and ethnographic collections were collected, which are kept by Kazan University to this day. In addition, unique sketches of the views of Antarctica and the animals that were there were made.
This discovery immediately became the main outstanding geographical discovery. But, despite this, for a large amount of time, many scientists continued to argue about what was actually discovered. Was it the mainland, or was it just some group of islands that was covered in a lot of ice.
It was possible to finally confirm the continental character of Antarctica only in the middle of the 20th century as a result of a large number of studies carried out using very complex technical means.
Remark 2
In honor of this expedition, under the leadership of Bellingshausen, Russian stations located in Antarctica began to bear such names as "Vostok" and "Mirny".
Admiral Faddey Faddeevich Bellingshausen was born on the island of Ezel (now Saaremaa, Estonia) on September 9 (20), 1778. Descended from the Baltic German nobles.
His first acquaintance with Kronstadt was associated with his studies at the Naval Cadet Corps in 1789-1897, and later with his service as an officer in the Baltic Fleet. In 1803, he left Kronstadt as part of the first Russian round-the-world expedition of Ivan Fedorovich Krusenstern, and in 1819 he himself led the expedition on the ships Vostok and Mirny, which resulted in the discovery of Antarctica.
In 1839, fate will finally connect the admiral with Kronstadt - he will take the post of military governor and chief commander of the Kronstadt port. In the house number 2 on Knyazheskaya Street (now - Communist), - now this house is called the "Marinesko House", - there was an official apartment of the military governor Feddey Faddeevich Bellingshausen.
Made Kronstadt green
At the beginning of the activities of Thaddeus Faddeevich Bellingshausen as governor, Kronstadt was an unsettled city in terms of everyday life and culture. The only city gardens were Romanovsky (now the Metallist Garden), Engineering (on the corner of Vosstaniya and Zosimova streets), and the Public Garden on the site of the modern Summer Garden, with residential buildings adjoining it from the era of Peter I.
It is known that Faddey Faddeevich was a great lover of gardening, a successor to the ideas of his predecessor, Admiral P. M. Rozhnov, in planting greenery in the city. This enthusiasm of his transformed the city: the first trees were planted by the admiral on Aleksandrovsky Boulevard (Zosimova Street), in the Engineering Garden and on the first alley near the lattice of Petrovsky Park; parks were laid out on Bolshaya Ekaterininskaya (now Sovetskaya Street), Northern Boulevard (now Vosstaniya Street), and the Summer Garden was expanded.
Since the military governor himself supervised the state of gardens and parks, many trees were preserved in our city for a long time. And it should be noted that many of the subsequent military governors of the city were very zealous about the landscaping of Kronstadt. As a result, in 1875, a branch of the Imperial Horticultural Society was even established in the city. Later, the military governor, Vice-Admiral N. I. Kaznakov, was a great lover of gardening, who instilled in the townspeople a love for plants and nature in general.
Not only planted
but also built
Even before his appointment as military governor, Bellingshausen, together with Lieutenant Commander I.N. Skrydlov, founded a library in 1832 with private donations and became its first director, and the books collected by the admiral became the basis of the first library fund.
At the same time, acting as military governor and chief commander of the Kronstadt port, Bellingshausen was chairman of the "Committee for the Arrangement of the City", which was actually engaged in the improvement of Kronstadt and the territory of Kotlin Island. Under his supervision, new forts, docks, harbors were built and old ones were rebuilt; plans were considered for the construction of new residential buildings, the city administration building, the Steamboat Plant, the expansion of the Lutheran cemetery and other projects. At the insistence of Bellingshausen, hospitals were set up on ships, food for sailors was improved.
Found
worthy wife
Lutheran by religion, he was an honorary parishioner of the Church of St. Elizabeth in Kronstadt. Interestingly, his family was multi-confessional. Faddey Faddeevich's wife, Anna Dmitrievna (nee Baikova, born March 6, 1808) was Orthodox. Anna Dmitrievna came from the family of Second Major Dmitry Fedoseevich Baikov, commander of a sapper battalion who served in our city and built the buildings of the Military Department in St. Petersburg and Kronstadt. Bellingshausen first met the family of his future wife when he was preparing a trip to the South Pole, and the wedding of 18-year-old Anna Baikova and 48-year-old Faddey Bellingshausen took place in Kronstadt after the trip - in 1826.
Of the seven children of Anna Fedoseevna and Faddey Faddeevich, two sons and a daughter died in infancy; Elizaveta, Ekaterina, Maria and Elena remained in the upbringing. Anna Dmitrievna not only raised her daughters, but also actively engaged in social and charitable activities: for many years she was a trustee of the Kronstadt parochial school, organized a canteen for the children of the fallen naval lower ranks, and organized charity evenings. For her labors, she was granted the “lesser cross of the Order of St. Catherine”, on the reverse side of which was engraved in Latin: “By labors she is compared with her husband.” After the death of her husband, Anna Dmitrievna left for the Pskov province, to her small estate. She died on December 16, 1892 and was buried in the churchyard of Gorki in the Novosokolnichesky district of the Pskov region. The grave of Anna Dmitrievna has been preserved and, thanks to the activities of the local history museum of the city of Novosokolniki, is kept in proper form.
Descendants remember
The death of Admiral Bellingshausen in 1852 mourned the whole of Kronstadt and the Fleet. "Marine Collection" published an obituary.
His grave was located at the Lutheran (German) cemetery in Kronstadt, but, unfortunately, was lost. Already in our time, a cenotaph was installed at the site of the alleged burial.
On September 11, 1870, a monument was unveiled in the Catherine (Soviet) Park with the inscription “To our polar navigator Faddey Faddeevich Bellingshausen. 1870". At the opening of the monument, a solemn ceremony took place with the consecration and marching of the Kronstadt sailors and units of the Kronstadt artillery. Subsequently, the opening ceremony of the monument to Thaddey Faddeevich Bellingshausen formed the basis for the grand opening of two other monuments: to Pyotr Kuzmich Pakhtusov in Kronstadt and to Ivan Fedorovich Kruzenshtern in St. Petersburg.
13 geographical points are named after Bellingshausen on the world map, including a mountain in Antarctica, a cape on Sakhalin, islands, a sea and a basin in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Antarctica. For a long time, the USSR Navy included the expeditionary oceanographic vessel "Thaddeus Bellingshausen", which in 1983 repeated, together with the vessel "Admiral Vladimirsky", well known to the Kronstadters, the route of the Bellingshausen and Lazarev expedition of 1819-1821. The name of Faddey Faddeevich Bellingshausen is now especially honored in the Children's Maritime Center "Young Sailor". Every year in September, in the Soviet park near the monument to Bellingshausen, a holiday of initiation into the cabin boy is held.
So in our city they try to keep the connection of times.
Svetlana Kislyakova,
Museum of the History of Kronstadt
Faddey Faddeevich Bellingshausen - Russian navigator and traveler of German origin. His surname is known even to the most inattentive graduates of Russian schools, and the title of the discoverer of Antarctica forever inscribed Bellingshausen in the history of world geographical discoveries.
Childhood and youth
Thaddeus Bellingshausen was born on September 9 (20 - according to the new style) September 1778. The real name of the great navigator is Fabian Gottlieb Thaddeus von Bellingshausen, and he was born on the Estonian island of Ezel, which today is called Saaremaa. The father belonged to the aristocratic family of the Baltic Germans Bellingshausen and raised the boy without a wife - Fabian's mother died during childbirth. Childhood spent in a place surrounded on all sides by the sea left its mark - Bellingshausen dreamed of serving in the navy, even as a child.
When Fabian was 10 years old, his father died, and in 1789 the boy was sent to study at the Naval Cadet Corps in Kronstadt, where he was "Russified" to Faddey Faddeevich. Studying was given to the boy without difficulty, and already in 1795 Bellingshausen became a midshipman. A year after that, the young man went on his first voyage in his biography - to England. When his studies came to an end, Thaddeus was promoted to midshipman, and in 1979 Bellingshausen was sent to serve in the Reval squadron, under the sails of whose ships the sailor sailed until 1803.
Several times the young man had to work under the command of Vice-Admiral Pyotr Khanykov, and Thaddeus obviously made a favorable impression on him. In any case, when in 1803 Ivan Kruzenshtern began recruiting a team for the first circumnavigation in Russian history, Khanykov recommended that the traveler take Bellingshausen with him.
Ivan Fedorovich appreciated the sailor's abilities: describing the journey, he especially noted how skillfully Bellingshausen sketched maps and mentioned not only his officer skills, but also the talents of a hydrograph. When the circumnavigation of the world came to an end in 1806, Faddey Faddeevich set foot on the ground as a lieutenant commander, after which he was appointed to command a frigate of the Baltic Fleet. Later he participated in hostilities: in the Russian-Swedish war he was the commander of the frigate "Melpomene" and for half a year in the Gulf of Finland followed the enemy fleet.
In 1811, Faddey Faddeevich was assigned to command a rowing flotilla in Riga, and a year later he was transferred to manage the Minerva frigate in the Black Sea, during his service on which he received a new rank - he became a captain of the II rank. Bellingshausen accompanied his Black Sea campaigns with careful cartographic work and corrected many of the mistakes of his predecessors. However, he did not have time to complete the work - in 1819 the man was urgently summoned to the capital.
Sea expeditions
It turned out that a group of Russian sailors put forward an initiative to assemble an expedition to discover the southern mainland, and approved this idea. The objectives of the upcoming voyage were the discovery of the Antarctic Pole and the acquisition of additional "knowledge about our globe." Two sloops were prepared for the expedition - "Vostok" and "Mirny", and the second was a rebuilt ice drift, which previously bore the name "Ladoga".
The commander of Mirny was engaged in all the preparation work. Bellingshausen himself was finally approved as the commander of the Vostok only a month before departure. The sloops went to sea from the port in Kronstadt in the middle of the summer of 1819. By November, the ships reached Rio de Janeiro, then - the island of South Georgia, where Bellingshausen discovered the Traverse archipelago. On January 3, 1820, they approached the South Thule group of islands, where they encountered a huge number of icebergs.
After two weeks of sailing southward, the sailors discovered that fields of ice were everywhere the human eye could reach. By March 1820, the ships separated and headed for Australia through the Indian and Southern Oceans, and no one had gone deep into the latter before. After Australia, the ships explored the Pacific Ocean, made discoveries of a number of islands and atolls, and then returned to the port of Jackon, the future Sydney.
In July, the expedition approached the Tuamotu archipelago, where they discovered several previously unknown atolls. After the ships headed for Tahiti, to the north of which new islands were discovered. In November 1820, when spring began in Antarctica, Faddey Faddeevich again headed for the South Pole. At the beginning of winter, the ships got into a terrible storm and after that 3 more times, having overcome the Arctic Circle, they made unsuccessful attempts to approach the icy continent.
On January 10, 1821, the expedition noticed clear signs of land, but the ice floes made it impossible to lay a route to it. Having tried their luck for some time, the sloops nevertheless turned east and moved towards the Shetland Islands, which had been discovered shortly before. It was impossible to continue the expedition further - the Vostok was badly damaged and required major repairs, and Bellingshausen gave the order to return to Russia. On July 24 (old style), 1821, the ships returned to the port of Kronstadt after 751 days of sailing.
The significance of the expedition can hardly be overestimated - in the 18th century he was the first to reach the seas near the South Pole and reported that the local ice was completely impassable. Bellingshausen refuted this statement 45 years later, having crossed the Antarctic Circle three times, and on ships that were completely unprepared for such climatic conditions.
Thanks to the expedition, Coral Shoal and 29 islands were discovered. Also, the participants of the voyage collected extensive ethnographic collections and made detailed sketches of Antarctica and its wildlife. Faddey Faddeevich himself considered the expedition as a call of duty, which additionally turned out to be useful for science.
After the Antarctic expedition, Bellingshausen raised a new question: the man was interested in whether sea vessels could pass into the Amur. However, a fiasco awaited the test - the navigator failed to find a fairway in the Amur Estuary. In addition, the weather made it difficult to refute Jean La Perouse's belief that Sakhalin is a peninsula.
Faddey Faddeevich Bellingshausen, after completing the voyage to Antarctica, was promoted to the rank of captain of the 1st rank, then became captain-commander. In 1826, the navigator rose to the rank of rear admiral and participated in the Turkish campaign of 1828-1829 in this rank, distinguishing himself in the capture of Messevria and Inada. In 1843, Bellingshausen became an admiral, and the man finished his service in the Russian fleet already with the rank of general, who was with the person of His Majesty.
Personal life
In preparation for the expedition to Antarctica, Faddey Faddeevich met his future wife, Anna Dmitrievna Baikova, but they got married only after the return of Bellingshausen, in 1826. The man connected his personal life with a very young girl - Baikova was 30 years younger than the navigator.
In marriage, 7 children were born, of which only 4 daughters survived, and another girl and 2 sons died in infancy. Anna, despite the fact that her husband was of the Lutheran faith, remained Orthodox. The woman devoted a lot of time to charity and social activities: she helped the parochial school, was the organizer of charity evenings.
The work of the woman was highly appreciated by the authorities: Anna was awarded the "Minor Cross of the Order of St. Catherine", on the reverse side of which was engraved an inscription in Latin, which reads "Work is compared with her husband."
In 1839, Bellingshausen's life became finally connected with Kronstadt: the man was appointed military governor of the city and chief commander of the port. Having accepted the city in desolation, Faddey Faddeevich put a lot of effort into its arrangement: thanks to Bellingshausen, gardens were planted in Kronstadt and a library was built.
Death
Faddey Faddeevich Bellingshausen died on January 13, 1852, and his death caused genuine grief for the Kronstadters and the Navy. An obituary dedicated to the navigator was published in the Marine Collection.
The cause of Bellingshausen's death did not reach the descendants, as well as the exact location of his grave - it is only known that Faddey Faddeevich was buried at the Kronstadt Lutheran cemetery, where the cenotaph is now installed.
On September 11, 1870, at a solemn ceremony, a monument was erected to the great navigator in the Catherine Park of Kronstadt. Subsequently, not only geographical objects were named after Bellingshausen, but also - an interesting fact - a lunar crater. Portraits depicting the discoverer of Antarctica are placed on Russian and Hungarian stamps.
Awards
- Imperial Military Order of the Holy Great Martyr and Victorious George
- Imperial Order of Equal-to-the-Apostles Prince Vladimir
- Imperial Order of the Holy Blessed Prince Alexander Nevsky
- Order of the White Eagle
- Imperial Order of Saint Anna
- Most Honorary Order of the Bath
- Military Order of Saint Louis
