Journey of the sloop Good Intent to explore the Asiatic and American shores of Bering Strait, 1819 to 1822. Part one

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and after that, we weighed anchor, with a weak NW, taking a direction S along the American shore.

Turning southward

In Kronstadt, our sloop was loaded with pre–cut parts of a seagoing shallow draft single-masted vessel or boat, indispensable for exploration and survey of the shores of America from Cape Prince of Wales to the Aliaksa [Alaska] Peninsula. The intention was to assemble and build it in Kamchatka or in Sitka so that it would be ready for navigation in 1821. Having only eight ship's carpenters, it was necessary to begin building in good time so that it would be ready on the scheduled time. Due to the condition of the ice, extending, as we mentioned before, to an infinite space northward, we could not hope, without a big waste of time, to penetrate farther to the pole. We took our present direction to the south.

Henceforth, although we did not have such frequent and thick fog as before, it was supplanted by snowstorms from the N and the NW from which we suffered cruelly, especially when they were accompanied by freezing. Moreover, scurvy began to appear among the sailors from wetness, cold, infrequent calms, and sailing near shores and ice where we were often forced to fight storms. This sickness, once it gets the upper hand on some vessel, is most terrifying. Its symptoms are so varied that sometimes one does not imagine that it is scurvy. It is even more dangerous when immediate aid is not given, and is always fatal. No matter how well our crew was equipped with coats

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and underclothing, constant bad weather and the impossibility of drying out thoroughly what was soaked produced the seeds of this illness. Besides, the salted food with which the crew had to be satisfied for almost five months, contributed to its development. From England had been taken prepared fresh meat in tin cans, to which we owe that the sickness did not further increase, and did not carry off any of us during that summer. Above all, we tried through all means to protect the crew. Exercise is one of the best measures against scurvy, and they had it. To keep up their strength we gave the men tea in the morning; a glass of madeira or port wine after dinner; punch in the evening in cold and damp weather; and in addition, brewed spruce beer or beer from spruce buds. But all these means really could not protect us for long if we had remained in these regions, and that is why we were most happy when we learned our new course.

On August 2, at six in the morning, when the fog lifted and the snow stopped, having fallen the whole night in large flakes, we neared the shore, and coming as close to it as possible, took a course along it and started surveying. The weather was clear, the wind N, rather brisk, and we, with its help, succeeded in surveying 90 miles that day. Within the surveyed range was also the already–mentioned long sandspit, the end of which Captain Valilev called Cape Golovin [Golovnin] ¹¹ after the name of our famous traveler who had the misfortune to be imprisoned by the Japanese. Toward evening, the wind

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started to increase and we had to delay our intention to continue surveying the next day and moved away from shore. Coming to an open place, we sailed close–hauled and stood under least sail. During the night, the wind increased to such an extent that we were forced to reef all topsails. It continued until the evening of the 3rd, then slackened, but the fog and gloomy weather started again, so that we could not continue our survey. Therefore, following the moves of the "Discovery," we bore away to Cape Oriental, or East Cape, of Asia. We did not sail long with a favorable wind. It shifted to the SW and almost turned into a storm, delaying us, and we reached the mentioned cape only on the ninth. It appeared to us at dawn of that day in all the majesty of its wild nature. High rocks rise vertically, and the ocean waves breaking against them produced a thundering noise heard 20 or more miles on the wind. Here and there in the [valleys] and on the slopes we noticed the summer yurts of the coastal Chukchi, settled there to catch sea birds nesting in the rocky gorges, seals, and fish.

We rounded East Cape the same day and took a course to St. Lawrence Bay, lying almost on the same parallel of the island by the same name. The intention of our captains was to enter it to buy deer from the Chukchi to supply the crew with fresh food, necessary to prevent scurvy, especially as going from here to Unalashka or to Sitka we probably could not obtain anything of this kind, and would have to wait until our arrival in California where we intended to go from [Sitka] .

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At about nine o'clock, we reached the entrance of the bay, but finding it clogged with ice could not enter. Hoping that during the night the ice would be carried out with the current, we lay to until morning, but we were deceived; the ice remained as before, and we were obliged to go on because of lack of time.

A course taken toward the west end of St. Lawrence Island brought us in sight of this island on the 11th. On that day Captain Vasilev, ordered our captain by telegraph to continue surveying the island and to join him later at Unalashka. The sloop "Discovery" departed for exploration of the American shore between Norton Sound and Bristol Bay. Following that direction, it soon disappeared from our sight. Because it was too late that day to start surveying, we tacked and withdrew farther from the shore for the night where we hove to under least sail.

The night was very dark. We lay close-hauled on a port tack having only the reefed topsails, foresails, staysails, and mizzens. According to our calculations we were more to the north, almost opposite the middle of the strait between the island and the continent of Asia; therefore, a tack to starboard was proposed only at midnight. At about 11 o'clock the boatswain on watch came from the forecastle to report that from leeward the sound of breakers was heard. The lieutenant on duty, knowing that we were more than 30 miles from both shores at eight o'clock, and having no more than three knots speed--in three hours we made only nine miles--did not want

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to believe it, but finally the breakers were also heard on the quarterdeck. Through the darkness of the night came to sight a dark high mass with luminous stripes, that is, snow lying in the ravines. We immediately came about on the opposite tack, and thereby escaped this danger. While tacking, we cast the lead almost at shore, but did not reach bottom at 200 sazhens [1400 feet].¹² From this, it is obvious how great was the danger to which we were exposed, because if the sloop under such shortened sail had not tacked, it would have been impossible to rely on the anchor, and we would not have avoided crashing on the rocks. One may ask why we were so close to the island? Our calculation was correct, but we were carried by the current flowing from Bering Strait. I have already mentioned about the current that exists in the Arctic Ocean itself, constantly flowing from the NE. From where came this mass of water constantly flowing from one direction? We could only certainly think that the shore of America does not extend farther than the pole, and has a broad passage through which the waters of the Arctic and Atlantic oceans flow into the Pacific. Thus, one had only to find this passage. That it exists, we did not doubt. But it was not fated to us to achieve this feat as we met an insurmountable obstacle in the stationary ice as will be seen from the continuing description of this voyage.

The next day, with a favorable wind from the NNW, we began to survey the northern shore of the island from its