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

generally done to shake the air, whereupon the waterspout falls apart. Meanwhile, we removed all the upper sails, because such kinds of phenomena, often ending with most terrible gusts of wind, can break all the masts of a careless navigator. Our attempt to produce a vibration of the air was crowned with the desired sucess, and in a quarter of an hour, the waterspout fell apart with a terrible noise, the black cloud plunged into the ocean, and the sky remained as before, clear and cloudless.

Our fears about a squall were unjustified; a light SE breeze started blowing and we continued our trip slowly to the NE. We hoped that this wind would finally take on real strength of a trade wind, but this reasoning did not materialize. The wind died down completely again toward dawn of the next day, and the calm continued until the 8th. The heat was even less tolerable than before. During the day, the thermometer stood at 30, 31 degrees, and at night went down no more than two or three. At this place observations were made concerning the temperature of water at different depths, and it proved that at the depth of 100 sazhens it decreased only from five to six degrees, and at a few feet from the surface, only by one half or one degree. This--the walls of the ship heated by the sun and the part underwater by water--made the air inside the vessel so stifling and heavy that it was absolutely impossible to remain below for long, and only under

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the stretched-out awning did we feel some sort of relief. The heat was so intense that the tar with which the seams were filled was boiling, and if precautions had not been taken, if we had not spread the decks and covered the sides with tarpaulins, which were constantly watered, the sloop would undoubtedly have sprung a leak in its above-water parts. During these days, a great number of bonito and sharks appeared near the ship, and we did not miss the opportunity of catching them with fishing rods, using a piece of cod as bait for the former, and corned beef for the latter. The bonito is a fish of extreme beauty. Its scales shine with all the colors of the rainbow while it is alive or in the water. Dead, it loses all its luster, and becomes a muddy gray. Its length is rarely more than one arshin [28 inches]. It is the worst enemy of the flying fish. Of the sharks that we caught, one was remarkable for its length, more than nine feet. Its meat does not taste bad; boiled, it falls apart into rather small pellets. The crew ate it willingly, having become tired eating salted fish. Frigate birds and phaethons soared in the air.

On April 8, the sailor who was at the topsail announced that on the horizon toward the NNE was seen a three-masted ship. The wind was very weak. On the sighted vessel were only topsails; however, we carried all possible sail, but at that, the body of the vessel came into view only toward evening, and by its build and rigging, we took to be the "Discovery."

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When it became completely dark, the Captain ordered us to light the false fire and the lanterns on the bowsprit and foretop. The vessel immediately responded with the same, and by this we were convinced of the correctness of our supposition. But the calms continued until the 11th, and we could not come nearer to each other. On the night of the 12th, a light breeze sprang up from the E and toward morning we approached the sighted vessel, which indeed was the "Discovery." We did not delay going to it in a tender, and we learned that they had suffered even more than we from calm and lack of wind.

Having wasted so much time, we could not hope to arrive at Kotzebue Sound on time by keeping our former course toward California. For this reason, Captain Vasilev ordered that we remain with him for the time being, and afterward to proceed directly to Unalashka, where, taking on Aleuts with Baidars [umiaks] to hurry to Bering Strait and await his arrival in the Sound.

In compliance with these instructions, we followed the "Discovery." This ship kept, as far as possible, toward the north, but frequent calms, interrupted from time to time by terrible squalls as before, delayed us and slowed our sailing to such an extent that only by the 17th did we reach eight degrees of south latitude.

On that day, we were ahead of the "Discovery," moving slowly before a SE wind on the mentioned course, when suddenly

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from the fore crosstree was announced that directly in front of us was seen a coast. We did not want to believe this because the longitude, which was determined with a clear horizon according to lunar distances similar to dead reckoning, did not allow for the supposition of inexactnesses in calculation, and the maps did not show any islands here. Therefore, we decided that the shore was one of the common phenomena so often deceiving to sailors, which occurs because of refraction during condensation of the atmosphere at the horizon. However, we soon saw in front of us a group of low coral islands, the greater part of which was covered with forest, above which coconut palms majestically raised their crowned tops. The latitude of this group was 8⁰ 4' S and the longitude 178⁰ 24' E. [north of the Fiji Islands]. Taking this as a new discovery, we notified Captain Vasilev by telegraph about it, who, concurring in this opinion, named them "Islands of Good Intent" after our sloop from which they were sighted for the first time.

About midday, we approached the southern end of the group. It consisted of four large and 12 small coral islands, connected to each other by the same kind of underwater reef, clearly indicated by the yellowish color of water and surf. By their mutual positions they formed a spherical triangle and the concave western arc had, in the middle, a passage into the interior, about the width of one and one-half cables 'length [900. feet]. We did not investigate the character of the ground and depth in either the passage or the lagoon because of lack of time.

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We especially decided not to do so since this information would be of no substantial use to navigators because these coral islands, as was already said, have always a deficiency of a main requirement, that is, fresh water. Besides, they lie too much out of the way of the customary routes of these seas. But for all that, their discovery and correct position on the map are very important. It is well known that this kind of island does not rise very high above the surface of the ocean, and even with a most clear horizon, does not appear to the sight before a distance of from ten to 15 miles. During murky weather or dark tropical nights, there is nothing easier than to run into them and be exposed to almost certain destruction. A large number of similar islands are still not discovered because they grow up from the bottom of the ocean, and reaching the surface, increase in breadth. For this reason, all seamen approaching these latitudes in the Pacific Ocean generally lay at anchor for the night, or proceed under least sail [fully reefed?], but even with this precaution, the danger diminishes little because the constant surge of the ocean always breaks a vessel running aground on a coral reef.

Coming closer, we observed that only four islands of the whole group were grown over with forest, three or four were covered with vegetation, and the rest, with yellow sand and shells. There were no settlements on the shore, but smoke rose from many places in the forest thicket, from which we