| Contents Notes |
Sonntagskind: a Sunday's child, 1709-1734 -- Russia's great explorations: the first and second Kamchatka expeditions, 1725-1730 and 1731-1743 -- On to Russia: Stoller becomes Steller, St. Petersburg, 1734 -- Steller's journey begins, Siberia 1738-1739 -- Barguzinian Mountains, 1739-1740 -- Provisioning the expedition, March 1733-June 1734 -- Captain Martin Spangberg: Okhotsk, the Kuril Islands, and Japan, 1734-1741 -- Volcanic wilderness of Kamchatka, 1740-1741 -- Avacha Bay: Steller signs on the St. Peter, 1741 -- They set sail for America, June 1741 -- Return voyage: kayaks and death, July-September 1741 -- Devastating voyage: scurvy and williwaws, September-November 1741 -- Kamchatka or a Barren Island, November-December 1741 -- Bering Island, December 1741-May 1742-- Sea eagles and sea cows: the natural history of Bering Island, May-August 1742 -- Safe return to Kamchatka, August 1742-July 1744 -- Steller on trial, August 1744-November 1746. On June 4, 1741, Georg Wilhelm Steller set sail from Avacha Bay in Siberia on the St. Peter, under the command of Vitus Bering. The crew was bound for America on the last leg of an expedition whose mission was to explore, describe, and map Russia's vast lands from the Ural Mountains across Siberia to the Kamchatka Peninsula, and possibly lay claim to the northwest coast of America, if they could find it, for no European had ever reached America by this route. Officially, Steller was the ships mineralogist, but in practice he was its doctor, minister, and naturalist as well. Appointed to the expedition in 1737 by the Academy of Science in St. Petersburg, he was sworn to secrecy concerning any discoveries. Making judicious use of Stellers richly detailed journals and liberal use of illustrations and maps, Ann Arnold allows the reader to join Steller on this fascinating voyage and its final dangerous mission, which left half the crew dead and the rest suffering from scurvy. |
