Senyavin (Fedor Petrovich Litke)

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Senyavin (Fedor Petrovich Litke)

Post by shipstamps » Tue Sep 16, 2008 5:31 pm


Litke, Fedor Petrovich.
In the early 1820s, relations between Russia and the United States were strained over the extent of Czarist holdings in North America. Russia planned to send 2 warships to patrol its claims, but agreement on 54°40N as the southern limit of its American territory in 1824 obviated the need for such a military presence, and the ships were ordered to explore the coasts of Russia America and Asia. On August 16th SENYAVIN (under Captain Lieutenant Fedor Petrovich Litke) sailed. His orders were to reconnoiter and describe, the coast of Kamchatka and adjacent coast and Islands.
During the winter they were to cruise the western Caroline Islands as far south as the equator.
Rounding Cape Horn on February 24th 1827, SENYAVIN called at Conception, Chile, in March before proceeding to Novo Arkhangelsk (Sifika) where :the Russians remained from June 11th to July 19th. After calling at Unalaska they arrived at Petropavlovsk, Kamchatka, in mid-September. From November 1827 through April 1828, they cruised in the Caroline Islands.
The ships left Petropavlovsk for the last time in October and rejoined Willer at Manila on January 1st 1830, before sailing for Europe via the Cape of Good Hope. SENYAVIN returned to Kronstadt on September 16th 1829.
Litke's voyage in SENYAVIN was among the most productive voyages of discovery sent out by any country in the nineteenth century. In addition to the survey work on the Asian coast, the expedition discovered twelve island groups and described another twenty-six in the Carolines. Experiments with an invariable pendulum enabled the company to determine the degree to which the earth flattens at the poles. Naturalist Karl Heinrich Mertens, ornithologist Baron von Kittlitz, and mineralogist Alexander Postels described over 1,000 new species of insects, fish, birds, and other animals, and more than 2,500 different types of plants, algae, and rocks, Shortly after the conclusion of the voyage, SENYAVIN was dispatched on a second scientific expedition to Iceland, again under Litke.
St Helena SG496 Log Book Feb 2005

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