Senyavin

[shipstamps]

ON January 27, 1947, the Soviet Post Office issued two stamps to commemorate the centenary of the Russian Geographical Society. This was a rather belated issue, for the society was actually founded in St Petersburg in 1845 by Admiral Fyedor Petrovich Litke. whose portrait appears on the stamps with the vessel in which he achieved fame, the Senyavin.
Litke joined the Russian Navy in 1813 as a deckboy, but was soon promoted cadet and then midshipman for his bravery and resourcefulness in actions against the French off Danzig and Weichselmunde. Four years later he was assigned to the corvette Kamchatka, in which he circumnavigated the globe under Comdr. V. M. Golovnin In 1826 he was appointed captain of the Senyavin, which made a voyage round the world for the hydrographic and scientific exploration of the then little-known Pacific Ocean.
The Senyavin was built at the Okhtenskaya wharf in St. Petersburg and was launched in May, 1826. She was a three-masted sloop, 90 ft. long, and carried a crew of 62 officers and men on her world cruise, sailing from Kronstadt on August 20, 1826, for Copenhagen. Shortly after passing Tolbukhin lighthouse Litke called his officers to his cabin. He told them that the practice of striking the men and corporal punishment by flogging would be dispensed with and the men would be treated as merchant seamen, although they were naval personnel. After a week's stay at Copenhagen the Sen yavin sailed for Portsmouth, where the astronomical and physical instruments necessary to the expedition were to be forwarded from London.
Chains and anchors were bought in Portsmouth, where the ship stayed a month, during which time Litke was carrying out experiments at Greenwich Observatory. While in London he made friends with leading scientists and geographical experts, and the Russian Geographical Society was founded on the pattern of the London society.
By October 22 all work had been completed and the Senyavin put to sea on a voyage which lasted three years and five days, during which the Caroline Islands and the Senyayin Strait in the Bering Sea were discovered and charted, as was also the inhabited island of Ponape, while the position of the Pribylov, Fox and other islands in the Aleutian archipelago were determined.
The Senyavin arrived back in Kronstadt roadstead on August 25, 1829, after circumnavigating the globe, her route having been via Cape Horn, the West coast of South and 'North America, the Bering Sea, Sea of Japan. China Sea, Sunda Straits, Indian Ocean and the Cape of Good Hope. As a result of the voyage her captain's name is perpetuated by an island in the Arctic Ocean, a cape on the south-western shore of the Sea of Okhotsk, a cape on the north-western shore of the Gulf of Amur and the strait between Karaginsky Island and Kamchatka.
For the last 18 years of his life Litke was president of the Russian Academy of sciences and was a member of the Geographical Societies of London and Antwerp and of the Paris Academy of Sciences. He died on October 8, 1882.
Sea Breezes 6/48

Russia SG1237-8, Micronesia SG14a, 15s, St Helena SG496.

[aukepalmhof]

Built as a sloop at the Okhta yard in St Petersburg for the Imperial Russian Navy.
23 September 1825 laid down.
14 May 1826 launched as the SENYAVIN or SENIAVIN, bearing one of the Russian navy’s most illustrious names.
Dim. 90 x 29.6 x 9.4ft.
Armament?

She was one of the Moller class of which two were built.
20 August 1826 the SENYAVIN together with the MOLLER left Kronshadt for her expedition voyage.
She arrived back in Kronshtadt on 25 August 1829, two days behind her sister the MOLLER.

She was a fire watch ship from 1830 till 1832 at Revel.
From 1833 till 1834 used as a cargo vessel in the Baltic.
1835 Was the SENYAVIN a stationary fire watch ship at Kronhstadt.
1844 Broken up.

Russia 1994 250r sg 6505, scott 6238
Micronesia 1984 36c sg15a, scott?

Source: Russian Warships in the Age of Sail 1696 – 1860 by John Tredrea and Eduard Sozaev