Alexei Ilich Chirikov (1703-1748)

Russian naval captain, associated with the Great Northern Expeditions of Vitus Bering), which from 1733 surveyed much of Russia and Siberia. He had previously sailed with Bering in the ship St. Gabriel, which in 1728 had reached the Bering Strait.

In the spring of 1733 he set out with Bering from St. Petersburg, reached Yakutsk in 1735, and Okhotsk shortly after. In 1740 he commanded the ship St. Paul, which had been built at Okhotsk along with Bering's ship the St. Peter. After first sailing to Petropavlovsk in Kamchatka, the two ships left the peninsula on 4 June, 1741. Chirikov, however, became separated from the St. Peter in gales in about 178°E, to the south of the Aleutian Islands. The ships never met up again, but Chirikov continued sailing east and northeast, reaching the coast of Alaska to the south of Baranof Island (15 July 1741). Two boat crews were sent ashore but neither returned, the loss of the ship's boats then making further landings impossible. While coasting Baranoff Island he named Mount St. Lazaria (now Mount Edgecumbe), then sailed west, passing Cape St. Ermogen (on the Kenai Peninsula). Sailing south then west he reached Unalaska Island, Adak Island and the Near Islands. By this time his crew were dying from scurvy and thirst, but he managed to reach Petropavlovsk on 11 October 1741 with a few survivors. Chirikov's health had been ruined by the voyage, and he died a few years later.

Other Internet resources:

Report from Chirikov to the Admiralty Board, August 13, 1744 (in Russian)
Leonid Sverdlov: Russian Naval Officers and Geographic Exploration in Northern Russia (18th to 20th Centuries)

Sources and bibliography:

Andreyev, Aleksandr I.: Russkiye otkritya v tikhom okeane I severnoy Amerike v XVIII-XIX vekakh (Moscow & Leningrad 1944; trans. by Carl Ginsburg: Russian discoveries in the Pacific and North America in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries (Ann Arbor 1952)).
Bancroft, Hubert H.: History of Alaska 1730-1885 (San Francisco 1886; New York 1959).
Barratt, G.V.: Russia in Pacific waters 1715-1825 (Vancouver 1981).
Berkh, Vasiliy N.: Khronologicheskaya istoriya vsekh puteshestviy v severnyya polyarnyya strany,... (St. Petersburg 1821-23; English trans. by Dmitri Krenov & Richard A. Pierce as: Chronological history of the discovery of the Aleutian Islands... (Kingston, Ont. 1974).
Chevigny, H.: Russian America: the great Alaskan adventure 1741-1867 (New York 1965).
Coxe, William: An account of the Russian discoveries between Asia and America, to which are added, the conquest of Siberia and history of the transactions and commerce between Russia and China (London 1780).
Coxe, William: Comparative view of the Russian voyages, with those made by Captain Cook and Captain Clerke... (London 1787).
Divin, V.A.: The great Russian navigator, A.I. Chirikov (trans. by R.H. Fisher, Fairbanks 1993).
Fedorova, Svetlana G.: The Russian population in Alaska and California: late 18th century - 1867 (trans. by R.A. Pierce & A.S. Donnelly, Kingston, Ont. 1973).
Frost, O.W. (ed.): Bering and Chirikov. The American voyages and their impact (Anchorage 1992).
Gibson, J.R.: Feeding the Russian fur trade: provisionment of the Okhotsk seaboard and the Kamchatka peninsula 1639-1856 (Madison 1969).
Gibson, J.R.: Imperial Russia in frontier America (New York 1976).
Golder, F.A.: Russian expansion in the Pacific, 1641-1850 (New York 1914).
Golder, Frank A. (ed.): Bering's voyages [vol. I] / An account of the efforts of the Russians to determine the relation of Asia and America [vol. II] (New York 1922-25, 2 vols).
Lincoln, W. Bruce: The conquest of a continent. Siberia and the Russians (London 1994).
Makarova, Raisa V.: Russkiye na tikhom okeane vo vtoroy polovine XVIII v. (Moscow 1968; trans. by R.A. Pierce and A.S. Donelly: Russians on the Pacific, 1743-1799 (Kingston, Ontario 1975)).
Muller, Samuel: Voyages from Asia to America, to complete the discoveries of the north-west coast of America... (London 1761).
Pierce, R.A.: Eastward to empire: exploration and conquest on the Russian open frontier to 1750 (Montreal 1973).
Stahlin, Jacob von: Von den Russen, in den Jahren 1765, 1766 und 1767 entdecktes nordisches Inselmeer, zwischen Kamtschatka und Nord-amerika (Stuttgart 1774).
Stahlin, Jacob von: An account of the new northern archipelago lately discovered by the Russians in the seas of Kamtschatka and Anadir... (London 1774).
Vaughan, Richard: The Arctic. A history (Stroud, Gloucs., & Dover, N.H. 1994).
Wickersham, James: A bibliography of Alaskan literature, 1724-1924... (Cordova, Alaska 1924).
anonymous: A letter from a Russian sea-officer, to a person of distinction at the Court of St. Petersburg...remarks upon Mr. de l'Isle's chart and memoir, relative to the new discoveries northward and eastward from Kamchatka... (London 1754).

The material on this page was created by Ray Howgego, and publication was allowed by him to Discoverers Web. This page is an excerpt from a large amount of material that Ray has written, concerning voyages of discovery before 1800. He would like to have this work published, any publisher who is interested can contact him through email.