Discovery of Commander Islands (new interpretation of the events of 1741)

Abstract

The circumstances of the last two weeks of sailing of packet-boat “St. Peter” under the command of Vitus Bering during the Second Kamchatka Expedition are investigated, and knowledge on the discovery of the Commander Islands is refined. Packet-boat reached the group of Rat islands on the 25th of October, 1741, and the sailors discovered the island of St. Marcian (now Kiska Island). Over the next 6 days, moving west to the island of St. Avraamiy (now Attu island), sailors discovered the island of St. Stephen (now Agattu island) and the Semichi islands of Near Aleutian Islands group. On the 30th of October navigators of the ship changed course and sent the ship, as they thought, to the mouth of the Kamchatka River. In the next few days, the packet-boat followed from the island of St. Avraamiy (Attu island) to the north-west, and on the night from 4th to 5th November reached the 56th parallel. From this point packet-boat “St. Peter” turned to the west and at 8 am on November, 5 it was in the 30 km south of the southeastern tip of the Bering Island – the largest island in group of Commander Islands.