Editing Otto von Kotzebue (section)

== First voyage, 1815 to 1818 ==
[[File:The Travels of Otto von Kotzebue.png|thumb|Kotzebue's travels]]
On promotion to lieutenant, Kotzebue was placed in command of an expedition fitted out at the expense of the imperial chancellor, Count [[Nikolay Rumyantsev]], on the [[brig]] ''[[Rurik expedition|Rurik]]''.<ref name="EB1911">{{EB1911|inline=y|wstitle=Kotzebue, Otto von|volume=15|page=920}}</ref> In this vessel, with only twenty-seven men, including the naturalists [[Johann Friedrich von Eschscholtz]] and [[Adelbert von Chamisso]], and the artist [[Louis Choris]], Kotzebue set out from Kronstadt on July 30, 1815 to find a passage across the Arctic Ocean and explore the less-known parts of [[Oceania]].{{sfn |Te Rangi Hiroa |1953 |pages=74-75}}

Proceeding via [[Cape Horn]], he visited the Chilean coast and arrived at Easter Island on March 29, 1816. From there he sailed west and reached the Tuamotu Archipelago around April 16 where he sighted several islands, some of which he named: Doubtful, so named because he thought it might be the Dog Island ([[Pukapuka]]); Romanzoff ([[Tikei]]); Spiridoff; the [[Palliser Islands]] discovered by Cook; Rurick's chain ([[Arutua]]); and Krusenstern ([[Tikehau|Tikahau]]). He reached [[Penrhyn atoll]] on May 1 and was greeted by the natives who came out in canoes. After leaving Polynesia, Kotzebue came upon the Radak and Ralik chains of the Marshall Islands in Micronesia.{{sfn |Te Rangi Hiroa |1953 |pages=74-75}}

Kotzebue then headed north for the Kamchatka Peninsula where he anchored at the harbor of St. Peter and St. Paul on June 18. From there he explored Bering Strait and the coast of Alaska. A sound north of Bering Strait was named [[Kotzebue Sound]]. In September he sailed south to California.

Returning by the coast of Asia, he again sailed to the south, sojourned for three weeks at the [[Hawaiian Islands|Sandwich Islands]] during the [[Schäffer affair]], an attempt by the [[Russian-American Company]] to seize [[Kauai]]. On January 1, 1817, Kotzebue discovered [[Mejit Island|New Year Island]].  After further cruising in the Pacific Ocean, he proceeded north. Severe illness compelled him to return to Europe, and he reached the [[Neva River]] in Russia on August 3, 1818, bringing home a large collection of previously unknown plants and new ethnological information.<ref name="EB1911"/>