Editing Vitus Bering (section)

====St. Petersburg to Okhotsk====
On 29 December 1724 <small>&#91;[[Adoption of the Gregorian calendar#Adoption in Eastern Europe|N.S.]] 9 January 1725]</small>, [[Peter I of Russia]] ordered Bering to command a voyage east, probably to map the lands (and possibly seas) between Russia's eastern boundary and the North America continent.<ref name="frost30">{{harvnb|Frost|2003|pp=30–40}}</ref> Preparations for the trip had begun some years before, but with his health rapidly deteriorating, the Tsar had ordered that the process be hurried, and it was with this backdrop that Bering (with his knowledge of both the Indian Ocean and the eastern seaboard of North America, good personal skills and experience in transporting goods) was selected ahead of the experienced cartographer K. P. von Verd.<ref name="frost30"/> His lieutenants for the journey, which would become known as the First Kamchatka Expedition, were the hardened Danish-born Russian [[Martin Spanberg]] and the well-educated but relatively inexperienced Russian [[Aleksei Chirikov]], a respected naval instructor. They would receive annual salaries of some 180 [[rouble]]s during the trip; Bering would be paid 480. The final papers from Peter before his death on 28 January made it clear to Bering that he should proceed to the [[Kamchatka peninsula]], build one or two ships there, and, keeping the land on his left, sail northwards until the land turned westwards, making it clear that there existed sea between Asia and North America. Instructions were left on how to proceed if North America was sighted during the voyage, which was scheduled to last three years.<ref name="frost30"/> The natural route to Kamchatka was along tributaries of the [[Lena River|Lena]]; but after the [[Treaty of Nerchinsk]] (1689) this looked politically infeasible. Instead, Bering's party, it was decided, would travel over land and river from St. Petersburg to [[Okhotsk]], a small port town on Russia's eastern coast, and then by sea from Okhotsk to the Kamchatka peninsula, where they could start their voyage of exploration. On 24 January, Chirikov departed with 26 of the 34-strong expedition along the well-travelled roads to [[Vologda]], {{convert|411|miles|km}} to the east. Having waited for the necessary paperwork to be completed, Bering and the remaining members of the expedition followed on 6 February. Bering was supplied with what few maps Peter had managed to commission in the preceding years.<ref name="frost30"/>

[[File:Vitus Bering.jpg|left|180px|thumb|A portrait once believed to be of Vitus Bering (according to later data, it is probably of [[Vitus Bering (1617–1675)|his uncle]])<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.kamlib.ru/resourses/epishkin.htm|title=Vitus Bering. Question of biography|last=Epishkin|first=Sergey|publisher=Kamchatsky region science library|language=ru|access-date=15 March 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.litera-ib.ru/pages/archiv/ib_4_2013.pdf |script-title=ru:КАМЧАТСКИЕ ЭКСПЕДИЦИИ |trans-title=KAMCHATKA EXPEDITIONS |last=ПУЛЕНКОВА |first=Юлианна |title=Litera-ib.ru |language=ru |access-date=15 March 2018}}</ref><ref name="1991 expedition" group="nb">In 1991 a Russian-Danish expedition found Bering's burial site. Analysis of Bering's skull also showed that Bering could not have had such a round face, as is depicted in most pictures. The analysis showed a man of strong stature and a more angular face. The portrait most frequently attributed to Bering may possibly be the writer [[Vitus Bering (1617–1675)|Vitus Pedersen Bering]], who was Bering's uncle.</ref>]]
Both parties used horse-drawn sledges and made good time over the first legs of the journey. On 14 February they were reunited in Vologda, and, now travelling together, headed eastwards across the [[Ural Mountains]], arriving in the small city of [[Tobolsk]] (one of the main stopping points of the journey) on 16 March. They had already travelled over 1750 miles.<ref name="frost30"/> At Tobolsk, Bering took on more men to help the party through the more difficult journey ahead. He asked for 24 more from the garrison, before upping the request to 54 after hearing that the ship the party required at Okhotsk{{mdash}}the ''Vostok'' ({{lang|ru|Восто́к}}, "East"){{mdash}}would need significant manpower to repair. In the end, the governor could spare only 39, but it still represented a significant expansion in numbers for the party. In addition, Bering wanted 60 carpenters and 7 blacksmiths; the governor responded that half of these would have to be taken on later, at [[Yeniseysk]]. After some delays preparing equipment and funds, on 14 May the now much enlarged party left Tobolsk, heading along the [[Irtysh River|Irtysh]]. The journey ahead to the next major stopping point [[Yakutsk]], was well-worn, but rarely by groups as large as Bering's, who had the additional difficulty of needing to take on more men as the journey progressed. As a result, the party ran behind schedule, reaching [[Surgut]] on 30 May and [[Makovsk]] in late June before entering Yeniseysk, where the additional men could be taken on; Bering would later claim that "few were suitable". In any case, the party left Yeniseysk on 12 August, desperately needing to make up lost time. On 26 September they arrived at [[Ilimsk]], just three days before the river froze over. After the party had completed an eighty-mile trek to [[Ust-Kut]], a town on the Lena where they could spend the winter, Bering travelled on to the town of [[Irkutsk]] both to get a sense of the conditions and to seek advice on how best to get their large party across the mountains separating Yakutsk (their next stop) to Okhotsk on the coast.<ref name="frost41">{{harvnb|Frost|2003|pp=41–44}}</ref>

After leaving Ust-Kut when the river ice melted in the spring of 1726, the party rapidly travelled down the River Lena, reaching Yakutsk in the first half of June. Despite the need for hurry and men being sent in advance, the governor was slow to grant them the resources they needed, prompting threats from Bering. On 7 July, Spanberg left with a detachment of 209 men and much of the cargo; on 27 July apprentice shipbuilder Fyodor Kozlov led a small party to reach Okhotsk ahead of Spanberg, both to prepare food supplies and to start work repairing the ''Vostok'' and building a new ship, the ''Fortuna'' ({{langx|ru|Фортуна}}, "[[Fortuna (goddess)|Fortune]]"), needed to carry the party across the bay from Okhotsk to the Kamchatka peninsula. Bering himself left on 16 August, whilst it was decided that Chirikov would follow the next spring with fresh supplies of flour. The journeys were as difficult as Bering had worried they would be. Both men and horses died, whilst other men (46 from Bering's party alone) deserted with their horses and portions of the supplies as they struggled to build roads across difficult marshland and river terrain.<ref name="frost41"/> If Bering's party (which reached Okhotsk in October) fared badly, however, Spanberg's fared far worse. His heavily loaded boats could be tugged at no more than one mile a day&nbsp;– and they had some 685 miles to cover. When the rivers froze, the cargo was transferred to sleds and the expedition continued, enduring blizzards and waist-high snow. Even provisions left by Bering at [[Yudoma Cross]] could not fend off starvation. On 6 January 1727 Spanberg and two other men, who had together formed an advance party carrying the most vital items for the expedition, reached Okhotsk; ten days later sixty others joined them, although many were ill. Parties sent by Bering back along the trail from Okhotsk rescued seven men and much of the cargo that had been left behind. Okhotsk's inhabitants described the winter as the worst they could recall; Bering seized flour from the local villagers to ensure that his party too could take advantage of their stocks and consequently the whole village soon faced the threat of starvation. The explorer later reported how it was only the arrival of an advance party of Chirikov's division in June with 27&nbsp;tons of flour that ensured his party (by then diminished in numbers) could be fed.<ref name="frost44">{{harvnb|Frost|2003|pp=44–47}}</ref>