Editing Strait of Tartary

{{Short description|Strait dividing Sakhalin from mainland Asia}}
[[Image:Strait of Tartary.PNG|thumb|The Strait of Tartary connects the Sea of Okhotsk to the Sea of Japan.]]

'''Strait of Tartary''' or '''Gulf of Tartary''' ({{langx|ru|Татарский пролив}}; {{zh|t=韃靼海峽|p=Dádá hǎixiá}}; {{langx|ja|間宮海峡|Mamiya kaikyō|Mamiya Strait}}; {{langx|ko|타타르 해협}}) is a [[strait]] in the [[Pacific Ocean]] dividing the [[Russia]]n island of [[Sakhalin]] from mainland [[Asia]] (South-East [[Russia]]), connecting the [[Sea of Okhotsk]] ([[Nevelskoy Strait]]) on the north with the [[Sea of Japan]] on the south. It is {{cvt|632|km|mi}} long, {{cvt|7|-|23|km}} wide, and only {{cvt|4|m}} deep at its shallowest point.<ref>{{cite web |title=Tatar Strait |url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Tatar-Strait |website=www.britannica.com/ |publisher=Encyclopædia Britannica |access-date=20 January 2021}}</ref>

== History ==
[[File:La-Perouse-Chart-of-Discoveries.jpg|thumb|left|The coasts of the "Channel of [[Tartary]]" were charted by [[Jean-François de Galaup, comte de Lapérouse|La Pérouse]] in 1787. The land adjacent to it from the west was referred to at the time as the "[[Chinese Tartary]]"]]

=== Yuan dynasty ===
During the [[Yuan dynasty]], the Yuan armies crossed the strait in the [[Mongol invasions of Sakhalin]]. Alleged remnants of a Chinese fort dating back to the Mongol Yuan era can be found in Sakhalin today.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2025-03-07 |title=China - Yuan Dynasty, Mongol Rule, Silk Road {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/place/China/The-Yuan-or-Mongol-dynasty |access-date=2025-03-07 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}}</ref>

"[[Tartary]]" is an older name used by Europeans to refer to a vast region covering [[Inner Asia]], [[Central Asia]] and [[North Asia]]. The toponym is derived from the medieval ethnonym [[Tartars]], which was applied to various [[Turkic peoples|Turkic]] and [[Mongol]] semi-[[nomadic empire]]s, including the Yuan dynasty that ruled over China and the straits of Northeast Asia.<ref name=":0" />

=== Qing dynasty ===
During the [[Transition from Ming to Qing|destruction of the Ming dynasty and rise of the Qing dynasty]] in 1644, the name "Tartars" became applied to the [[Manchus]] as well,<ref name=":0">Starting since the first book about the Manchu conquest: [[Martino Martini]], ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=nhhbAAAAQAAJ De Bello Tartarico Historia]''. [[Antwerp]] 1654</ref> and Manchuria (and Mongolia) became known to the Europeans as the "Chinese Tartary".<ref>For example, Jean-Baptiste Du Halde,<br />[https://archive.org/details/descriptiongog01duha ''Description géographique, historique, chronologique, politique, et physique de l'empire de la Chine et de la Tartarie chinoise''] ([[The Hague|La Haye]]: H. Scheurleer, 1736)</ref> Accordingly, when [[Jean-François de Galaup, comte de Lapérouse|La Pérouse]] charted most of the strait between Sakhalin and the mainland "Chinese Tartary" in 1787, the body of water received the name of the Strait (or Channel, or Gulf) of Tartary.

In [[Japan]], the strait is named after [[Mamiya Rinzō]], who traveled to the strait in 1808<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.vintage-views.com/eshop/catalog/MAMIYA-RINZO-STRAITAsiatic-Russia-p-51440.html |title=MAMIYA RINZO STRAIT,Asiatic Russia - Antique Prints and Antique Maps from |publisher=Vintage-Views.com |access-date=2012-12-01 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081121044746/http://www.vintage-views.com/eshop/catalog/MAMIYA-RINZO-STRAITAsiatic-Russia-p-51440.html |archive-date=2008-11-21 }}</ref> whereof the name was introduced by [[Philipp Franz von Siebold]] in his book ''Nippon: Archiv zur Beschreibung von Japan'' (1832–54).

[[File:Delisle - Carte d'Asie (Compagnieland).jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|Early 18 c. French map depicting the [[Vries Strait]] and the Strait of Tartary.]]
On Russian maps, the short narrowest section of the strait (south of the mouth of the Amur) is called [[Nevelskoy Strait]], after Admiral [[Gennady Nevelskoy]], who explored the area in 1848; the body of water north of there, into which the Amur River flows, is the [[Amur Liman]]; and the name of "Strait of Tartary" is reserved for the largest section of the body of water, south of [[Nevelskoy Strait]].

The Tartar Strait was a puzzle to European explorers since, when approached from the south, it becomes increasingly shallow and looks like the head of a bay. In 1787 [[Jean-François de Galaup, comte de Lapérouse|La Perouse]] decided not to risk it and turned south even though locals had told him that Sakhalin was an island. In 1797 [[William Robert Broughton|William Broughton]] also decided that the Gulf of Tartary was a bay and turned south. In 1805 [[Adam Johann von Krusenstern]] failed to penetrate the strait from the north. [[Mamiya Rinzō]]'s journey of 1808 was little known to Europeans. [[Gennady Nevelskoy]] passed the strait from the north in 1848. The Russians kept this a secret and [[Amur Annexation|used it to evade]] a British fleet during the Crimean War.

=== Recent history ===
[[Soviet submarine S-117|''S-117'']] was a [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] [[Shchuka class submarine]] that was lost on or about December 15, 1952, due to unknown causes in the Strait of Tartary in the [[Sea of Japan]]. The boat may have collided with a [[surface ship]] or struck a [[naval mine|mine]]. All forty-seven crewmen died in the incident.

The southeastern part of the Strait of Tartary was the site of one of the tensest incidents of the Cold War, when on September 1, 1983, [[Korean Air Lines Flight 007]], carrying 269 people including a sitting U.S. congressman, [[Larry McDonald]], strayed into the Soviet air space and was attacked by a Soviet [[Sukhoi Su-15|Su-15 interceptor]] just west of [[Sakhalin Island]]. The plane came down on the waters off the strait's only land mass, [[Moneron Island]]. An intensive naval search by the U.S. with assistance of Japanese and Korean vessels [[Korean Air Lines Flight 007#Search for KAL 007 in international waters|was carried on in a {{convert|225|sqmi|km2|sigfig=2}} area of the strait just north of Moneron Island]].

==1956 causeway proposal==
In 1956 the Soviet government proposed that a [[causeway]] be built at the Tartar Strait to block cold water from flowing into the Sea of Japan therefore raising the temperature in areas around the Sea of Japan. The Russians claimed it would raise the temperature of the Sea of Japan by an average of 35&nbsp;°F (19.5&nbsp;°C).<ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_QuEDAAAAMBAJ |page=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_QuEDAAAAMBAJ/page/n136 135] |quote=1954 Popular Mechanics January. |title=Popular Mechanics |via=[[Internet Archive]] |date=June 1956 |publisher=Hearst Magazines |access-date=2012-12-01}}</ref>

==Transportation==
[[File:Vanino port.jpg|thumb|upright=1.5|Vanino, here in early May 2008, is an important port on the Strait of Tartary]] 
[[File:Txu-pclmaps-oclc-22834566 e-9c.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|Map including the Tatar Strait]]
Since 1973, [[Vanino-Kholmsk train ferry]] operates across the strait, connecting the port of [[Vanino, Khabarovsk Krai]] on the mainland with [[Kholmsk]] on Sakhalin Island.<ref>[http://www.ceebd.co.uk/ceebd/vcsp7.htm] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110611173525/http://www.ceebd.co.uk/ceebd/vcsp7.htm|date=June 11, 2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.sasco.ru/Vanino-Kholmsk-i37 |script-title=ru:Линия Ванино-Холмск |title=Liniya Vanino-Kholmsk |trans-title=Vanino-Kholmsk line |language=ru |publisher=Sasco.ru |access-date=2012-12-01 |archive-date=2012-02-27 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120227200309/http://www.sasco.ru/Vanino-Kholmsk-i37 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

Looking at the map, one could think that the Strait of Tartary would provide a convenient connection for boats sailing from the [[Sea of Japan]] to the [[Sea of Okhotsk]], e.g. from [[Vanino, Khabarovsk Krai|Vanino]] to [[Magadan]]. However, according to the [[Sakhalin Shipping Company|SASCO]] that operates that shipping line, their ships rarely travel that way. The usual winter route from Vanino to Magadan is via [[Tsugaru Strait]], and around [[Hokkaido]]; the usual summer route, is via [[La Pérouse Strait]] and around [[Sakhalin]]. Only when coming back from Magadan to Vanino with a low load and in good weather would the ships travel along the shortest route, i.e., via the [[Amur Liman]], [[Nevelskoy Strait]], and the Strait of Tartary proper (which SASCO calls the "Strait of Sakhalin" – ''Sakhalinsky Proliv'').<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.sasco.ru/Vanino-Magadan-i36 |script-title=ru:Линия Ванино-Магадан |title=Liniya Vanino-Magadan |trans-title=Vanino-Magadan line |language=ru |publisher=Sasco.ru |date=2012-11-15 |access-date=2012-12-01 |archive-date=2012-02-27 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120227200318/http://www.sasco.ru/Vanino-Magadan-i36 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

A [[Sakhalin Tunnel|tunnel]] under the strait, to provide a road and/or rail connection between Sakhalin and the mainland, was begun under [[Joseph Stalin]], but abandoned incomplete after his death.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.sakhalin.ru/Region/tunnel/build_506.htm|title=СТРОИТЕЛЬСТВО № 506|website=www.sakhalin.ru}}</ref> Renewed calls for either a tunnel or a bridge have been made by politicians in recent years.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.sptimes.ru/index.php?action_id=2&story_id=13428 |title=Plan for Tunnel to Sakhalin Unveiled |newspaper=[[St Petersburg Times]] |date=28 November 2000 |access-date=15 August 2012 |archive-date=5 June 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110605053316/http://www.sptimes.ru/index.php?action_id=2&story_id=13428 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

==See also==
*[[Korean Air Lines Flight 007]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==
{{Commons category}}
*[http://parusa.narod.ru/bib/books/fareast/1402.htm Parusa.narod.ru: Tatar Strait—Strait of Tartary]—{{in lang|ru}}

{{Coord|52|11|00|N|141|37|00|E|type:waterbody_source:dewiki|display=title}}

{{Khabarovsk Krai}}
{{Sakhalin Oblast}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Straits of Sakhalin Oblast]]
[[Category:Bodies of water of Khabarovsk Krai]]
[[Category:Bodies of water of Sakhalin Oblast]]
[[Category:Pacific Coast of Russia]]