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Siberia and Alaska
Arctic Exploration
V
itus Bering was a Danish seaman who spent much of his
life working for the Imperial Russian Navy. He made
some of the greatest Arctic journeys of the 18th century,
from one coast of Russia to the other, covering thousands
of miles.
He was sent by the Tsar of Russia, Peter the Great,
to explore the far eastern coast of Siberia. Russian fur
trappers had spread to the east during the 1600s but no
explorer had ventured so far. Peter the Great wanted to
know whether Asia and North America were connected.
Bering started his first voyage from Moscow in 1725.
First he
trekked
nearly 5,000 miles across Siberia to the
Pacific Coast. He set up a base at Kamchatka. Here he built
ships to explore Eastern Siberia and the Arctic. In 1728 he
sailed through the strait between Siberia and North America
up to the Arctic Circle. During summer, there is often fog
over polar seas. In heavy fog, Bering missed the coast of
North America. Thinking his work was done, he returned
to Moscow.
The Fur Trade
All round the Arctic are huge forests.
These forests are rich in animals that are
hunted by fur trappers. For most of the
1700s these forests supplied furs for
clothing to wealthy Europeans. The sea
and land routes discovered by Hudson
and Bering provided a way of bringing
the furs to Europe. Fur trappers spread
far and wide across North America and
Russia but unfortunately little is known
of their journeys.
Arctic Sailors
A sailor’s life in the Arctic was a hard
and often short one. Wooden ships
were easily crushed by the ice. That is
why most ships would only go to the
Arctic in summer. The sailors fed on salt
beef or pork, codfish, and dried peas.
They also had some bread, cheese, and
butter and drank beer or water.
W
ooden ships gave little protection to seamen
sailing the icy Arctic Ocean.