THE KRUSENSTERN ATLAS

Turnbull Library Record, Volume IX, 1 September 1952, Page 6

THE KRUSENSTERN ATLAS

THE LIBRARY’S COLLECTION OF pacific VOYAGES IS now of such strength and importance that it is only occasionally possible to obtain works known to be lacking. Since the last issue of the Record a much sought-after volume has been secured in London great Atlas of the Pacific Ocean (1824) resulting from the circumnavigation of the world by Ivan Fyedorovich (also referred to as Adam Johann von) Krusenstern. This epic voyage and the remarkable influence of this gifted navigator entitle him to a high place in the story of Pacific exploration. Born in Esthonia in 1770, he was sent at the age of 15 to the Russian Naval Cadet College at Kronstadt, and from 1788 to 1792 he gave distinguished service in the war against Sweden. In 1792 he was sent to England as one of the twelve best young officers of the fleet, to improve his knowledge of naval affairs.

After six years in active service and extensive travel with the British fleet, he returned to Russia, full of plans for a Russian voyage around the world. Against much opposition he ultimately carried his point, and with two British-built ships, the Nadezhda and the Neva , launched his expedition. Captain Yuri Lisyiansky, who bought the ships, commanded the latter, Krusenstern the former. The voyage lasted from July 1803 to August 1806, its route being westward by way of Cape Horn, Marquesas Islands, Sandwich Islands, Kamchatka and Japan, Macao and Alaska, China and Sunda Islands, across the Indian Ocean, and up the Atlantic coast of Africa back to Russia. Captain Cook’s navigation was the great ideal of the Russians, and the voyage was planned to complement the work of the Englishman. English precedent and naval practice were highly regarded by Krusenstern, who valued his years in British ships.

Krusenstern’s oceanographical observations were especially important, and he was virtually a pioneer in the field of ocean currents, which were recorded with the

fullest precision wherever possible. Learning from Cook again, he took such care of his crews that no single life was lost in the three years’ voyage. His survey of the coasts of Japan and the Kuriles, his astronomical and ethnographical observations, were all appreciable additions to scientific knowledge.

In the several textual and atlas volumes now in the library the voyage and its results are well recorded. Krusenstern’s distinguished career thereafter set his stamp upon the whole Russian Navy as well as upon Russian exploration since his day. His name survives also in a strait in the Pacific, a submerged rock, a bay, a cape and a mountain, but the honour in which he is held within and beyond the shores of Russia transcend these perhaps ephemeral monuments.