Cape Sterligov (Russian: Мыс Стерлигова) is a headland in the

Kara Sea The Kara Sea is a marginal sea, separated from the Barents Sea to the west by the Kara Strait and Novaya Zemlya, and from the Laptev Sea to the east by the Severnaya Zemlya archipelago. Ultimately the Kara, Barents and Laptev Seas are all ...

Krasnoyarsk Krai Krasnoyarsk Krai (, ) is a federal subjects of Russia, federal subject (a krai) of Russia located in Siberia. Its administrative center is the types of inhabited localities in Russia, city of Krasnoyarsk, the second-largest city in Siberia after ...

Russian Federation Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

Geography

Cape Sterligov is located on the western shore of the

Taymyr Peninsula The Taymyr Peninsula ( ) is a peninsula in the Far North of Russia, in the Siberian Federal District, that forms the northernmost part of the mainland of Eurasia. Administratively it is part of the Krasnoyarsk Krai Federal subject of Russia. Ge ...

, at the northern end of Toll Bay. Lishny Island () lies to the west-northwest of Cape Sterligov, about 16 km from its shores. The cape is in an area of

tundra In physical geography, a tundra () is a type of biome where tree growth is hindered by frigid temperatures and short growing seasons. There are three regions and associated types of tundra: #Arctic, Arctic, Alpine tundra, Alpine, and #Antarctic ...

and the weather is extremely cold, with prolonged icy winters. The sea off the cape is covered in ice most of the year.

Etymology

The cape is named after Dmitry Vasilevich Sterligov, a member of the

Great Northern Expedition The Great Northern Expedition () or Second Kamchatka Expedition () was a major Russian Arctic expedition between roughly 1733 and 1743, which mapped most of the Arctic coast of Siberia and much of the Arctic coast of North America, greatly red ...

History

Sterligov was podshturman under Fyodor Minin, leader of the detachment charged with documenting the coast between the

Yenisey The Yenisey or Yenisei ( ; , ) is the list of rivers by length, fifth-longest river system in the world, and the largest to drain into the Arctic Ocean. Rising in Mungaragiyn-gol in Mongolia, it follows a northerly course through Lake Baikal a ...

and

Taymyra The Taymyra () is a river in Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia. It is located in the middle of the Taymyr Peninsula and flows into the Kara sea. It is about long and has a drainage basin of .

rivers. Sterligov set out from

Turukhansk Turukhansk () is a rural locality (a '' selo'') and the administrative center of Turukhansky District of Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia, located north of Krasnoyarsk, at the confluence of the Yenisey and Nizhnyaya Tunguska Rivers. Until 1924, the t ...

in January 1740, arriving at the cape which was to bear his name on 14 April 1740. There he built a beacon and left a note to record his journey. In 1921

Nikifor Begichev Nikifor Alekseevich Begichev (Bigichev) (; February 7 ( N.S. February 19), 1874 – May 18, 1927) was a Soviet seaman and polar explorer. He was twice awarded gold medals by the Russian Academy of Sciences Biography Begichev was born in Tsar ...

led a

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

expedition in search for

Roald Amundsen Roald Engelbregt Gravning Amundsen (, ; ; 16 July 1872 – ) was a Norwegians, Norwegian explorer of polar regions. He was a key figure of the period known as the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration. Born in Borge, Østfold, Norway, Am ...

's 1919 Arctic expedition's crew members

Peter Tessem and Paul Knutsen Peter Tessem and Paul Knutsen were two young men from Norway who went with fellow Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen on his 1918 Arctic expedition aboard ship '' Maud''. Peter Tessem was a carpenter and Paul Knutsen was an able-bodied seaman. One y ...

on request of the government of Norway. Checking the remains of campfires, Begichev was able to establish that Amundsen's men had passed

Cape Vilda Cape Vilda (Russian: Мыс Вильда) is a headland in the Kara Sea, Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russian Federation. This cape is located on the western shore of the Taymyr Peninsula, at the western end of Middendorff Bay. The Myachina Islands, a grou ...

, more than halfway down their journey, and that at that point all was well. On 2 August 1919, 90 km west of Cape Vilda, the abandoned Norwegian sledge was found by Captain Jakobsen, a Norwegian who went with Begichev, indicating that something had gone wrong with his two ill-fated compatriots. Later during the search other materials were found near Cape Sterligov. In 1934 a meteorological station was put in operation at the cape within a network of 20 wireless stations in the Russian Arctic. On 24 or 25 September 1944 the station was attacked by an amphibious assault force from

German submarine U-711 German submarine ''U-711'' was a German Type VII submarine#Type VIIC, Type VIIC U-boat of Nazi Germany's ''Kriegsmarine'' during World War II. Ordered 7 December 1940, Keel laying, laid down, 31 July 1941 and Ceremonial ship launching, launched ...

and occupied for a short while. On 24 September 1995 a Norilsk Air Enterprise

Mil Mi-2 The Mil Mi-2 (NATO reporting name: Hoplite) is a small, three Helicopter rotor, rotor blade Soviet-designed multi-purpose helicopter developed by the Mil Moscow Helicopter Plant, designed in the early 1960s and produced exclusively by PZL-Świdn ...

helicopter crashed and sank through the ice while attempting to land at Cape Sterligov.

Climate

References

{{reflist

External links

A Tsarist Attempt at Opening the Northern Sea Route

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in insular and coastal soils of the Russian ArcticAndrey Samokhin – Arctic – Russia’s perspective
Sterligov Sterligov