Nagaev Bay or Nagayev Bay (russian: Бухта Нагаева, Нагаевская бухта), also known as Nagayeva Bay, is a bay within Taui Bay in the northern part of the Sea of Okhotsk, Magadan Oblast,

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

Geography

It is 6.4 km (4 mi) wide at its entrance and 14.5 km (9 mi) long.United States. (1918). ''Asiatic Pilot, Volume 1: East coast of Siberia, Sakhalin Island and Chosen''. Washington: Hydrographic Office. The city of Magadan with its port (formerly Nagaevo port) is located at the head of the bay. Ice occurs in the bay from the end of November to the middle of June. It was named after Russian hydrographer, admiral

Alexey Nagaev Alexey Ivanovich Nagayev (russian: Алексей Иванович Нагаев, March 17, 1704, Sertyakino-January 8, 1781, Saint Petersburg) was a Russian hydrographer, cartographer and an admiral. Biography Born in a family of the lesser nobili ...

.''

Great Soviet Encyclopedia The ''Great Soviet Encyclopedia'' (GSE; ) is one of the largest Russian-language encyclopedias, published in the Soviet Union from 1926 to 1990. After 2002, the encyclopedia's data was partially included into the later ''Bolshaya rossiyskaya e ...

''
Entry on Nagayeva Bay
It has been described as the best mooring place in the Sea of Okhotsk. Freezing the waters of the Sea of Okhotsk

History

Between 1852 and 1869, American

whaleship A whaler or whaling ship is a specialized vessel, designed or adapted for whaling: the catching or processing of whales. Terminology The term ''whaler'' is mostly historic. A handful of nations continue with industrial whaling, and one, Japa ...

s anchored in Nagayeva Bay to obtain

wood Wood is a porous and fibrous structural tissue found in the stems and roots of trees and other woody plants. It is an organic materiala natural composite of cellulose fibers that are strong in tension and embedded in a matrix of lignin ...

and water and boil

oil An oil is any nonpolar chemical substance that is composed primarily of hydrocarbons and is hydrophobic (does not mix with water) & lipophilic (mixes with other oils). Oils are usually flammable and surface active. Most oils are unsaturated ...

. They called it Jeannette Harbor, after the ship ''Jeannette'' (), of New Bedford, which frequented Taui Bay in the early 1850s.''Jeannette'', of New Bedford, June 18-October 12, 1852, Taui Bay, June 14-August 21, August 28-September 4, 1853, Taui Bay, ODHS. During the

Gulag The Gulag, an acronym for , , "chief administration of the camps". The original name given to the system of camps controlled by the GPU was the Main Administration of Corrective Labor Camps (, )., name=, group= was the government agency in ...

era, the bay was used as a transit point for Gulag inmates coming by sea and further directed to camps of Magadan and Kolyma to man the

Dalstroy Dalstroy (russian: Дальстро́й, ), also known as Far North Construction Trust, was an organization set up in 1931 in order to manage road construction and the mining of gold in the Russian Far East, including the Magadan Region, Chukotka, ...

works. Since 1937 the headquarters of

Sevvostlag Sevvostlag (russian: Северо-восточные исправительно-трудовые лагеря, Севвостлаг, СВИТЛ, North-Eastern Corrective Labor Camps) was a system of forced labor camps set up to satisfy the wor ...

were situated by Nagaev Bay.

Cultural references

Varlam Shalamov Varlam Tikhonovich Shalamov (russian: Варла́м Ти́хонович Шала́мов; 18 June 1907 – 17 January 1982), baptized as Varlaam, was a Russian writer, journalist, poet and Gulag survivor. He spent much of the period from 1 ...

mentioned the bay as part of the Gulag industry in his memoirs ''About Kolyma'' Nagaev Bay is part of the refrain of Vladimir Vysotsky's song ''I Went to Magadan'' (Я уехал в Магадан)

References

Bays of the Sea of Okhotsk Bays of Magadan Oblast Pacific Coast of Russia Gulag industry Magadan {{Russia-geo-stub