The Bussol Strait (

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

: ''Proliv Bussol''), known in Japan as the , is a wide strait that separates the islands of

Broutona Broutona (; Japanese language, Japanese 武魯頓島; Buroton-tō) is an uninhabited volcanic island located near the northern end of the southern Kuril Islands chain in the Sea of Okhotsk in the northwest Pacific Ocean. Its name is derived from ...

and Chirpoy to the west from

Simushir Simushir (, , ), meaning ''Large Island'' in Ainu, is an uninhabited volcanic island near the center of the Kuril Islands chain in the Sea of Okhotsk in the northwest Pacific Ocean. It was formerly known as Marikan. History Simushir was inha ...

to the east. It is nearly 58 km (about 36 mi) wide, making it the largest channel in the

Kuril Islands The Kuril Islands or Kurile Islands are a volcanic archipelago administered as part of Sakhalin Oblast in the Russian Far East. The islands stretch approximately northeast from Hokkaido in Japan to Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia, separating the ...

.National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. (2014). ''Sailing Directions (Enroute): East Coast of Russia''. U.S. Government, Springfield, Virginia. It is named after the

frigate A frigate () is a type of warship. In different eras, the roles and capabilities of ships classified as frigates have varied. The name frigate in the 17th to early 18th centuries was given to any full-rigged ship built for speed and maneuvera ...

'' Boussole''.

History

The strait was a popular route in the 1840s for American whaleships entering and exiting the

Sea of Okhotsk The Sea of Okhotsk; Historically also known as , or as ; ) is a marginal sea of the western Pacific Ocean. It is located between Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula on the east, the Kuril Islands on the southeast, Japan's island of Hokkaido on the sou ...

on their way to and from cruises for

right whales Right whales are three species of large baleen whales of the genus ''Eubalaena'': the North Atlantic right whale (''E. glacialis''), the North Pacific right whale (''E. japonica'') and the southern right whale (''E. australis''). They are class ...

. It was rarely used from the 1850s to the 1870s when ships primarily cruised to the north for

bowhead whale The bowhead whale (''Balaena mysticetus''), sometimes called the Greenland right whale, Arctic whale, and polar whale, is a species of baleen whale belonging to the family Balaenidae and is the only living representative of the genus '' Balaena' ...

s, using the more convenient Fourth Kuril Strait further north instead. Among the few to use it during that period was the ship ''Susan'' (349 tons), of

Nantucket Nantucket () is an island in the state of Massachusetts in the United States, about south of the Cape Cod peninsula. Together with the small islands of Tuckernuck Island, Tuckernuck and Muskeget Island, Muskeget, it constitutes the Town and Co ...

, which was stove by ice and sank in the strait on the night of 27–28 April 1853 while attempting to enter the Sea of Okhotsk. Two men were lost, one drowning and the other perishing on the ice. The remaining twenty-five crew members crowded into two

whaleboat A whaleboat is a type of open boat that was used for catching whales, or a boat of similar design that retained the name when used for a different purpose. Some whaleboats were used from whaling ships. Other whaleboats would operate from the s ...

s and reached

Urup Urup (; , ) is an uninhabited volcanic island in the Kuril Islands chain in the south of the Sea of Okhotsk, northwest Pacific Ocean. Its name is derived from the Ainu language word ''urup'', meaning "sockeye salmon". Geography and climate U ...

on the afternoon of 29 April. Here they spent eight days before being rescued by the

barque A barque, barc, or bark is a type of sailing ship, sailing vessel with three or more mast (sailing), masts of which the fore mast, mainmast, and any additional masts are Square rig, rigged square, and only the aftmost mast (mizzen in three-maste ...

''Black Warrior'', of New London. Two other whaleships were also lost in the strait. Early on the morning of 14 May 1855 the ships ''Enterprise'' (291 tons), under Captain Stephen G. Russell, and ''King Fisher'' (425 tons), under Captain Martin Palmer, both of

New Bedford New Bedford is a city in Bristol County, Massachusetts, United States. It is located on the Acushnet River in what is known as the South Coast (Massachusetts), South Coast region. At the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, New Bedford had a ...

, were wrecked on a

reef A reef is a ridge or shoal of rock, coral, or similar relatively stable material lying beneath the surface of a natural body of water. Many reefs result from natural, abiotic component, abiotic (non-living) processes such as deposition (geol ...

on the northeast end of

within a quarter mile of each other while attempting to enter the Sea of Okhotsk via Bussol Strait. All hands were saved after spending three days ashore Urup by the

Bremen Bremen (Low German also: ''Breem'' or ''Bräm''), officially the City Municipality of Bremen (, ), is the capital of the States of Germany, German state of the Bremen (state), Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (), a two-city-state consisting of the c ...

ship ''Joseph Hayden'' and the New London ship ''Montezuma''. The two ships were sold at auction to the first and second mates of the ''Montezuma'', respectively, but little was saved of the cargo.''Whalemen's Shipping List and Merchants' Transcript'', November 27, 1855, Vol. XIII, No. 39, p. 306. With the revival of cruises for right whales in the southern part of the sea in the 1880s ships began to use it again. It was utilized as late as 1902.''Charles W. Morgan'', of New Bedford, Aug. 23, Sep. 27, 1902, GBWL.

References

{{Kuril Islands Simushir Straits of the Kuril Islands