Ivan Fyodorov (; died ) was a Russian navigator and commanding officer of the expedition to northern

Alaska Alaska ( ) is a non-contiguous U.S. state on the northwest extremity of North America. Part of the Western United States region, it is one of the two non-contiguous U.S. states, alongside Hawaii. Alaska is also considered to be the north ...

in 1732. After the First Kamchatka expedition of

Vitus Bering Vitus Jonassen Bering ( , , ; baptised 5 August 1681 – 19 December 1741),All dates are here given in the Julian calendar, which was in use throughout Russia at the time. also known as Ivan Ivanovich Bering (), was a Danish-born Russia ...

, Russian exploration efforts were continued by Bering's lieutenant Martin Spanberg and the navigator Fyodorov. In 1732, with participants of the First Kamchatka expedition, land-surveyor

Mikhail Gvozdev __NOTOC__ Mikhail Spiridonovich Gvozdev (; – after 1759) was a Russian military geodesist and a commander of the expedition to northern Alaska in 1732, when the Alaskan shore was sighted by Russians for the first time. In 1732, together wi ...

, and the navigator K. Moshkov, Fyodorov sailed to Dezhnev Cape, the easternmost point of

Asia Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...

, in the ''St. Gabriel'' (, ''Sviatoi Gavriil''). From there, after having replenished the water supply on 5 August, they sailed east and soon came near the mainland at the Cape Prince of Wales. They charted the northwestern coast of Alaska and mapped their route. By doing this, Fyodorov and Gvozdev completed the discovery of the

Bering Strait The Bering Strait ( , ; ) is a strait between the Pacific and Arctic oceans, separating the Chukchi Peninsula of the Russian Far East from the Seward Peninsula of Alaska. The present Russia–United States maritime boundary is at 168° 58' ...

, once started by Semyon Dezhnyov and Fedot Alekseyev and continued by Bering. Their expedition also discovered three previously unknown islands.

References

1733 deaths Explorers of Alaska Explorers of Asia 18th-century explorers from the Russian Empire Russian explorers of North America Year of birth unknown {{Russia-bio-stub

See also

References