Map of the New Discoveries in the Eastern Ocean WDL126

Mikhail Spiridonovich Gvozdev (russian: Михаи́л Спиридо́нович Гво́здев; – after 1759) was a Russian military geodesist and a commander of the expedition to northern

Alaska Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S., ...

in 1732, when the Alaskan shore was sighted by Russians for the first time. In 1732, together with the participants of the First Kamchatka expedition navigators Ivan Fyodorov and K. Moshkov, Gvozdev sailed to Dezhnev Cape, the easternmost point of

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an area ...

, in the ''Sviatoi Gavriil'' ("St. Gabriel"). From there, after having replenished the water supply on 5 August, ''Sviatoi Gavriil'' sailed east and soon came near the American mainland at Cape Prince of Wales. They charted the north-western coast of Alaska and mapped their route. By doing this, Fyodorov and Gvozdev completed the discovery of the Bering Strait, once started by Semyon Dezhnyov and Fedot Alekseyev and continued by Bering. Subsequently in 1741–1742, Gvozdev participated in an expedition led by

Alexey Shelting Alexey, Alexei, Alexie, Aleksei, or Aleksey (russian: Алексе́й ; bg, Алексей ) is a Russian and Bulgarian male first name deriving from the Greek ''Aléxios'' (), meaning "Defender", and thus of the same origin as the Latin Ale ...

and mapped most of the western and southern shores of the

Sea of Okhotsk The Sea of Okhotsk ( rus, Охо́тское мо́ре, Ohótskoye móre ; ja, オホーツク海, Ohōtsuku-kai) is a marginal sea of the western Pacific Ocean. It is located between Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula on the east, the Kuril Islands ...

, as well as the eastern shore of

Sakhalin Sakhalin ( rus, Сахали́н, r=Sakhalín, p=səxɐˈlʲin; ja, 樺太 ''Karafuto''; zh, c=, p=Kùyèdǎo, s=库页岛, t=庫頁島; Manchu: ᠰᠠᡥᠠᠯᡳᠶᠠᠨ, ''Sahaliyan''; Orok: Бугата на̄, ''Bugata nā''; Nivkh: ...

. A cape on Sakhalin is named after Gvozdev.

References

18th-century people from the Russian Empire 1700s births 1760s deaths Bering Strait Explorers from the Russian Empire Explorers of Alaska Explorers of Asia Russian explorers of North America Russian geodesists {{Russia-physicist-stub