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Map of the New Discoveries in the Eastern Ocean WDL126

Mikhail Spiridonovich Gvozdev (; – after 1759) was a Russian military geodesist and a commander 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, 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 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, the ''St. Gabriel'' sailed east and soon came near the American mainland at 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. Subsequently, in 1741–1742, Gvozdev participated in an expedition led by Alexey Shelting and mapped most of the western and southern shores of 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 ...

, as well as the eastern shore of

Sakhalin Sakhalin ( rus, Сахали́н, p=səxɐˈlʲin) is an island in Northeast Asia. Its north coast lies off the southeastern coast of Khabarovsk Krai in Russia, while its southern tip lies north of the Japanese island of Hokkaido. An islan ...

Legacy

A cape on Sakhalin is named after Gvozdev.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gvozdev, Mikhail 18th-century military personnel 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 Geodesists from the Russian Empire