The Sivuch'i Rocks (, ''Ostrova Sivuch'i Kamni'') are a group of barren

islet An islet ( ) is generally a small island. Definitions vary, and are not precise, but some suggest that an islet is a very small, often unnamed, island with little or no vegetation to support human habitation. It may be made of rock, sand and/ ...

s and rocks on the eastern side of

Uda Bay Uda Bay (; ''Udskaya Guba'') is a bay in Khabarovsk Krai, Russian Federation. Geography Uda Bay is located in the northwestern Sea of Okhotsk. It lies just west of the Shantar Islands. The Uda River flows into it. It is entered between Cape ...

, in the western

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 ...

Geography

They lie just north of

Medvezhy Island Medvezhy Island (, ''Medvezhy Ostrov'') is a long, narrow island in the northwestern Sea of Okhotsk, the westernmost of the Shantar Islands. It lies on the eastern side of Uda Bay. It is 12.9 km (8 mi) long.United States. (1918). ''Asiatic Pilot, ...

. The largest are two islets, lying northwest and southeast from each other, the former high and the latter high. A high pillar rock lies just to the southwest of the latter of the two islets. Reefs fringe the group.

History

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, p ...

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, Jap ...

s and boat crews cruised 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 around the rocks between 1855 and 1874. They called them the Sugar Loaf or Pinnacle Rocks. On the night of 11 October 1858, the bark ''Ocean Wave'' (380 tons), under Captain Hiram Baker, 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 ...

, was wrecked on one of the rocks during a gale. All hands were lost.

References

Shantar Islands Shipwrecks in the Sea of Okhotsk {{FarEast-Russia-geo-stub