Dmitry Yakovlevich Laptev () (1701 – ) was a Russian

Arctic The Arctic (; . ) is the polar regions of Earth, polar region of Earth that surrounds the North Pole, lying within the Arctic Circle. The Arctic region, from the IERS Reference Meridian travelling east, consists of parts of northern Norway ( ...

explorer Exploration is the process of exploring, an activity which has some Expectation (epistemic), expectation of Discovery (observation), discovery. Organised exploration is largely a human activity, but exploratory activity is common to most organis ...

and

Vice Admiral Vice admiral is a senior naval flag officer rank, usually equivalent to lieutenant general and air marshal. A vice admiral is typically senior to a rear admiral and junior to an admiral. Australia In the Royal Australian Navy, the rank of Vice ...

(1762). The Dmitry Laptev Strait is named in his honor and the Laptev Sea is named in honor of him and his cousin, and fellow Arctic explorer, Khariton Laptev.

Early life

Dmitry Laptev was born in the village of Bolotovo, near Velikie Luki, in 1701. A year earlier his cousin Khariton Laptev was born in nearby Bolotovo. He and his cousin were some of the first students at the School of Mathematics and Navigational Sciences in

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

, established by

Peter the Great Peter I (, ; – ), better known as Peter the Great, was the Sovereign, Tsar and Grand Prince of all Russia, Tsar of all Russia from 1682 and the first Emperor of Russia, Emperor of all Russia from 1721 until his death in 1725. He reigned j ...

. After graduation, he quickly moved up naval ranks and became a ranking naval officer on a number of different vessels.

Arctic exploration

Dmitry Laptev was a lieutenant in the Navy assigned to the

Second Kamchatka Expedition The Great Northern Expedition () or Second Kamchatka Expedition () was a major Russian Arctic expedition between roughly 1733 and 1743, which mapped most of the Arctic coast of Siberia and much of the Arctic coast of North America, greatly red ...

in 1735 under

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 ...

. With the death of the head of the ''Yakutsk'' captain Vasili Pronchishchev in 1736, Bering appointed Laptev to be the head of the ''Yakutsk'' crew and chart the coast of the

Arctic Ocean The Arctic Ocean is the smallest and shallowest of the world's five oceanic divisions. It spans an area of approximately and is the coldest of the world's oceans. The International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) recognizes it as an ocean, ...

from the

Lena River The Lena is a river in the Russian Far East and is the easternmost river of the three great rivers of Siberia which flow into the Arctic Ocean, the others being Ob (river), Ob and Yenisey. The Lena River is long and has a capacious drainage basi ...

eastward. With permission from Bering, Laptev returned to Saint Petersburg for the winter. A second attempt the next year similarly failed to reach the eastern fleets of the expedition. In 1739, Laptev was the commander of an expedition to chart the Anadyr region in the far east of the continent. The expedition went poorly at first and the ''Yakutsk'' became trapped by ice very quickly. That winter the crew, led by Laptev, were the first Russians to live amongst the indigenous population of the lower

Indigirka River The Indigirka (; ) is a river in the Sakha Republic in Russia between the Yana to the west and the Kolyma to the east. It is long. The area of its basin is . History The isolated village of Russkoye Ustye, located on the delta of the Indigi ...

. Villagers from Russkoye Ustye provided crucial food, assistance, and even moved the ship to open water when spring came. Although sea travel never yielded much, Laptev and the crew provided significant mapping of the areas, often through overland treks and expeditions. After the expedition, he continued his military service in the

Baltic Fleet The Baltic Fleet () is the Naval fleet, fleet of the Russian Navy in the Baltic Sea. Established 18 May 1703, under Tsar Peter the Great as part of the Imperial Russian Navy, the Baltic Fleet is the oldest Russian fleet. In 1918, the fleet w ...

. Laptev was promoted to

rank in 1762, and retired the same year.

Legacy

A cape in the

delta Delta commonly refers to: * Delta (letter) (Δ or δ), the fourth letter of the Greek alphabet * D (NATO phonetic alphabet: "Delta"), the fourth letter in the Latin alphabet * River delta, at a river mouth * Delta Air Lines, a major US carrier ...

of the Lena River and a

strait A strait is a water body connecting two seas or water basins. The surface water is, for the most part, at the same elevation on both sides and flows through the strait in both directions, even though the topography generally constricts the ...

between the Bolshoy Lyakhovsky Island and Asian mainland bear his name. The Laptev Sea is also named after Dmitry Laptev and his cousin, and arctic explorer, Khariton Laptev.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Laptev, Dmitry 1701 births 1771 deaths Explorers of the Arctic Russian polar explorers Laptev Sea 18th-century explorers from the Russian Empire Great Northern Expedition Imperial Russian Navy personnel