Faddey Bellingshausen
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Fabian Gottlieb Thaddeus von Bellingshausen (russian: Фадде́й Фадде́евич Беллинсга́узен, translit=Faddéy Faddéevich Bellinsgáuzen; – ) was a Russian naval officer, cartographer and explorer, who ultimately rose to the rank of
admiral Admiral is one of the highest ranks in some navies. In the Commonwealth nations and the United States, a "full" admiral is equivalent to a "full" general in the army or the air force, and is above vice admiral and below admiral of the fleet, ...
. He participated in the first Russian circumnavigation of the globe, and subsequently became a leader of another circumnavigation expedition that discovered the continent of Antarctica. Like Otto von Kotzebue and Adam Johann von Krusenstern, Bellingshausen belonged to the cohort of prominent Baltic German navigators who helped Russia launch its naval expeditions. Bellingshausen was born on Osel Island. He started his service in the Russian
Baltic Fleet , image = Great emblem of the Baltic fleet.svg , image_size = 150 , caption = Baltic Fleet Great ensign , dates = 18 May 1703 – present , country = , allegiance = (1703–1721) (1721–1917) (1917–1922) (1922–1991)(1991–present) ...
, and after distinguishing himself joined the first Russian circumnavigation of the Earth in 1803–1806, serving on the merchant ship ''Nadezhda'' under the captaincy of Adam Johann von Krusenstern. After the journey, he published a collection of maps of the newly explored areas and islands of the Pacific Ocean. Subsequently, he commanded several ships of the Baltic and
Black Sea Fleet Chernomorskiy flot , image = Great emblem of the Black Sea fleet.svg , image_size = 150px , caption = Great emblem of the Black Sea fleet , dates = May 13, ...
s. As a prominent cartographer, Bellingshausen was appointed to command the Russian circumnavigation of the globe in 1819–1821, intended to explore the Southern Ocean and to find land in the proximity of the South Pole. Mikhail Lazarev prepared the expedition and was made Bellingshausen's second-in-command and the captain of the sloop '' Mirny'', while Bellingshausen himself commanded the sloop '' Vostok''. During this expedition, Bellingshausen and Lazarev became the first explorers to see the land of Antarctica on 27 January 1820 ( New Style). They circumnavigated the continent twice and never lost each other from view. Thus, they disproved James Cook's assertion that it was impossible to find land in the southern ice-fields. The expedition discovered and named Peter I,
Zavodovski Zavodovski Island is an uninhabited volcanic island in the Traversay Islands subgroup of the South Sandwich Islands. It lies southeast of South Georgia Island. It is the northernmost of the South Sandwich Islands and the nearest to South Georg ...
, Leskov, Alexander, and
Visokoi Island Visokoi Island is an uninhabited island in the Traversay Islands group of the South Sandwich Islands. It was discovered in 1819 by a Russian expedition under Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen, who initially named the island Thorson Island in h ...
s, the
Antarctic Peninsula The Antarctic Peninsula, known as O'Higgins Land in Chile and Tierra de San Martín in Argentina, and originally as Graham Land in the United Kingdom and the Palmer Peninsula in the United States, is the northernmost part of mainland Antarctic ...
, and made other discoveries in the tropical waters of the Pacific. Made counter admiral on his return, Bellingshausen participated in the Russo-Turkish War of 1828–1829. Promoted to vice admiral, he again served in the Baltic Fleet in the 1830s, and from 1839 he was the military governor of Kronstadt, where he died. In 1831, he published the book on his Antarctic travels, called ''Double Investigation of the Southern Polar Ocean and the Voyage Around the World'' (''Двукратные изыскания в южнополярном океане и плавание вокруг света''). Many Russians remember him as one of their greatest
admirals Admiral is one of the highest ranks in some navies. In the Commonwealth nations and the United States, a "full" admiral is equivalent to a "full" general in the army or the air force, and is above vice admiral and below admiral of the fleet, ...
and explorers. Multiple geographical features and locations in the
Antarctic The Antarctic ( or , American English also or ; commonly ) is a polar region around Earth's South Pole, opposite the Arctic region around the North Pole. The Antarctic comprises the continent of Antarctica, the Kerguelen Plateau and other ...
, named in honor of Bellingshausen, commemorate his role in the exploration of the southern polar region.


Early life and career

Bellingshausen was born to a Baltic German noble Bellingshausen family in the , Ösel County in the Governorate of Livonia of the Russian Empire; now Saare County, Estonia. His paternal family had Holsteinish origins; the surname Bellingshausen was first recorded in Lübeck. He enlisted as a cadet in the Imperial Russian Navy at the age of ten. After graduating from the Kronstadt naval academy at age eighteen, Bellingshausen rapidly rose to the rank of captain.


First Russian circumnavigation

A great admirer of
Cook Cook or The Cook may refer to: Food preparation * Cooking, the preparation of food * Cook (domestic worker), a household staff member who prepares food * Cook (professional), an individual who prepares food for consumption in the food industry * ...
's voyages, Bellingshausen served from 1803 in the first Russian circumnavigation of the Earth. He was one of the officers of the vessel '' Nadezhda'' ("Hope"), commanded by Adam Johann von Krusenstern. The mission was completed in 1806. After the journey, Bellingshausen published a collection of maps of the newly explored areas and islands of the Pacific Ocean.


Service as captain

Bellingshausen's career continued with the command of various ships in the
Baltic Baltic may refer to: Peoples and languages * Baltic languages, a subfamily of Indo-European languages, including Lithuanian, Latvian and extinct Old Prussian *Balts (or Baltic peoples), ethnic groups speaking the Baltic languages and/or originati ...
and Black Seas. From 1812 to 1816 he commanded the
frigate A frigate () is a type of warship. In different eras, the roles and capabilities of ships classified as frigates have varied somewhat. The name frigate in the 17th to early 18th centuries was given to any full-rigged ship built for speed and ...
'' Minerva'' and from 1817 to 1819 the frigate '' Flora'', both in the
Black Sea Fleet Chernomorskiy flot , image = Great emblem of the Black Sea fleet.svg , image_size = 150px , caption = Great emblem of the Black Sea fleet , dates = May 13, ...
. During 1812 he met on Macquarie Island, half-way between New Zealand and Antarctica,
Richard Siddins Richard Siddins (1770–1846) was an Australian master mariner, harbour pilot and lighthouse keeper. Biography Richard Siddins was born in 1770 (the exact place and date of birth is unknown) and died on 2 July 1846 in New South Wales, Aus ...
, the Australian captain of the ship ''Campbell Macquarie''.


First Russian Antarctic expedition

When Emperor Alexander I authorized an expedition to the south polar region in 1819, the authorities selected Bellingshausen to lead it as an experienced captain and explorer, and a prominent cartographer. The expedition was intended to explore the Southern Ocean and to find land in the proximity of the South Pole. The preparation work on the two ships, the 985-ton
sloop-of-war In the 18th century and most of the 19th, a sloop-of-war in the Royal Navy was a warship with a single gun deck that carried up to eighteen guns. The rating system covered all vessels with 20 guns and above; thus, the term ''sloop-of-war'' enc ...
'' Vostok'' ("East") and the 530-ton support vessel '' Mirny'' ("Peaceful") was carried out by Mikhail Lazarev, who had captained his own circumnavigation of the globe before. Bellingshausen became the captain of ''Vostok'', and Lazarev captained ''Mirny''. The journey started from Kronstadt on 4 June 1819. They stopped briefly in England, where Bellingshausen met with Sir Joseph Banks, the president of the Royal Society. Banks had sailed with Captain
James Cook James Cook (7 November 1728 Old Style date: 27 October – 14 February 1779) was a British explorer, navigator, cartographer, and captain in the British Royal Navy, famous for his three voyages between 1768 and 1779 in the Pacific Ocean an ...
fifty years earlier and supplied the Russians with books and charts for their expedition. Leaving Portsmouth on 5 September 1819 the expedition crossed the Antarctic Circle (the first to do so since
Cook Cook or The Cook may refer to: Food preparation * Cooking, the preparation of food * Cook (domestic worker), a household staff member who prepares food * Cook (professional), an individual who prepares food for consumption in the food industry * ...
) on 26 January 1820 ( New Style). On 27 January, the expedition discovered the Antarctic mainland approaching the Antarctic coast at a point with coordinates 69º21'28"S 2º14'50"W and seeing ice-fields there. The point in question lies within twenty miles of the Antarctic mainland. Bellingshausen's diary, his report to the Russian Naval Minister on 21 July 1821 and other documents, available in the Russian State Museum of the Arctic and Antarctic in Saint Petersburg, Russia, were carefully compared with the log-books of other claimants by the British polar historian A. G. E. Jones in his 1982 study ''Antarctica Observed''. Jones concluded that Bellingshausen, rather than the Royal Navy's Edward Bransfield on 30 January 1820 or the American Nathaniel Palmer on 17 November 1820, was indeed the discoverer of the sought-after Terra Australis. During the voyage Bellingshausen also visited
Meretoto / Ship Cove Meretoto / Ship Cove is a small bay in the Marlborough Region of New Zealand, renowned as the first place of prolonged contact between Māori and Europeans. It is located near the entrance of Queen Charlotte Sound / Tōtaranui, west of nearby ...
in New Zealand, the South Shetland Islands, and discovered and named Peter I,
Zavodovski Zavodovski Island is an uninhabited volcanic island in the Traversay Islands subgroup of the South Sandwich Islands. It lies southeast of South Georgia Island. It is the northernmost of the South Sandwich Islands and the nearest to South Georg ...
, Leskov and Visokoi Islands, and a peninsula of the Antarctic mainland that he named the Alexander Coast, but that has more recently borne the designation of Alexander Island. Bellingshausen and Lazarev managed to twice circumnavigate the continent and never lost each other from view. Thus, they disproved
Cook Cook or The Cook may refer to: Food preparation * Cooking, the preparation of food * Cook (domestic worker), a household staff member who prepares food * Cook (professional), an individual who prepares food for consumption in the food industry * ...
's assertion that it was impossible to find land in the southern ice fields. The expedition also made discoveries and observations in the tropical waters of the Pacific Ocean.


Admiral

Returning to Kronstadt on 4 August 1821, Bellingshausen was made counter admiral. He fought in the Russo-Turkish War of 1828–1829 and attained the rank of vice admiral in 1830. In 1831, he published the book on his Antarctic travel, called ''Double Investigation of the Southern Polar Ocean and the Voyage Around the World'' (''Двукратные изыскания в южнополярном океане и плавание вокруг света'').


Military governor of Kronstadt

He became the military governor of Kronstadt, the naval base at the approaches of
St Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
, from 1839, and died there in 1852.


Legacy

Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen is remembered in Russia as one of its greatest
admirals Admiral is one of the highest ranks in some navies. In the Commonwealth nations and the United States, a "full" admiral is equivalent to a "full" general in the army or the air force, and is above vice admiral and below admiral of the fleet, ...
and explorers. In the
Antarctic The Antarctic ( or , American English also or ; commonly ) is a polar region around Earth's South Pole, opposite the Arctic region around the North Pole. The Antarctic comprises the continent of Antarctica, the Kerguelen Plateau and other ...
, multiple geographical features and locations, named in honor of Bellingshausen, remind of his role in exploration of the southern polar region.


Monuments

There is a memorial stone of Bellingshausen on the previous site (on the ruins) of Lahhentagge/Lahetaguse manor in Ösel/Saaremaa. There is a monument to Bellingshausen in
Nikolayev, Ukraine Mykolaiv ( uk, Миколаїв, ) is a List of cities in Ukraine, city and List of hromadas of Ukraine, municipality in Southern Ukraine, the Administrative centre, administrative center of the Mykolaiv Oblast. Mykolaiv city, which provides U ...
, as well as in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and in Montevideo, Uruguay. There is a monument to Admiral Bellingshausen in Kronstadt, near Saint Petersburg in Russia.


Named in honour

* Bellingshausen Island (was) in the
Aral Sea The Aral Sea ( ; kk, Арал теңізі, Aral teñızı; uz, Орол денгизи, Orol dengizi; kaa, Арал теңизи, Aral teńizi; russian: Аральское море, Aral'skoye more) was an endorheic basin, endorheic lake lyi ...
. * Bellingshausen Island in the south Atlantic Ocean, part of the
South Sandwich Islands ) , anthem = "God Save the King" , song_type = , song = , image_map = South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands in United Kingdom.svg , map_caption = Location of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands in the southern Atlantic Oce ...
*
Bellingshausen Sea The Bellingshausen Sea is an area along the west side of the Antarctic Peninsula between 57°18'W and 102°20'W, west of Alexander Island, east of Cape Flying Fish on Thurston Island, and south of Peter I Island (there the southern ''Vostokkyste ...
in the Southern Ocean *
Bellingshausen Station Bellingshausen Station (Russian: станция Беллинсгаузен) is a Russian (formerly Soviet) Antarctic station at Collins Harbour, on King George Island of the South Shetland Islands. It was one of the first research stations fou ...
, a Russian (former Soviet) base on King George Island, Antarctica * Bellingshausen Plate, an ancient tectonic plate * Bellinsgauzen, a crater on the far side of the Moon *
Faddey Islands The Faddey Islands (Russian: Острова Фаддея; Ostrova Faddeya) is a group of islands in the Laptev Sea, Russia. Geography The Faddey Islands group is located in the coastal region, off Faddey Bay (залив Фаддея) in the coa ...
in the Laptev Sea coastal region on the north Russian coast, named after Bellingshausen's first name in Russian *
Motu One (Society Islands) Motu One, also known as Bellinghausen, is an atoll in the Leeward group of the Society Islands. Motu One is located 550 km northwest from Tahiti and 72 km northeast of Manuae, its closest neighbor. Motu One's reef encloses totally a l ...
, also known as Bellinghausen, an atoll in the Pacific Ocean * A minor planet 3659 Bellingshausen, discovered by Soviet astronomer Lyudmila Chernykh in 1969


See also

* History of Antarctica * List of Baltic German explorers


References


External links


70South – information on Fabian von Bellingshausen
Bellingshausen's book in Russian with details on the Antarctic expedition led by him
A map of his Antarctic expedition (in Russian)
attention – all dates there are
Julian Julian may refer to: People * Julian (emperor) (331–363), Roman emperor from 361 to 363 * Julian (Rome), referring to the Roman gens Julia, with imperial dynasty offshoots * Saint Julian (disambiguation), several Christian saints * Julian (give ...

The page of Pilguse (Hoheneichen) manor from Estonian Manors Portal
owned by the von Bellingshausens {{DEFAULTSORT:Bellingshausen, Fabian Gottlieb von 1778 births 1852 deaths People from Saaremaa Parish People from Kreis Ösel Baltic-German people Explorers of Antarctica Explorers from the Russian Empire Estonian explorers 19th-century explorers Imperial Russian Navy admirals Cartographers from the Russian Empire Circumnavigators of the globe Ethnic German people from the Russian Empire 18th-century Estonian people Russian and Soviet polar explorers Recipients of the Order of St. George of the Fourth Degree Recipients of the Order of St. Vladimir, 1st class Recipients of the Order of St. Vladimir, 2nd class Recipients of the Order of St. Vladimir, 3rd class Recipients of the Order of the White Eagle (Russia) Recipients of the Order of St. Anna, 1st class Companions of the Order of the Bath Order of Saint Louis recipients