Knight Leontiy Vassilievich Spafaryev (russian: Леонтий Васильевич Спафарьев; 19 March 1765 – 30 January 1847) was a

Lieutenant General Lieutenant general (Lt Gen, LTG and similar) is a three-star military rank (NATO code OF-8) used in many countries. The rank traces its origins to the Middle Ages, where the title of lieutenant general was held by the second-in-command on the ...

of the

Imperial Russian Navy The Imperial Russian Navy () operated as the navy of the Russian Tsardom and later the Russian Empire from 1696 to 1917. Formally established in 1696, it lasted until dissolved in the wake of the February Revolution of 1917. It developed from a ...

.Отечества достойный сын

Molodezh Estonii Below is a list of newspapers in Estonia. References External links Digitised Estonian newspapers
Selection of newspapers between 1821–1944 and Foreign Estonia newspapers since 1944 {{Europe topic, List of newspapers in Newspapers p ...

4 February 2002 Spafaryev was Director of

Lighthouse A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of physical structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lenses and to serve as a beacon for navigational aid, for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways. Lighthouses mar ...

s in the

Gulf of Finland The Gulf of Finland ( fi, Suomenlahti; et, Soome laht; rus, Фи́нский зали́в, r=Finskiy zaliv, p=ˈfʲinskʲɪj zɐˈlʲif; sv, Finska viken) is the easternmost arm of the Baltic Sea. It extends between Finland to the north and E ...

and cartographer of the

Russian Admiralty Board of Admiralties (russian: Адмиралтейств-коллегия, ''Admiralteystv-kollegiya'') was a supreme body for the administration of the Imperial Russian Navy and admiralty shipyards in the Russian Empire, established by Peter the ...

Career

Spafariev was an important contributor to the improvement of navigation along the Russian coasts. The first lighthouses in

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

were built during tsar

Peter the Great Peter I ( – ), most commonly known as Peter the Great,) or Pyotr Alekséyevich ( rus, Пётр Алексе́евич, p=ˈpʲɵtr ɐlʲɪˈksʲejɪvʲɪtɕ, , group=pron was a Russian monarch who ruled the Tsardom of Russia from t ...

's drive for reform and modernization at the beginning of the 18th century. However, it was only in 1807, when the Russian Lighthouse Administration was created under the

Russian Hydrographic Service The Russian Hydrographic Service, full current official name Department of Navigation and Oceanography of the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation ( rus, Управление навигации и океанографии Министер ...

, that the Russian lighthouse system followed an organized pattern, becoming effective and efficient. This office was established by the Russian Navy and it began under the leadership of Leontiy V. Spafaryev. In 1820, Spafariev published his essay "Description of the lighthouses of Finland and Gulf of Riga", a highly valued work by

hydrographer Hydrography is the branch of applied sciences which deals with the measurement and description of the physical features of oceans, seas, coastal areas, lakes and rivers, as well as with the prediction of their change over time, for the primary p ...

s. As a cartographer, perhaps his most outstanding work is the "Atlas of the

", published in 1817. His name is spelt as "Spafarief" or "Spafarieff" in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. USGS - Geographic Names Information System (GNIS)
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Honours

The

Spafaryev Islands The Spafaryev Islands, or Spafaryev Island (''Остров Спарафьева''; Ostrov Spafar’yeva), a relatively large double island, are located in the Sea of Okhotsk. It was formerly known as Korovi Island.United States. (1918). ''Asiatic P ...

in 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 ...

and

Spafarief Bay Spafarief Bay is a bay in the Kotzebue Sound, on the Chukchi Sea-facing coast of Alaska. Its size is 15 mi. across. There is a lagoon at its southern end. The Spafarief Bay is located on the northern coast of the Seward Peninsula, 10 mi. ...

in the coast of

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., ...

were named after Leontiy V. Spafaryev.

References

External links

Article (in Estonian) with picture of L. Spafaryev
{{DEFAULTSORT:Spafaryev, Leontiy 1765 births 1847 deaths Imperial Russian Navy personnel Cartographers from the Russian Empire