ALASKA THE GREAT CHAPTER XV Violet Days and Tempest Nights: A Journey Through Alaska’s Icy Heart

From the serene glow of violet Alaskan skies to the roaring fury of a North Pacific storm, my voyage aboard the Santa Ana was a blend of awe, fear, laughter, and unforgettable beauty. Glaciers crumbled, waves crashed, and my cabin turned into a scene of chaos and comedy. Yet in every moment—from standing silent before the majesty of Mount Edgecumbe to gripping both sides of a berth in a Yakutat blow—I lived fully. These are the adventures that shape the soul.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Chapter fifteen, the northwest coast of America extended from one
de Fucus straight to the sixtieth parallel of north Latitude.
Under the direction of the powerful mind of Peter the Great,
explorations in the North Pacific were planned. He wrote the
following instructions with his own hand, and ordered the Chief Admiral,

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Count Fedora Praxin, to see that they were carried into execution.
First dot, one or two boats with decks to be
built at Kamchatka or at any other convenient place, with
which second dot, inquiry should be made in relation to
the northerly coasts, to see whether they were not contiguous

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with America. Since their end was not known. And this done,
they should third dot, see whether they could not somewhere
find in harbor belonging to Europeans, or in European ship.
They should likewise set apart some men who were to
inquire after the name and situation of the coasts discovered.

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Of all this, an exact journal should be kept, with
which they should return to Saint Petersburg. Before these instructions
could be carried out, Peter the Great died. His Empress Catherine, however,
faithfully carried out his plans. The first expedition set out
in seventeen twenty five under the command of Vidis Bearing,

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a Danish captain in the Russian service, with Lieutenants span
Berg and Cherikov as assistants. They carried several officers of
inferior rank, also seamen and shipbuilders. Boats were to be
built at Kamchatka, and they started overland through Siberia on
February the fifth of that year. Owing to many trials

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and hardships, it was not until seventeen twenty eight that
Bearing sailed along the eastern shore of the peninsula, passing
and naming Saint Lawrence Island, and on through Bering Strait. There,
finding that the coast turned westward, his natural conclusion was
that Asia end America were not united, and he returned

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to Kamchaka. In seventeen thirty four. Under the patronage of
the Empress Elizabeth Peter the Great's daughter, a second expedition
made ready, but owing to insurmountable difficulties, it was not
until September seventeen forty that Bearing in Cherikov set sail
in the packet boats Saint Peter and Saint Paul, bearing

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commanding the former from Kamchaka. They wintered at Avatcha on
the Kamchakin Peninsula, where a few buildings, including a church,
were hastily erected, and to which the name of Petropavlovsk
was given. On June fourth, seventeen forty one, the two
ships finally set sail on their eventful voyage. How eventful

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to us of the United States we are only even
now beginning to realize. They were accompanied by Louis de
Lyle de Croier, professor of astronomy, and George Wilhelm, stellar naturalist. Mueller,
the historian and Melon professor of chemistry and natural history
also volunteered in seventeen thirty three to accompany the expedition,

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but owing to the long delay and ill health arising
from arduous labors in Kamchaka, they were compelled to permit
the final expedition to depart without them. On the morning
of June twentieth, the two ships became separated in a
gale and never again sighted one another. Cherikov took an
easterly course, and to him, on the fifteenth of July

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fell by chance the honor of the first discovery of
land on the American continent opposite Kamchaka in fifty five
degrees twenty one. Here he lost two boatloads of seamen,
whom he sent ashore for investigation, and whose traj fate
may only be guessed from the appearance of savages later

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upon the shore. That the first Russians landing upon the
American continent should have met with so horrible a fate
as theirs is supposed to have been has been considered
by the superstitious as an evil omen. The first boats
sent ashore contained ten armed sailors and was commanded by
the mate Abraham Mihailovitch Dementief. The latter is described as

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a capable young man of distinguished family, of fine personal appearance,
and of kind heart, who, having suffered from him unfortunate
love affair, had offered himself to serve his country in
this most hazardous expedition. They were furnished with provisions and arms,
including a small brass cannon, and given a coat of

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signals by Cherikov by which they might communicate with the ship.
The boat reached the shore and passed behind a point
of land for several days, signals which were supposed to
indicate that the party was alive and well were observed
rising at intervals. At last, however, great anxiety was experienced

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by those on board, lest the boat should have sustained
damage in some way, making it impossible for the party
to return. On the fifth day, another boat was sent
ashore with six men, including a carpenter and a cocker.
They effected a landing at the same place, and shortly
afterward day great smoke was observed pushing its dark curls

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upward above the point of land behind which the boats
had disappeared. The following morning, two boats were discovered putting
off from the shore. There was great rejoicing on the ship,
for the night had been passed in deepest anxiety, and
without further attention to the boats, preparations were hastily made

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for immediate sailing. Soon. How to the dread and horror
of all, it was discovered that the boats were canoes
filled with savages, who, at sight of the ship, gave
unmistakable signs of astonishment and shouting A guy A guy
turned hastily back to the shore. Silence and consternation fell

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upon all. Chirikov, humane and kind hearted, bitterly bewailed the
fate of his men. A wind soon a rising, he
was forced to make for the open sea. He remained
in the vicinity, and as soon as it was possible,
returned to his anchorage, But no signs of the unfortunate

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sailors were ever discovered. Without boats and without sufficient men,
no attempt at a rescue could be made, nor was
further exploration possible. And heavy hearted and discouraged, notwithstanding his
brilliant success, Chirikov again weighed anchor and turned his ship homeward.

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He and his crew were attacked by scurvy, provisions and
water became almost exhausted. Chirikov was confined to his birth
and many died. Some islands of the chain now known
as the Allusions, were discovered, and finally, on the eighth
of October seventeen forty one, after enduring inexpressible hardships, great

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physical and mental suffering, and the loss of twenty one men,
they arrived on the coast of Campchatka, near the point
of their departure. In the meantime, on the day following
Chirikov's discovery of land, commander bearing far to the northwestward,
saw rising before his enraptured eyes, the splendid presence of

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Mount Saint Elias, and the countless and scarcely less splendid
peaks which surrounded, and which stretching along the coast for
hundreds of miles, Whitely and silently peopled this region with
majestic beauty. Stellar in his diary claims to have discovered
land on the fifteenth, but was ridiculed by his associates,

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although it was clearly visible to all in the same place.
On the following day, they effected a landing on an island,
which they named Saint Elias in honour of the day
upon which it was discovered. It is now known as
Kayak Island, but the mountain retains the original name. Having

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accomplished the purpose of his expedition, Bearing hastily turned the
Saint Peter homeward. For this haste, Bearing has been most
severely criticized. But when we take into consideration the fact
that preparations for this second expedition had begun in seventeen
thirty three, that during all those years of difficult traveling

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through Siberia, of boat building and the establishment of posts
and magazines for the storing of provisions, he had been
hampered and harassed almost beyond endurance. The quarreling, immorality and
dishonesty of his subordinates that for all dishonesty and blunders
he was made responsible to the government, and that so

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many complaints of him had been forwarded to Saint Petersburg
by officers whom he had reprimanded or otherwise punished, that
at last, in seventeen thirty nine, officers had been sent
to Ocots to investigate his management of the preparations. That
he had now discovered, that portion of the American continent
which he had set out to discover had lost Cherikov,

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upon whose youth and hopefulness he had been perhaps unconsciously relying,
And most human of all, that he had a young
and lovely wife and two sons in Russia, whom he
had not seen for years, and whom he was destined
never to see again. When we take all these things
into consideration, there seems to be but little justice in

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these harsh criticisms. To day, there is no portion of
the Alaskan coast more unreliable nor more to be dreaded
by mariners than that in the vicinity of Baring's discovery
even in summer, violent winds and heavy seas are usually encountered.
Steamers cannot land at Kayak, and passengers and freight are

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lightered ashore, And when this is accomplished without disaster or
great difficulty, the trip is spoken of as in exceptional one.
Yet Bearing remained in this dangerous anchorage five days. Several
landings were made on the two Kayak islands and on
various smaller once some Indian huts without occupants were found

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and entered. They were built of logs and rough bark,
and roofed with tough dried grasses. There were also some
sold cellars in which dried salmon was found in one
of the cabins, where copper implements a whetstone, some arrows,
ropes and cords made of seaweed, and rude household utensils.

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Also herbs which had been prepared according to Kamchatkin methods.
Returning Bearing discovered and named many of the Aleutian islands
and exchanged presents with the friendly natives. They were, however,
overtaken by storms and violent illness. They suffered of hunger
and thirst, so many died that barely enough remained to

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manage the ship. Finally on November fifth, in attempting to land,
the Saint Peter was wrecked on a small island, where
on the eighth of December, in a wretched hut, half
covered with sand which sifted incessantly through the rude boards
that were his only roof, and after suffering unimaginable agonies,

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the illustrious Dane Vidas Bearing died the most miserable of deaths.
The island was named for him, and still retains the name,
being the larger of the Commander Islands. The survivors of
the wreck, remaining on Bearing Island, dragged out a wretched
existence until spring. In holes dug in the sand and

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roofed with sails. Water they had, but their food consisted
chiefly of the flesh of seatters and seals. In May, weak,
emaciated and hopeless though they were, and with their brave
leader gone, they began building a boat from the remnants
of the Saint Peter. It was not completed until August, when,

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with many fervent prayers, they embarked, and after nine days
of mingled dread and anxiety in a frail and leaking craft,
they arrived safely on the Kamchatkin Shore. All hope of
their safety had long been abandoned, and there was great
rejoicing upon their return. Out of their own deep gratitude.

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A memorial was placed in the church h at Petropavlovsk,
which is doubtless still in existence, as it was in
a good state of preservation a few years ago. Russian
historians at first seemed disposed to depreciate Bearing's achievement and
to over exalt the Russian Cherikov. They made the claim

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that the latter was a man of high intellectual attainments, courageous,
hopeful and straightforward, kind hearted and giving thought to and
for others. He was instructor of the Marines of the Guard,
But after having been recommended to Peter the Great as
a young man highly qualified to accompany the expedition under Bearing,

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he was promoted to a lieutenancy and accompanied the latter
on his first expedition in seventeen twenty five and on
the second in seventeen forty one. He was made commander
of the Saint Pevrol or Saint Paul, not by seniority,
but on account of superior knowledge and worth. Despite the

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fact that Bearing was placed by the Emperor in supreme
command of both expeditions. The Russians looked upon Cherikov as
the real hero. He was a favorite withal and in
the accounts of quarrels and dissensions among the heads of
the various detachments of scientists and naval officers of the expedition,

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the name of Cherikov does not appear. His wife and
daughter accompanied him to Siberia. Captain Vadis Bearing or Ivan Ivanovitch,
as the Russians called him, is described as a man
of intelligence, honesty, and irreproachable conduct, but rather inclined in
his later years to vacillation of purpose and indecision of character,

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yielding easily to an irritable and capricious temper. Whether these
facts were due to age or disease is not known,
but that they seriously affected his fitness for the command
of an exploration is not denied even by his an
even so sane and conscientious and historian as Dahl, calls

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him timid, hesitating, an indolent, and refers to his characteristic imbecility,
utter incapacity, and total incompetency. It is incredible, however, that
a man of such gross faults should have been given
the command of this brilliant expedition by so wise and

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great a monarch as Peter Bearing died old, discouraged and indescribable, anguish,
suspicious of everyone, doubting even Stellar, the naturalist who accompanied
the expedition, and who was his faithful friend. Chirikov returned young, flush,
was success, popular and in favour with all from the

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Empress down to his subordinates. Favored at the outset by
youth and a cheerful spirit. His bright particular star guided
him to the discovery of land a few hours in
advance of Bearing. This was his good luck, and his
good luck only Vidas Bearing, the deigne in the Russian service,

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was in supreme command of the expedition, and to him
belongs to glory. One cannot to day sail that magnificent
sweep of purple water between Alaska and eastern Siberia without
a thrill of thankfulness that the fame and the name
of the illustrious Stain are thus splendidly perpetuated. Today his

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name is heard in Alaska a thousand times, where Chirkov's
is heard once. The glory of the latter is fading,
and Bearing is coming to his own Russian, speaking of
him with a pride that approaches veneration. Copyright by F. H.
Noel Seattle, Kowyrnuk and His Drying Salmon Copyright by F. H.

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Noel Seattle, Kowyernook and His Drying Salmon. Captain Martin Petrovitch Spanberg,
the third in command of the expedition, was also a Daine.
He is everywhere described as an illiterate, coarse, cruel man, grasping, selfish,
and unscrupulous in attaining ends that may for his own advancement.

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In his study of the character of Spanberg, Bancroft, who
has furnished the most complete and painstaking description of these expeditions,
makes comment which is perhaps unintentionally humorous. After describing Spanberg
as exceedingly avaricious and cruel and stating that his bad

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reputation extended over all Siberia and that his name appears
in hundreds of complaints and petitions from victims of his licentiousness, cruelty,
and avarice, Bancroft naively adds he was just a man
to become rich. Wealthy people may take such comfort as

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they can out of the comment