Newburyport Public Library

Island of the blue foxes, disaster and triumph on the world's greatest scientific expedition, Stephen R. Brown

eng

Includes bibliographical references (pages 275-305) and index

illustrationsmaps

index present

non fiction

Island of the blue foxes

bibliography

975484931

Stephen R. Brown

disaster and triumph on the world's greatest scientific expedition

"The immense eighteenth-century scientific journey, variously known as the Second Kamchatka Expedition or the Great Northern Expedition, from St. Petersburg across Siberia to the coast of North America, involved over 3,000 people and cost Peter the Great over one-sixth of his empire's annual revenue. Led by the legendary Danish captain Vitus Bering, the ten-year voyage, which included scientists, artists, mariners, soldiers, and laborers, discovered Alaska, opened the Pacific fur trade, and, thanks to the brilliant naturalist Georg Steller, discovered dozens of New World plants and animals. The story of the expedition is a tale not only of adventure and historic achievement, but also of shipwreck, endurance, and "one of the most tragic and ghastly trials of suffering in the annals of maritime and arctic history.""--Dust jacket

The edge of the world -- Part one. Europe -- The great embassy -- The first Kamchatka expedition -- The best-laid plans -- Part two. Asia -- St. Petersburg to Siberia -- Quarreling factions -- Phantom islands -- Part three. America -- Bolshaya Zemlya, the great land -- Curious encounters -- The scourge of the sea -- Part four. Nowhere -- Island of the blue foxes -- Death and playing cards -- A new St. Peter -- Russian America