Island of the Blue Foxes: Disaster and Triumph on the World's Greatest Scientific Expedition

by Stephen R. Bown

Overview

The story of the world's largest, longest, and best financed scientific expedition of all time, triumphantly successful, gruesomely tragic, and never before fully told

The immense 18th-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. Until now recorded only in academic works, this 10-year venture, led by the legendary Danish captain Vitus Bering and including scientists, artists, mariners, soldiers, and laborers, discovered Alaska, opened the Pacific fur trade, and led to fame, shipwreck, and "one of the most tragic and ghastly trials of suffering in the annals of maritime and arctic history."

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780306825194
Publisher:	Hachette Books
Publication date:	11/07/2017
Series:	A Merloyd Lawrence Book
Pages:	352
Sales rank:	437,245
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Stephen R. Bown is author of The Last Viking: The Life of Roald Amundsen and White Eskimo: Knud Rasmussen's Fearless Journey into the Heart of the Arctic, which won the Williams Mills Award for the best book on the Arctic in 2016. His award-winning books, including Scurvy and Madness, Betrayal, and the Lash, have led to a reputation as "Canada's Simon Winchester."

Table of Contents

Prologue The Edge of the World 1

Part 1 Europe

Chapter 1 The Great Embassy 10

Chapter 2 The First Kamchatka Expedition 27

Chapter 3 The Best-Laid Plans 53

Part 2 Asia

Chapter 4 St. Petersburg to Siberia 72

Chapter 5 Quarreling Factions 85

Chapter 6 Phantom Islands 102

Part 3 America

Chapter 7 Bolshaya Zemlya, the Great Land 124

Chapter 8 Curious Encounters 146

Chapter 9 The Scourge of the Sea 167

Part 4 Nowhere

Chapter 10 Island of the Blue Foxes 190

Chapter 11 Death and Playing Cards 214

Chapter 12 A New St. Peter 236

Epilogue Russian America 261

Notes 275

A Note on Sources and Further Reading 297

Selected Bibliography 301

Acknowledgments 307

Image Sources 309

Index 311

About the Author 327

Editorial Reviews

"A gripping account of 'the most extensive scientific expedition in history,' whose impressive results were certainly matched by its duration and miseries. A rapidly paced story of adventure 'to be appreciated as a reminder of the power of nature and of the struggle and triumph over disaster...and of the powerful urge to persevere and return home.'"
—Kirkus Reviews

"[An] excellent work of historical reconstruction that will enamor fans of the Age of Exploration."—Booklist

"Island of the Blue Foxes is a rip-roaring tale of adventures, hardship, sacrifice, human hubris and—dare I say—madness...set in inhospitable landscapes and told with breezy energy. Wonderful."—Andrea Wulf, author of The Invention of Nature: Alexander Humboldt's New World

"One of the most significant and harrowing expeditions in the annals of European and American exploration, the Bering voyages remain largely unknown to modern readers. Inspired by the European Enlightenment, Peter the Great and his successor Empress Anna sent Danish navigator Vitus Bering 5,000 miles eastward across Siberia, then another 3,000 miles across the Pacific to the unknown coasts of North America, decades before Captain Cook's well-known voyages. Bering left his name on a sea and a strait, and his naturalist Steller identified dozens of unknown plants and animals in the New World, but perhaps the most inspiring legacy is the remarkable forbearance and human ingenuity employed by the expedition's survivors in the face of scurvy, starvation, and shipwreck. A gifted chronicler of Northern exploration, Stephen Bown tells this incredible tale with grace, authority, and a deep grasp of its significance."
—Peter Stark, author of Astoria: John Jacob Astor and Thomas Jefferson's Lost Pacific Empire

"Bown's readable history should elevate Bering into the top tier of explorers. For fans of adventure, exploration, and discovery."—Library Journal

"[A] little-known, white-knuckle tale of ambition, ingenuity and the raw fight for survival. Bown has a stellar track record of chronicling the larger-than-life tales of explorers...An amazing story, both in its intimate details of day-to-day adventure and survival and its large-scale political and scientific implications."—Calgary Herald

"Brings North American readers into a part of history seldom written about anywhere."—CBC News


"A worthwhile read and perhaps one of [Bown's] best. In sharing what is a remarkable story of Arctic exploration, Bown has added a welcome addition to what is already a rich catalogue of books about the Arctic and maritime exploration."—Rocky Mountain Outlook

"[Bown] has weaved a story which details the highs and lows of one of the greatest expeditions in world history and one which has been largely forgotten by mainstream humanity. Consequently, this book is an opportunity for all to learn about Bering and his contributions to the geographic and scientific knowledge gained as a result of his efforts."—New York Journal of Books

"Well-written, fast-paced."—Portland Book Review

"The story of [an] epic undertaking...It should draw new readers to a neglected chapter in maritime history. Bering's voyage shows the lengths to which humans are driven by their curiosity, and demonstrates the environmental consequences of our greed."—Nature

"[An] engrossing narrative...Naturalist Georg Willhelm Steller['s]...heroics, and the story of his mates' survival, so expertly recalled by Bown, exemplifies the unstoppable momentum of human curiosity."—Minneapolis Star Tribune

"Bown has drawn on journals, logs, letters and official reports to piece together a story never fully told before. And what a story: adventure and discovery, misery and death, and a cast of characters by turns admirable and appalling, brilliant and hopeless, annoying and plain nasty."
—New Scientist

"The curious tale of an ambitious sea voyage spent mostly on dry land...The Island of author Stephen R. Bown's title figures only in the final stages of this expedition, also known as the Great Northern Expedition. His expansive book covers far more territory, though, ensuring readers understand the related history necessary to put both of these massive voyages in context."
—Washington Independent Review of Books

"The account is based on source materials, but reads like an adventure novel...Profiles of individual courage, scientific determination, and insights into the politics and struggles of expeditions create an engrossing history that's hard to put down."
—Donovan's Bookshelf

"A moving account of how the great Kamchatka expedition morphed into a ten-year odyssey of hardship and conflict...A fine addition to the literature of Arctic exploration."—Natural History

"Island of the Blue Foxes moves quickly, and [Stephen] Bown does a fine job of giving readers a strong feel for both what the men endured and how the personal characters of the major players were tested by their tribulations...A must-read."
—Anchorage Daily News

"A focused, interesting summary...The book ends with an adroit summing up of the post-expedition history of events that Bering's voyages set in motion, which had huge consequences for the wildlife and peoples native to Alaska and its eventual acquisition by the US...Recommended."—Choice

"Tells the fascinating story of Danish explorer Vitus Bering's overly ambitious and ultimately doomed scientific expedition."—Military Officer

"This makes Bown's third book that might be found in the frozen-food section, and his best yet...This tale twists over an uncharted early eighteenth-century world where ship-wreck often spells certain doom. However, in this case, the sea gives up her dead to return and tell the living of the lessons learned."—Seattle Book Review

"Nearly every story of Arctic and Antarctic exploration is fraught with tragedy, privation and death. However, Bown's expert account in The Island of the Blue Foxes is a particularly grisly tale...Bown's other books include the excellent The Last Viking: The Life of Roald Amundsen, the greatest polar explorer of all time. He was first to the South Pole and among the earliest to the North Pole. Who better than Bown to write about the Great Northern Expedition?"
—Internet Review of Books

"This book will appeal to a general readership, but also to students of Arctic history and specialist Arctic historians."—Arctic Journal

"A riveting account of two expeditions...Various characters come alive in the book...But the ultimate character in the story is Russia itself and its dark colonial past."—Down to Earth

From the Publisher

11/01/2017
Bown (White Eskimo) asserts that Captain Vitus Bering (1681–1741) and the Great Northern Expedition should be regarded as one of the world's greatest explorers and expeditions. In the 1720s, Peter the Great wanted to prove Russia's might by sending surveyors across Siberia to the Kamchatka Peninsula and onward to America. The journey was an effort to gather cartographic, geographic, and cultural information, while exerting political power over fur-flung territories. Bering was chosen to head the expedition for his logistical and administrative skills and experience with the difficult land route across Siberia. A group left St. Petersburg in 1733 and reached Kamchatka in 1740. Two ships were constructed and 150 men sailed east in 1741. Lacking fresh water, one of the ships was beached on a remote Aleutian island where 31 men, including Bering, died from scurvy. The blue foxes that inhabited the island were both a blessing (food) and a curse (thievery). Survivors constructed a smaller ship from the wreckage and sailed home in 1742. To chronicle this epic adventure, the author uses official Russian documents, ship logs, journals, and correspondence. VERDICT Bown's readable history should elevate Bering into the top tier of explorers. For fans of adventure, exploration, and discovery.—Margaret Atwater-Singer, Univ. of Evansville Lib., IN

Library Journal

2017-08-28
That Vitus Bering (1681-1741) sailed into the Bering Strait is no secret, but few outside Russia know how he did it.Even veteran history buffs will blanch as Canadian historian Bown (White Eskimo: Knud Rasmussen's Fearless Journey into the Heart of the Arctic, 2015, etc.) recounts the spectacular, often gruesome details of Bering's massive expedition. A handsome, healthy Dane, Bering "was one of the many talented foreigners attracted to Russian service by Peter the Great's expansion of the Russian Navy." By 1731, he had already led a Far East expedition that returned with tantalizing findings. Russia's government immediately planned a second expedition, which was far more ambitious and featured impossibly complex goals that ignored the painful lessons of the first. Readers will share the author's amazement at what followed. In 1733, more than 1,000 explorers, soldiers, scientists, and craftsmen left St. Petersburg with tons of supplies, taking three years to trundle across 6,000 miles of Russia, quarreling, suffering, and wreaking havoc over roadless, thinly populated Siberia as they commandeered food, horses, and laborers along the way. Reaching the Pacific Ocean, the expedition built several oceangoing vessels. One group sailed south and made Russia's first contact with Japan. Another, under Bering's direction, sailed through the strait that eventually bore his name, confirming that Russia was not connected to America and reaching Alaska (it turns out he was not the first). Shipwrecked on an isolated island, Bering and many crew died before the remainder straggled back. In familiar fashion, Russia's autocratic leaders suppressed the new geographic and scientific information, although it gradually trickled out over the decades. Luckily for readers, diaries, letters, and official reports provide Bown ample material for a gripping account of "the most extensive scientific expedition in history," whose impressive results were certainly matched by its duration and miseries. A rapidly paced story of adventure "to be appreciated as a reminder of the power of nature and of the struggle and triumph over disaster…and of the powerful urge to persevere and return home."

Kirkus Reviews