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by aukepalmhof » Mon Jun 14, 2010 2:53 am
The wooden two-mast brig "RURIK" (sometimes given as "RURICK" ) was built in Abo, Finland in 1815 Tonnage 180 ts (bm).
Crew 32-34
She was named for the ninth-century founder of the Rurik dynasty that ruled Russia for eight centuries. Built for an expedition proposed by Count Nikolai P.Romanzof to sail through the Bering Strait and search for the North East Passage. Under command of Lt. Otto von Kotzebue she set sail from St Petersburg on 27 July 1815 and via Kronstadt (01 August) sailed to Copenhagen, were she left on 25 Sept. She made also a call at Portsmouth and on 5 Oct. 1815 she entered the Atlantic, crossing the line for the first time on 23 Nov. From 12 until 28 Dec. at anchor on the road of Destero on Santa Chatrina Island, Brazil. The "RURIK" headed then South for Cape Horn. 10 Jan. 1816 she was sailing in a heavy storm (pampero) in an position between 46 and 47 South, during the storm the hatch astern was smashed in, bulwark was lost and the captain was washed overboard by a heavy sea, but luckily he could hold a line hanging overboard, and he managed to clamber back on the vessel. A canon broke loss, and the henhouse with 40 chickens washed overboard. Kotzebue sustained a chest injury that would plague him the rest of the voyage, and the damage on the ship forged them to put into Talcahuano, were she arrived on 12 Feb. 1816. 8 March she sailed from the road for a westerly course, her next landfall was the Eastern Island were she arrived on 28 March. Then via the Tuamotus and Marshall Islands, she arrived at St Peter and St Paul (Petropavlovsk), Kamchatcha on 3 June. She was there sheated in copper, what was taken from the hull of Vasilii M. Golovnin's sloop "DIANA". The crew was increased by 6 men and an Aleut of the Russian American Trading Company; he took a Baidarkas (skin kayak) with him. On 17 July the discovery of the Northeast Passage began, and on 30 July the "RURIK" sailed through the Bering Strait and passing very near to the coast of Seward Peninsula she sailed into Kotzebue Sound, which at first Kotzebue believed might be the beginning of the Northeast Passage. Then she was sailing east to Cape Dezhnev, the easternmost part of Asia. On 19 august, when the short summer season ended, the expedition headed back from the St Lawrence Bay to Yerba Buena (San Francisco) for supplies, where she arrived in October. Sailed in November for the Sandwich Islands, and via the Marshall and Caroline Islands, which the expedition surveyed through March 1817, before heading north again. 13 April in heavy seas the "RURIK" was pooped and she lost her bowsprit and several sailors were injured under which Kotzebue. A few days later the "RURIK" was almost lost on the coast of Unimak Island. After two months of repair at Unalaska, the "RURIK" set sail again on 29 June, with on board 15 Aleuts which were bringing on board with him more Baidarkas for coastal survey work. On 12 July, Kotzebue announced that the expedition was heading home due to his injuries. The "RURIK" returned to Unalaska, sailed from there on 18 August. By 1 October the "RURIK" was at Honolulu where the Russian gathered plants for transplantation in the Radak Island chain of the Marshall Islands en route to Manila where she arrived on 15 Dec. At Manila the "RURIK" was repaired and after the repair she set sail from this port on 29 Jan. 1818 and via Strait Sunda the Indian Ocean to Cape Town, where she arrived on 1 March. At the end of March the Russians met the French ship "URANIE" at the Cape of Good Hope. 24 April 1818 the "RURIK" made a call at St Helena but by many misunderstandings the vessel was not allowed to anchor in the roadstead, and after 18 hours drifting near the island the "RURIK" sailed farther. After making calls at Portsmouth, Copenhagen, Rival and Kronstadt, she dropt her anchor opposite the house of Romanoff in the River Neva on 03 August 1818. The "RURIK" was later sold to the Russian American Company and in 1821-22 made a second voyage under Navigator Klochov, in company with the ship "ELISAVETA" in what was intended to be a second circumnavigation. The "ELISAVETA" was sold in Cape Town, the "RURIK" proceeded alone to Novo Arkhangelsk (Sitka) where she was put in the colonial service. In which she ended her days. The crew returned via Okhotsk and then overland home.
Marshall Islands 1994 30c sg493, scott449. 32c sg678, scott605j
Penrhyn Island 2016 $4 sgMS?, scott?
Source: Russian Round the World by Ivashintsov. Voyage of Discovery by Kotzebue.
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Last edited by
aukepalmhof on Sat Mar 18, 2017 2:06 am, edited 1 time in total.
