KRUSENSTERN, Adam Ivan (1770-1846) Russian admiral and hydrograph¬er, he served in the British Navy from 1793 to
1797 and during those years visited America, India, and China. He wrote a paper on the advantages of a direct route from Russia to China via Cape Horn, sent it to Alexander I, and was commissioned by him to make a voyage to demonstrate the possibility. Two ships were purchased in England, renamed NADEZHDA and NEVA, and accompanied by Otto von Kotzebue and Yuri Lisiansky, Krusenstern left Kronstadt in 1803 and proceeded to Kamchatka round Cape Horn and via the Sandwich Islands. After a prolonged series of exploratory voyages in the northern part of the Pacific, the expedition returned to Kronstadt by way of the Cape of Good Hope. Krusenstern thus became the first Russian cir¬cumnavigator and was received with many honours and promotion to admiral by Nicholas I. He became director of the Russian navy school and carried out considerable research on the best method of compensating compasses against the residual magnetism of iron ships.
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