Discovery of Alaska

On June 4, 1741, a fair wind took the vessels out of the harbor to the east. The St. Peter was under the command of Bering, with Sven Waxell as second-in-command and five other officers, including naturalist George Wilhelm Steller. Stellar also served as the ship's doctor. The St. Paul was under the command of Alexei Chirikov. In addition to officers and scientists, each ship had 76 sailors aboard.

The two ships sailed east together until June 20. Then, they became separated in the fog. After the two ships separated, the St. Paul continued sailing northeast. On July 15, 1741, lookouts aboard the St. Paul sighted land. This is often considered the first official sighting of Alaska by Europeans, although the little-known Gvozdev discovery had occurred nine years earlier. 

Off the northwest coast of Chichagof Island, Chirikov sent a boat ashore with a crew of eleven men to get fresh water and to look around. They did not come back. Six days later, he sent a second boat with a crew of four to see what had happened to the first boat. This boat also vanished. The next day, two small canoes came out of the small bay where the St. Paul's boats had gone. When Chirikov tried to invite the people in the canoes to come aboard the St. Paul, both canoes turned away. The crew of the two boats that went ashore were never seen again.

On July 27, Chirikov and his officers decided to return to Kamchatka. The St. Paul no longer had the small boats necessary to investigate the shore or, more crucially, to collect fresh water. Passing by the Kenai Peninsula and Afognak Island, the St. Paul reached Adak in early September. Here, the Russians traded small articles with Aleuts, who came out to their ship in Baidarkas. 

On October 12, 1741, this half of Bering's second expedition successfully returned to Russia, arriving back to Kamchatka.

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