Fedor petrovich litke and his expeditions to novaya zemlya
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21 coast and to check some features of the previous year’s survey of the Iokangskie Ostrova. A strong southeast wind prevented these projects being started on the 15 th , but on the 16 th Lavrov
and Litke achieved their goals. Since he knew from the previous year’s voyage that there were no safe harbours for boats meriting surveys anywhere between the Iokangskiye Ostrova and Ostrov Bol’shoy Oleniy, Litke planned to sail along this section of coast without stopping. Although a north wind prevented him from getting under way on the 18 th he did succeed in doing so on the 19 th . By 6 pm he was passing the Sem’ Ostrova and had reached Ostrov Bol’shoy Oleniy by 10 pm and dropped anchor there. Next day, with a strong southeasterly wind the brig persistently dragged her anchor and in dealing with this Litke lost another day of clear weather. On the 20 th ,
west to the Vorono River. Windy, wet weather prevailed for the next four days; then on the 25 th a local boat, eastward bound, delivered one of Zavalishin’s men who was sick. Zavalashin had been weather-bound at Zelentsakh. A solar eclipse was scheduled to occur on the 26 th and, hoping to be able to correct his longitudes, all of which till now had been based on lunar distances, Litke went ashore with his instruments – but to no avail; the sun was obscured by cloud throughout the time of the eclipse. Towards the evening of the 27 th Zavalishin returned and provided Litke with a detailed survey of bays, capes and islands along with sailing directions to several secure anchorages, all the way west to the mouth of the Vorono River. On the evening of the 28 th the brig set sail and at 8 pm emerged through the western narrows between Ostrov Bol’shoy Oleniy and the mainland, but soon encountered fog. Litke having been alerted by the sound of breakers, the brig narrowly escaped running aground on one of the Gavrilovskiye Ostrova; Litke’s reaction was to head north for some distance ‘since in that direction we had a clear route to the North Pole itself’. 41 By 2.30 pm on the 29 th the brig was off Teriberskiy Mys when the fog rolled in; it did not clear until the morning of 1 July, allowing Litke to safely round the cape into Teriberskaya Guba. At 2.30 he dropped anchor in Korabel’naya Guba ‘in a depth of 9 fathoms – bottom silt with sand.’ 42
But fog rolled in again on the evening of the 2 nd , resulting in enforced idleness for two days. Over the following three days of superb weather, however, Lavrov surveyed the coast west to Ostrov Kil’din; Shturman Yefremov from Mys Teriberskiy east to the Gavrilovskiye Ostrova; Leytenant Zavalishin outer Teriberskaya Guba; and Litke Korabel’naya Guba. After this intense effort Litke gave the crew a rest-day, and provided them with a bath-house rigged from sails on shore, and allowed them to wash their underwear. During the week spent in Teriberskaya Guba Litke was able to observe the operations of the large fishing settlement at the mouth of the Teriberka River, operated by pomory from the White Sea who came annually in barque-rigged lad’i – vessels of up to 70–80 tons; from them, operating in shnyaki (oared boats 6 to 12 m long) they fished out at sea with baited lines for cod, haddock and halibut.
th , westward bound; running along the high, sheer north coast of Ostrov Kil’din it was passing the western tip of the island by midnight. Although he had surveyed Yekaterinskaya Gavan’ the previous year and had taken a boat south to Kola and back, Litke had not surveyed Kol’skiy Zaliv. Arguing, however, that this could easily be achieved at any time by a boat from Kola, he now headed 41 ibid, p. 205. 42 ibid.
22 straight west across the mouth of Kol’skiy Zaliv without stopping. By the night of the 10 th /11
th the brig was anchored in the sheltered anchorage of Ozerko (now Bol’shoe Ozerko) at the extreme head of Motovskiy Zaliv, the major inlet south of Rybachiy Poluostrov. Leytenant Zavalishin was dispatched to survey Motovskiy Zaliv while Litke and the others concentrated on the immediate surroundings. On the basis of various raised marine features Litke deduced that Rybachiy Poluostrov had relatively recently been an island; this is most probably the result of glacio-isostic rebound. He was greatly intrigued by the phenomenon of the regular occurrence of fin whales (Balaena physalus) beaching themselves in smaller or larger numbers at the head of this inlet; they were then harvested by the local Sami. There was ample evidence of this in the form of bones or rotting carcasses. Leytenant Zavalishin returned on the night of the 15 th /16 th having completed a very thorough survey of Motovskiy Zaliv. Litke then weighed anchored and headed east down Motovskiy Zaliv, but the brig was soon enveloped in fog and hampered by an east wind, which meant endless tacking in order to make any progress. That evening, around 9 pm, there was a sudden alarm. The lookout on the fo’c’slehead suddenly warned of breakers ahead; the helm was immediately put hard over just as the cause of the ‘breakers’ was identified – the back of a large fin whale! 43 Swinging around the east and north coasts of Rybachiy Poluostrov Litke plotted the positions of various features such as Mys Lavyshev (the northeastern tip of the peninsula), Mys Kekurskiy (its northernmost point), Mys Nemetskiy (its northwestern tip), the Kiy Ostrova, Varangskiy Zaliv and the Ayonskiye Ostrova – so renowned for their cloudberries. As the brig passed the latter islands, people could be seen picking the berries. Litke’s instructions were to continue his survey west to the Russian-Norwegian border near the head of Varangskiy Zaliv. There was a strong east wind blowing, however, and had he fulfilled his instructions to the letter, heading back east would have meant at best endless tacking in heavy seas to escape from this narrow inlet and at worst an extremely dangerous situation. He therefore contented himself with penetrating no further west than Vadsø, then ran northeast along the southeast coast of the Varanger Halvøya to Vardø; a clear sky allowed him to fix the latter’s position accurately, revealing its longitude to be 31°5′35″E from Greenwich. 44 The town’s actual position is 71°32′N; 31°6′E. This completed his survey of the Lapland coast and he took his departure from here for Novaya Zemlya at 5 pm on 19 June. The crossing was bedeviled by calms and ENEerly headwinds, but despite this, around noon on the 27 th Litke’s planned landfall of Severnyy Gusiniy Mys appeared dead ahead. This was a source of total amazement for the two local pilots, Otkupshchikov and Gerasimov. Right at the cape Litke was able to get a good noon sun-shot, which revealed a longitude differing by only 1 minute from that of the previous year. From there he steered straight across Zaliv Mollera to Mys Britvin. Knowing from experience how shoal the waters off that cape are he steered to pass it four miles off, but even at that distance from it the depths suddenly decreased to 18 m and as a precaution he gave the cape an even wider berth. Litke intended to survey Matochkin Shar and he therefore headed straight for the entrance to that strait. By 3 am on the 28 th the brig was off Dolgiy Mys but was becalmed in the lee of that cape. Litke had recourse to towing with the boats ahead and by midnight the brig was off Mys Stolbovoy just off the mouth of Matochkin Shar. By noon, however, a strong east 43 ibid, p. 221. 44 ibid, p. 224. Yüklə 1,69 Mb. Dostları ilə paylaş:
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