EXPLORERS: Captain Vitus Jonassen Bering (1681-1741) and Captain Alexei Ilyich Chirikov (1703-1748)
FROM: Hørsens, Denmark (Bering); Russia (Chirikov); sailed on behalf of Russia
IMPORTANT DATES: First Kamchatka Expedition organized in 1725; returned 1730; Second Kamchatka Expedition departed in 1733; entered north Pacific in 1740; expedition ended in 1743
VOYAGE: sea, horse and cart, portage and river
VESSELS: Sviatoi Gavrill (Saint Gabriel), First expedition; Sviatoi Petr and Sviatoi Pavel (Saint Peter and Saint Paul), Second expedition
POTENTIAL PURPOSE: territorial and resource claims, charting, geological, and other scientific findings; search for passage/continental connection to North America
