In the early I700's, many people still believed that a bridge of land connected Asia and North America. Vitus Bering (1680-1741), a Dane in the service of the czar of Russia, discovered that this land bridge did not exist. His explorations helped map what was at that time a little-known part of the world and led to the discovery of Alaska.Bering was born at Horsens, Denmark, in 1680, and entered the Russian Navy when he was 23. In 1724, Czar Peter the Great named him to lead an expedition to the Kamchatka Peninsula on the northeast coast of Siberia.
The long journey across Siberia was filled with great hardships. After more than three years, the expedition finally reached a little village on Kamchatka. Bering had a ship built and in 1728 set sail across an uncharted sea, now called the Bering Sea. He discovered an island, which he named St. Lawrence Island. Then he sailed north through the strait (now called Bering Strait) that separates Asia and North America. The discovery of this strait proved the two continents were not linked.
Bering returned to Russia in 1730 to report his findings and to plan a new expedition. In 1741 he sailed from Kamchatka again with two ships—his, the St. Peter, and the St. Paul, which was commanded by Aleksei Chi-rikov. The ships soon drifted apart, and on July 15-16 both Chirikov and Bering sighted the southern coast of Alaska from different points. The St. Peter stopped briefly at Kayak Island. But before exploring farther, Bering, who was ill, decided to return to Kamchatka for the winter. On the return voyage the St. Peter was buffeted by violent storms and wrecked on an uninhabited island off the coast of Kamchatka. Here, on December 8, 1741, Bering died and was buried. The island now bears his name.
