Krusenstern, ADAM JOHN, BARON VON

Krusenstern, ADAM JOHN, BARON VON, a Russian voyager, was born 8th November 1770 at Haggud in Estonia. After serving for some time in the British navy he was commissioned by Alexander I. of Russia to command a naval expedition for exploring purposes in the North Pacific. In the course of a three years' voyage (1803–6), the first made round the world by a Russian navigator, he discovered the Orloff Islands, and explored the Marquesas and Washington groups, the west coast of Yezo, the coast of Saghalien, and the northern Kurile Islands. But he failed in the second object for which he was sent out—the opening of Russian trade with Japan. He published an account of his voyage (3 vols. Petersb. 1810–12), which was soon translated into the principal languages of Europe (Eng. ed. 1813); and to this he subsequently added Contributions to the Hydrography of the Pacific Ocean (1819), Atlas of the Pacific Ocean, with Recueil des Mémoires Hydrographiques (1824–27), and other works on the same subject. Krusenstern died on 12th August 1846 at his estate in Estonia. See Memoir by Bernhardi (Eng. trans. by Sir John Ross, 1856).