Konstantin Fjodorowitsch Litke

Count Konstantin Fedorovich Litke ( Russian Константин Фёдорович Литке , scientific. Transliteration : Konstantin Fedorovic Litke , including Konstantin Fedorovich Lütke * 25. August 1837 in Saint Petersburg ; † 17th September 1892 in Stuttgart ) was a Russian naval officer , research traveler and geographer . His father, Admiral Fyodor Petrowitsch Lütke , was also a well-known Russian naval officer, circumnavigator , explorer and geographer.

Litke joined the Baltic fleet of the Imperial Russian Navy on September 15, 1853 as a Junker ( юнкер , corresponds to an officer candidate ) . On June 19, 1854 he embarked on his first major voyage on board the frigate Aurora , which took him from Kronstadt via Cape Horn to Kamchatka . Litke excelled in defending Petropavlovsk and was promoted to Michman for his bravery . On April 6, 1855, the Aurora left with Litke on board in the estuary of the Amur . On May 6, there was a gun battle with British ships trying to land a command in the Chichachev Bay ( Залив Чихачёва ). At the end of the year Litke returned to Saint Petersburg via Siberia.

Askold screw frigate

From 1856 Litke served on the screw frigate Askold . On board the ship, he sailed from Kronstadt via the Cape of Good Hope to Japan from 1857-1860 and back on the same route. This was followed by missions on various ships.

Gunboat Gornostai

Yacht Derschawa

Litke received his first command in 1865. He led the gunboat Gornostai from Kronstadt across the Atlantic , the Strait of Magellan and the Pacific to the Amur estuary. After the boat had reached the Far East in 1867, Litke traveled back to St. Petersburg via Siberia and was promoted to captain-manager after his arrival . On December 21, 1871 Litke was assigned to the guards of the fleet. In 1873 he received another command, this time over the corvette Alexander Newski ( Александр Невский ). From 1877 to 1878 he was in command of the Kremlin floating battery . Then, on January 1, 1879, he was promoted to captain 1st rank , on April 20 of that year he was finally transferred to the guard units of the fleet. Litke took command of the imperial yacht Derschawa ( Держава ).

On November 24, 1880, Litke took over the office of Vice Director of the Inspection Department of the Navy Ministry. From March 1883 he was a representative of the Russian Navy Ministry in Italy and Austria.

On April 18, 1888 Litke resigned from active service and was promoted to Rear Admiral on April 24, 1888 . He died in Stuttgart and was buried in St. Petersburg in the Lutheran Wolkowski cemetery.

Litke's importance as a geographer is not based on sensational discoveries, but rather on the precise measurement and exploration of the coastal areas of the Russian Far East.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ His father was born as Friedrich Benjamin Lütke in St. Petersburg. However, since Litke Russified his name, the son's name is usually transcribed as Litke

literature

• сост. Б. П. Полевой: Защитники Отечества: героическая оборона Петропавловска-Камчатского в 1854 году: сб. офиц. док., воспом., статей и писем , 2-е изд., доп., Петропавловск-Камчатский: Дальневост. кн. изд-во, Камч. отд-ние, 1989. (Russian)
• сост. Б. Н. Болгурцев: Морской биографический справочник Дальнего Востока и Русской Америки, XVII - начало XX вв. , Владивосток: Уссури, 1998. (Russian)