Wassili Wassiljewitsch Prontschishschew

Vasily Prontschishchev and his wife Maria (forensic facial reconstruction by SA Nikitin)

Vassily Prontschischtschew ( Russian Василий Васильевич Прончищев ; * 1702 ; † August 29 ^{. Jul} / 9. September 1736 ^greg. In the Laptev Sea ) was a Russian explorer and polar explorer.

In 1733 the naval officer was appointed head of the northern group of the Second Kamchatka Expedition. The group was supposed to measure and map the entire coast between Arkhangelsk and today's Bering Strait . The idea behind was the search for the Northeast Passage .

Prontschishchev's plan was to build ships inland on the Ob and Lena rivers, which would then sail to the respective estuaries and explore the coast from there. A ship built in Tobolsk am Ob was to sail east from the estuary and meet a ship built on the Lena, which in turn was supposed to sail west. A third ship, also built on the Lena, was commissioned to sail eastwards to Kamchatka .

Prontschishchev himself sailed down the Lena from Yakutsk . Due to a navigation error in the Lena Delta, he wintered in 1735 at the mouth of the Olenjok . In 1736 he reached the east coast of the Taimyr Peninsula . However, the expedition did not have a good star: Many crew members fell ill and died of scurvy . During the attempted to bypass the peninsula in 1736, Prontschishchev and his wife Maria (or Tatiana) , who had accompanied him, died.

Despite the unfortunate end, the expedition was successful from a scientific point of view: it brought the first precise maps of the Lena run and the north Siberian coastline between the Lena estuary and the Taimyr peninsula. In addition, Prontschishchev discovered numerous islands along the coast.

Part of the east coast of Taimyr and the Prontschishchev ridge between Olenjok and Anabar are named after Prontschishchev , and the name of a bay in the Laptev Sea recalls his wife and companion.

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personal data
SURNAME	Prontschishchev, Wassili Wassiljewitsch
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Прончищев, Василий Васильевич (Russian)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Russian explorer and polar explorer
DATE OF BIRTH	1702
DATE OF DEATH	September 9, 1736
Place of death	Laptev Lake