Wassili Wassiljewitsch Prontschishschew
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.
Web links
- Article Wassili Wassiljewitsch Prontschishschew in the Great Soviet Encyclopedia (BSE) , 3rd edition 1969–1978 (Russian)
- Biography , VseslovA
personal data | |
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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 |