Track No03

[00:01.72] lesson three

[00:02.91] Vitus Bering:

[00:04.91] Across Siberia to North America

[00:08.92] In 1733,

[00:10.51] the most complete scientific expedition

[00:12.91] in history up to that time left St.

[00:15.50] Petersburg, Russia.

[00:17.49] The goal of the expedition was

[00:18.99] to explore the east coast of

[00:20.50] Siberia and to find out

[00:22.50] if Asia and North America were joined.

[00:25.99] The scientists planned to report on everything:

[00:29.01] the geography;

[00:30.08] climate,

[00:30.88] plants,

[00:31.38] animals,

[00:31.88] and customs

[00:32.54] and languages of the Siberian people.

[00:35.54] The expedition had to cross Siberia

[00:37.70] in order to reach

[00:38.95] the Pacific Ocean.

[00:40.95] Vitus Bering,

[00:42.19] the leader of the whole

[00:42.97] expedition, left St.

[00:45.01] Petersburg with almost 600 people.

[00:48.00] The group included a few scientists,

[00:49.76] skilled workers of all kinds,

[00:52.00] soldiers,

[00:52.51] and sailors.

[00:54.51] Alexei Chirikov left later,

[00:56.78] with most of the scientists

[00:58.11] and tons of supplies.

[01:00.51] It took seven years for

[01:02.00] Bering's and Chirikov's groups

[01:03.76] to cross Siberia.

[01:05.50] They traveled mostly

[01:06.50] in flat-bottomed

[01:07.75] boats on the rivers.

[01:09.51] Bering's group spent a year in

[01:11.00] Tobolsk,

[01:12.00] where they built a ship

[01:12.94] and explored the Ob River.

[01:15.81] They continued to Yakutsk,

[01:17.56] where they spent four years.

[01:19.81] Yakutsk was only a small village

[01:22.11] and there were many people

[01:23.17] in the expedition,

[01:24.39] so they had to build their

[01:25.13] own buildings.

[01:26.67] They also built boats

[01:28.00] and explored the Lena River.

[01:30.76] Then they moved on

[01:32.01] to Okhotsk on the eastern coast.

[01:34.52] It took two more years

[01:36.26] to build ships so that

[01:37.26] they could explore and

[01:38.76] map the east coast.

[01:40.77] Bering made careful plans,

[01:43.02] but there were always problems.

[01:45.01] For example,

[01:46.01] they lost a lot of their food

[01:47.55] when one of the ships sank in a storm.

[01:49.90] But finally,

[01:50.96] their two ships started

[01:52.51] for North America.

[01:54.27] They had only one summer instead

[01:56.01] of two years for their explorations

[01:58.17] because of the many problems and delays.

[02:01.42] And summers are short in the north.

[02:03.67] There was more bad luck.

[02:05.41] There were storms,

[02:06.17] and the two ships lost contact,

[02:08.92] but at last the sailors on

[02:10.16] Bering's ship saw mountains

[02:12.17] a short distance across ·

[02:13.42] the sea.

[02:14.48] This proved that

[02:15.28] North America and

[02:16.25] Asia were two

[02:18.03] separate continents

[02:19.77] Their problems continued.

[02:21.53] Their water supply was low,

[02:23.39] but when the men went ashore

[02:24.70] in Alaska,

[02:25.39] they got water that was a little salty.

[02:27.68] Many of the men were sick

[02:29.27] from scurvy, a disease caused by

[02:31.55] the lack of vitamin C.

[02:33.61] When they drank the salty water,

[02:35.14] they became even sicker.

[02:37.26] Then they started dying,

[02:38.85] one after another.

[02:41.20] As the ship sailed south,

[02:43.02] back toward Okhotsk,

[02:44.60] it became lost in storms.

[02:47.06] Finally,

[02:47.80] a storm drove it onto a small island,

[02:50.09] and the men knew

[02:50.88] their ship could not sail again.

[02:53.68] They were in a place with no trees,

[02:55.73] but there were birds and animals for food,

[02:57.85] and fresh water to drink.

[02:59.92] However,

[03:00.63] it was too late for many of them.

[03:02.88] Men continued to die from scurvy,

[03:05.36] and on December 8, 1741,

[03:08.35] Bering died and was buried on

[03:10.11] the island that is now

[03:11.39] named for him.

[03:12.71] When spring came,

[03:13.72] the few remaining men were able to

[03:15.48] build a small ship from the wood in

[03:17.59] the old one and leave the island.

[03:19.85] By this time,

[03:21.10] the Russian government had lost interest

[03:23.12] in the North Pacific.

[03:24.71] Bering's reports were sent back to St.

[03:26.88] Petersburg and forgotten.

[03:28.94] Decades later,

[03:30.25] people realized

[03:31.20] that Bering was a great explorer.

[03:33.57] His expedition gathered important scientific

[03:35.90] information about the interior of Siberia,

[03:39.20] made maps of the eastern coast,

[03:40.69] and discovered a new part of North America

[03:43.94] Today,

[03:44.70] we have the Bering Sea

[03:46.24] between Siberia and Alaska

[03:48.07] to remind us of the leader of this great

[03:50.63] scientific expedition.