The Second Kamchatka Expedition of Vitus Bering

On the 300th anniversary of the First Kamchatka Expedition of Vitus Bering, which initiated an unprecedented geographical enterprise, a rare historical testimony is once again opened to the reader — the diaries of Captain Sven Waxel, a participant in the Second Kamchatka (Great Northern) Expedition. After Bering's death on the Commander Islands in 1741, it was Waxel who had to lead the team and return the surviving sailors home, thus completing the task initiated by Peter the Great — the exploration, mapping, and description of the eastern borders of the empire. His diaries are both a vivid account of an eyewitness and a document of great scientific value. The book has not been reissued since 1940 and is now returning to the reader once again.