Aleksei Chirikov

Aleksei Ilyich Chirikov (; 1703 – November 14, 1748) was a Russian navigator and captain who, along with Vitus Bering, was the first Russian to reach the northwest coast of North America. He discovered and charted some of the Aleutian Islands while he was deputy to Vitus Bering during the Great Northern Expedition.

Biography

Early life Little is known about Chirikov's early life other than that the Russian was born in 1703. There is a claim, which originated in 1941, that he was the son of one of Peter the Great's master carpenters.

It is known that Chirikov began his service in the Russian Imperial Navy in 1716, and later in 1721 he graduated from the Naval Academy with the rank of Sub-lieutenant.

Exploration In 1725–1730 and 1733–1743, he was Vitus Bering's deputy during the First and the Second Kamchatka expeditions, having been made a captain in 1733.

In June 1741 Chirikov in the St Paul and Vitus Bering in the St Peter, who he was serving under, left Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky and headed east. On 15 July 1741 Chirikov saw land at Baker Island off Prince of Wales Island at the south end of the Alaska Panhandle.