Vitus Bering

Hello! My name is Vitus Bering. I was born a long, long time ago, on August 5th, 1681, in a country called Denmark. Even as a little boy, I loved the sea. I would watch the big ships sail in and out of the harbor and dream of having my own adventures on the water. When I grew up, I decided to become a sailor. I joined the navy in a huge country called Russia to begin my life on the ocean.

The leader of Russia, a very important man named Tsar Peter the Great, heard that I was a good captain. In 1725, he gave me a special mission that would take me on a great adventure. He wanted me to travel all the way across his country to the very eastern edge, a place called Kamchatka. The big question everyone wanted to answer was: Are Asia and America connected by land? Nobody knew for sure. My crew and I traveled for years just to get there. Then, in 1728, we finally set sail. We sailed north and found a sea between the two lands, which meant they were not connected.

But I wanted to see America with my own eyes. So, a few years later, I led a second, even bigger journey called an expedition. In the summer of 1741, my crew and I sailed east from Kamchatka on our ship, the St. Peter. After many weeks at sea, we finally saw it—the tall, snowy mountains of Alaska. We were some of the first people from Europe to ever see that part of North America. It was so exciting to explore a new coast and see amazing animals like sea otters with their thick, furry coats.

Our journey back was very difficult. A big storm wrecked our ship, and we were stuck on a small island. Many of my men and I became very sick from the cold and lack of good food. I lived to be 60 years old and passed away on that island on December 8th, 1741. Even though it was a sad ending for me, our adventure was a huge success. We created new maps and proved that Asia and America were two separate continents. Today, people remember my work. The sea between those two continents is called the Bering Sea, and the strip of water is the Bering Strait, all named after me.