Difference between revisions of "Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen"

'''Fabian Gottlieb Thaddeus von Bellingshausen''' (20 September 1778 – 25 January 1852), a [[Westarctica-Russia Relations|Russian]] officer of Baltic German descent in the Imperial Russian Navy, cartographer and explorer, ultimately rose to the rank of Admiral. He participated in the first Russian circumnavigation of the globe and subsequently became a leader of another circumnavigation expedition which discovered the continent of [[Antarctica]].

As a prominent cartographer, Bellingshausen was appointed to command the Russian circumnavigation of the globe in 1819-1821, intended to explore the [[Southern Ocean]] and to find land in the proximity of the [[South Pole]]. Mikhail Lazarev prepared the expedition and was made Bellingshausen's second-in-command and the captain of the sloop ''Mirny'', while Bellingshausen himself commanded the sloop ''Vostok''. During this expedition Bellingshausen and Lazarev became the first explorers to see the land of Antarctica on 27 January 1820. They circumnavigated the continent twice and never lost each other from view. Thus they disproved Captain Cook's assertion that it was impossible to find land in the southern ice-fields. The expedition discovered and named [[Peter I Island]], the [[Antarctic Peninsula]] and made other discoveries in the tropical waters of the Pacific.