Ivan Fyodorov (navigator)

Ivan Fyodorov (Ива́н Фёдоров) (died 1733), was a Russian navigator and commanding officer of the expedition to northern Alaska in 1732.^[1]

After the First Kamchatka Expedition of Vitus Bering (1725–1730) the Russian exploration efforts were continued by Lieutenant Martin Shpanberg and Navigator I. Fyodorov. In 1732, together with participants of the 1st Kamchatka expedition, land-surveyor Mikhail Gvozdev^[2] and navigator K. Moshkov, Fyodorov sailed to Dezhnev Cape, the easternmost point of Asia, in the vessel Sviatoi Gavriil (St. Gabriel). From there, after having replenished the water supply on 5 August, they sailed east and soon came near the mainland at the Cape Prince of Wales, Alaska. They charted the north-western coast of Alaska and mapped their route. By doing this, Fyodorov and Gvozdev completed the discovery of the Bering Strait, once started by Semyon Dezhnyov and Fedot Popov and continued by Bering. Their expedition also discovered three previously unknown islands.

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