Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - Chapter XI.
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Firewood must be obtained at a distance of four to
five miles, drinking water one to two miles, while
timber and joints for shipbuilding must be floated
down the river twenty-five miles.” But as a place for
a dock-yard, as a harbor and haven of refuge for large
ships, the location had such great advantages that these
difficulties had to be overcome.
Spangberg’s work had made the place. His men
had worked clay, made tiles, and built houses, and
when Bering arrived the ships Archangel Michael and
Hope lay fully equipped in the harbor. Bering’s
old ships Fortuna and Gabriel had been repaired,
and Spangberg lacked only an adequate supply of
provisions to begin his expedition to Japan in the
autumn of 1737.
But the provision transports, as usual, moved on
very slowly and with great difficulty. In Okhotsk
Spangberg’s men were constantly in distress. They
received only the rations of flour and rice authorized
by law, and at long intervals some beef which Bering
had bought in Yakutsk. On account of this scarcity
of provisions Spangberg was obliged partially to stop
work on the vessels. A part of his force was
permitted to go a-fishing, a part were sent to the
magazines in the country for their maintenance, while
others were detached to assist in the work of
transportation; hence it was with only a small force that
he could continue work on the ships for the American
voyage, the packet-boats St. Peter and St. Paul.
Sokoloff says: “Bering stayed three years in
Okhotsk, exerting himself to the utmost in equipping
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