Great Admiral Lazarev - discoverer of Antarctica and circumnavigator

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

231 years ago, on November 14, 1788, Mikhail Lazarev, a Russian naval commander and admiral, a participant in several round-the-world voyages and other sea voyages, the discoverer and explorer of Antarctica, was born in Vladimir.

Having passed a long and difficult path from midshipman to admiral, Lazarev not only took part in the most important naval battles of the 19th century, but also did a lot to improve the coastal infrastructure of the fleet, stood at the origins of the establishment of the Admiralty and the founding of the Sevastopol Naval Library.

Mikhail Petrovich Lazarev devoted his entire life to serving the Russian fleet. He was born into the family of a nobleman, Senator Pyotr Gavrilovich Lazarev, who came from the nobility of the Arzamas district of the Nizhny Novgorod province, was the middle of three brothers - the future Vice-Admiral Andrei Petrovich Lazarev (born in 1787) and Rear Admiral Alexei Petrovich Lazarev (b. in 1793).

After the death of their father, in February 1800, the brothers were enrolled as ordinary cadets in the Naval Cadet Corps. In 1803, Mikhail Petrovich passed the exam for the rank of midshipman, becoming the third in academic performance out of 32 students.

In June of the same year, for further study of maritime affairs, he was assigned to the battleship "Yaroslav" operating in the Baltic Sea. And two months later, together with seven best-performing graduates, he was sent to England, where for five years he participated in voyages in the North and Mediterranean Seas, in the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans. In 1808, Lazarev returned to his homeland and passed the exam for the rank of midshipman.

During the Russian-Swedish war of 1808 - 1809, Mikhail Petrovich was on the battleship "Grace", which was part of the flotilla of Vice Admiral PI Khlynov. During the hostilities near the island of Gogland, the flotilla captured a brig and five transports of the Swedes.

While evading the superior British squadron, one of the ships - the battleship Vsevolod - ran aground. On August 15 (27), 1808, Lazarev with a team on a lifeboat was sent to help. It was not possible to remove the ship from the shallows, and after a fierce boarding battle with the British, "Vsevolod" was burned, and Lazarev and the crew were captured.

In May 1809 he returned to the Baltic Fleet. In 1811 he was promoted to lieutenant.

Mikhail Petrovich met the Patriotic War of 1812 in the 24-gun brig "Phoenix", which together with other ships defended the Gulf of Riga, participated in the bombing and landing in Danzig. For bravery Lazarev was awarded a silver medal.

After the end of the war, preparations for a round-the-world voyage to Russian America began in the port of Kronstadt. The frigate "Suvorov" was chosen to participate in it, in 1813 Lieutenant Lazarev was appointed its commander. The ship belonged to the Russian-American company, which was interested in regular sea traffic between St. Petersburg and Russian America.

On October 9 (21), 1813, the ship left Kronstadt. After overcoming strong winds and thick fogs, passing the Sound, Kattegat and Skagerrak straits (between Denmark and the Scandinavian Peninsula) and avoiding a collision with French and allied Danish ships, the frigate arrived in Portsmouth (England). After a three-month stop, the ship, passing along the coast of Africa, crossed the Atlantic and stopped in Rio de Janeiro for a month.

At the end of May 1814, the Suvorov sailed into the Atlantic, crossed the Indian Ocean and entered Port Jackson (Australia) on August 14 (26), where he received the news of the final victory over Napoleon. Continuing sailing in the Pacific Ocean, at the end of November the frigate arrived at the Novo-Arkhangelsk port, where the residence of the general manager of Russian America A. A. Baranov was located.

During the voyage, on the way to the equator, a group of coral islands was discovered, which Lazarev gave the name "Suvorov".

After wintering, the frigate made a trip to the Aleutian Islands, where it received a large cargo of furs for delivery to Kronstadt. At the end of July 1815 "Suvorov" left Novo-Arkhangelsk. Now his path lay along the shores of the Americas, bypassing Cape Horn.

During the voyage, the frigate made a call at the Peruvian port of Callao, becoming the first Russian ship to visit Peru. Here Mikhail Petrovich successfully carried out the trade negotiations entrusted to him, having received permission for Russian sailors to trade without any additional taxes.

Having rounded Cape Horn, the ship passed through the entire Atlantic Ocean and arrived in Kronstadt on July 15 (28), 1816. In addition to a large cargo of valuable furs, Peruvian animals were delivered to Europe - nine llamas, one specimen of Vigoni and one alpaca. The Suvorov spent 239 days under sail on the way from Kronstadt to Novo-Arkhangelsk, and 245 days on the way back.

At the beginning of 1819, Lazarev, already an experienced commander and navigator, was given command of the sloop Mirny, preparing for an expedition to the South Arctic Circle.

After two months of preparation, re-equipment of ships, sheathing of the underwater part of the hull with copper sheets, selection of a crew and provision of provisions, Mirny together with the sloop Vostok (under the general command of its commander Lieutenant Commander F. F. Bellingshausen) in July 1819 left Kronstadt. Having made a stop in the capital of Brazil, the sloops headed for the island of South Georgia, nicknamed the "gateway" to Antarctica.

The voyage took place in difficult polar conditions: among icy mountains and large ice floes, with frequent storms and snowstorms, heaps of floating ice that slowed down the movement of ships.

Thanks to the excellent knowledge of maritime affairs by Lazarev and Bellingshausen, the ships never lost sight of each other.

Making their way among the icebergs to the south, the navigators on January 16 (30), 1820, reached latitude 69 ° 23´5. This was the edge of the Antarctic continent, but the sailors did not fully realize their feat - the discovery of the sixth part of the world.

Lazarev wrote in his diary:

On May 8 (20), 1820, the repaired ships headed for the shores of New Zealand, where for three months they plied the waters of the little-studied southeastern Pacific Ocean, discovering a number of islands. In September, the ships returned to Australia, and two months later headed for Antarctica again.

During the second voyage, the sailors managed to discover the island of Peter I and the coast of Alexander I, which completed their research work in Antarctica.

So Russian sailors were the first in the world to discover a new part of the world - Antarctica, refuting the opinion of the English traveler James Cook, who argued that there is no continent in the southern latitudes, and if it exists, then only near the pole, in areas inaccessible for navigation.

The ships were on the voyage for 751 days, of which 527 were under sail, and covered over 50 thousand miles. The expedition discovered 29 islands, including a group of coral islands named after the heroes of the Patriotic War of 1812 - M. I. Kutuzov, M. B. Barclay de Tolly, P. Kh. Wittgenstein, A. P. Ermolov, N. N Raevsky, M. A. Miloradovich, S. G. Volkonsky.

For a successful voyage, Lazarev, bypassing the rank of lieutenant commander, was promoted to captain of the 2nd rank.

In March 1822, MP Lazarev was appointed commander of the newly built 36-gun frigate "Cruiser".

At this time, the situation in Russian America aggravated, American industrialists predatory exterminated valuable fur animals in our possessions. It was decided to send the cruiser frigate and the Ladoga sloop to the distant shores, commanded by his older brother Andrey. In August of the same year, the ships left the Kronstadt raid.

After stopping in Tahiti, each ship went its own way, the Ladoga - to the Kamchatka Peninsula, the Cruiser - to the shores of Russian America. For about a year, the frigate guarded the Russian territorial waters from smugglers. In the summer of 1824 it was replaced by the sloop "Enterprise", and the "Cruiser" left Novo-Arkhangelsk. In August 1825, the frigate arrived at Kronstadt.

For the exemplary performance of the assignment, Lazarev was promoted to captain of the 1st rank and awarded the Order of Vladimir, III degree.

At the beginning of 1826, Mikhail Petrovich was appointed commander of the Azov battleship under construction in Arkhangelsk, at that time the most advanced ship of the Russian navy.

The commander carefully selected his crew, which included Lieutenant PS Nakhimov, Warrant Officer V. A. Kornilov and midshipman V. I. Istomin - the future leaders of the defense of Sevastopol.

His influence on his subordinates was limitless, Nakhimov wrote to a friend:

It is worth listening, my dear, how everyone here treats the captain, how they love him! … Indeed, the Russian fleet has not yet had such a captain

Upon the arrival of the ship in Kronstadt, he entered service with the Baltic squadron. Here Mikhail Petrovich happened to serve for some time under the command of the famous Russian admiral D. N. Senyavin.

In 1827, Lazarev was appointed concurrently chief of staff of a squadron equipped for a campaign in the Mediterranean. In the summer of the same year, the squadron under the command of Rear Admiral L. P. Heyden entered the Mediterranean Sea and united with the French and British squadrons.

The command of the combined fleet was assumed by British Vice Admiral Edward Codrington, a student of Admiral Nelson, it consisted of 27 ships (11 English, seven French and nine Russian) with 1,300 guns. The Turkish-Egyptian fleet consisted of over 50 ships with 2, 3 thousand guns. In addition, the enemy had coastal batteries on the island of Sfakteria and in the Navarino fortress.

On October 8 (20), 1827, the famous Navarino battle took place. The Azov was in the center of a curved battle line of four ships of the line. It was here that the Turks directed their main blow.

The battleship "Azov" had to fight simultaneously with five Turkish ships, with artillery fire it sank two large frigates and a corvette, burned the flagship under the flag of Tagir Pasha, forced the 80-gun ship of the line to run aground, after which it lit and blew it up.

In addition, the ship under the command of Lazarev destroyed the flagship of Muharrem Bey.

At the end of the battle at "Azov" all masts were broken, the sides were broken, 153 holes were counted in the hull. Despite such serious damage, the ship continued to fight until the last minute of the battle.

Russian ships bore the brunt of the battle and played a major role in the defeat of the Turkish-Egyptian fleet. The enemy lost a ship of the line, 13 frigates, 17 corvettes, four brigs, five fire-ships and other ships.

For the Battle of Navarino, the battleship "Azov", for the first time in the Russian fleet, was awarded the highest award - the stern St. George flag.

Lazarev was promoted to rear admiral and awarded three orders at once: the Greek - Commander's cross of the Savior, English - Bani and French - St. Louis.

Later, Mikhail Petrovich, being the chief of staff of the squadron, cruised in the Archipelago and took part in the blockade of the Dardanelles, cutting off the way for the Turks to Constantinople.

Since 1830, Lazarev commanded a brigade of ships of the Baltic Fleet, in 1832 he was appointed chief of staff of the Black Sea Fleet, and the next year - commander of the fleet, governor of Nikolaev and Sevastopol. Mikhail Petrovich held this post for 18 years.

Already at the beginning of 1833, Lazarev led the successful campaign of the Russian fleet and the transfer of a 10-thousandth landing of troops to the Bosphorus, as a result of which the attempt to capture Istanbul by the Egyptians was prevented. Military assistance to Russia forced Sultan Mahmud II to conclude the Unkiar-Iskelesi treaty, which greatly raised the prestige of Russia.

The consolidation of Russia in the Caucasus was especially hostile to England, which sought to turn the Caucasus, with its rich natural resources, into its colony.

For these purposes, with the active support of England, a movement of groups of religious fanatics (Muridism) was organized, one of the main slogans of which was the annexation of the Caucasus to Turkey.

To disrupt the plans of the British and Turks, the Black Sea Fleet had to blockade the Caucasian coast. To this end, Lazarev allocated a detachment, and later a squadron of the Black Sea Fleet, consisting of six armed steamships, for operations off the coast of the Caucasus. In 1838, a place was chosen for basing the squadron at the mouth of the Tsemes River, which marked the beginning of the construction of the Novorossiysk port.

In 1838 - 1840, from the ships of the Black Sea Fleet, with the direct participation of Lazarev, landing troops of the troops of General N. N. Raevsky (junior) were landed, which cleared the coast and estuaries of the Tuapse, Subashi and Pazuape rivers from the enemy, a fort named after Lazarev was built on the bank of the latter … The successful activities of the Black Sea Fleet prevented the implementation of the plans of conquest by the British and Turks in the Caucasus.

Lazarev was the first to organize a two-year expedition of the frigate "Speedy" and the tender "Hasty" with the aim of describing the Black Sea, which resulted in the publication of the first pilot of the Black Sea.

Under the personal supervision of Lazarev, plans were drawn up and the area was prepared for the construction of an admiralty in Sevastopol, and docks were built. In the Hydrographic Depot, reorganized at his direction, many maps, directions, regulations, manuals were printed and a detailed atlas of the Black Sea was published.

Under the leadership of Mikhail Petrovich, the Black Sea Fleet became the best in Russia. Major successes were achieved in shipbuilding, he personally supervised the construction of each ship.

Under Lazarev, the number of ships of the Black Sea Fleet was brought to a full standard set, and naval artillery was improved. In Nikolaev, an admiralty was built, taking into account all the achievements of technology of that time, the construction of an admiralty near Novorossiysk began.

MP Lazarev understood perfectly well that the sailing fleet was out of date and that the steam fleet should come to replace it. However, technological backwardness did not allow Russia to make such a transition at a rapid pace.

Lazarev directed all efforts so that steamships appeared in the Black Sea Fleet. He achieves this by ordering the construction of iron steam ships with all the latest improvements. Preparations were made for the construction of a 131-gun ship of the line "Bosphorus" in Nikolaev (laid down after Lazarev's death in 1852).

In 1842, Mikhail Petrovich obtained orders for the construction of five steam-frigates "Chersonesos", "Bessarabia", "Crimea", "Gromonosets" and "Odessa" by shipyards for the Black Sea Fleet.

In 1846, he sent his closest assistant Captain 1st Rank Kornilov to the British shipyards to directly supervise the construction of four steamers: Vladimir, Elbrus, Yenikale and Taman. All steamships were built according to Russian projects and sketch drawings.

Lazarev paid much attention to the cultural growth of sailors. On his instructions and under his leadership, the Sevastopol Maritime Library was reorganized and a House of Meetings was built, as well as many other social and cultural institutions were organized.

The admiral paid great attention to the defensive structures of Sevastopol, increasing the number of guns that defended the city to 734 units.

The Lazarev school was harsh, and it was sometimes difficult to work with the admiral. However, those sailors in whom he managed to awaken a living spark that lived in him became true Lazarevites.

Mikhail Petrovich trained such outstanding sailors as Nakhimov, Putyatin, Kornilov, Unkovsky, Istomin and Butakov. The great merit of Lazarev is that he trained the cadres of sailors who ensured the transition of the Russian fleet from sailing to steam

The admiral always cared little about his health. However, at the end of 1850, stomach pains intensified, and on the personal instructions of Nicholas I, he was sent to Vienna for treatment. The disease was severely neglected, and local surgeons refused to operate on him. On the night of April 11 (23), 1851, at the age of 63, Lazarev died of stomach cancer.

His ashes were transported to Russia and interred in Sevastopol in the Vladimir Cathedral. In the basement of this cathedral in the form of a cross, with their heads towards the center of the cross, are buried M. P. Lazarev, P. S. Nakhimov, V. A. Kornilov and V. I. Istomin.

In 1867, in this city, then still in ruins after the Crimean War of 1853-1856, a grand opening of the monument to M. P. Lazarev took place. At the opening, Rear Admiral of the Svita I. A.

The geographical discoveries made by MP Lazarev are of world-historical significance. They are included in the golden fund of Russian science. Mikhail Petrovich was elected an honorary member of the Geographical Society.

The St. Petersburg Maritime Assembly in memory of the remarkable Russian admiral M. P. Lazarev established a silver medal in 1995, which is awarded to workers of the sea, river and fishing fleets, educational institutions, research institutes and other naval organizations that have made a great contribution to the cause. development of the fleet, who made significant voyages, as well as taking a significant part in the creation of equipment for the fleet and previously awarded the gold breastplate of the Naval Assembly.

The Russian people cherish the memory of the outstanding Russian admiral with love, deservedly placing him among the best naval commanders of our Motherland.