The Probert Encyclopaedia of People

VITUS BERING

Vitus Bering (Vitus Behring) was a Danish navigator. He was born in 1680 Horsens, Jutland and died in 1741. The courage displayed by him as captain in the navy of Peter the Great during the Swedish wars led to his being chosen to command a voyage of discovery in the Sea of Kamtchatka. In 1728 and subsequently he examined the coasts of Kamtchatka, Okhotsk, and the north of Siberia, ascertaining the relation between the north-eastern Asiatic and north-western American coasts, and discovered the Bering Strait which was named after him. Returning from America in 1741, he was wrecked upon the desert island of Awatska (Bering's Island), and died there.
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