July 23, 2021

Anchors Far Away


Anchors Far Away
This totally cool anchor is not from Kamchatka but also not too far away: its source is the Kaisei Maru Japanese sealing ship, sunk off Sitka, Alaska, in 1909. Amanda Shirnina

The proverbial cat dragged in, from the Kamchatka trash, two ship's anchors of historical value from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Uncovered and announced recently, the anchors were local residents' trash but the treasure of the Ministry of Culture. Museum workers treated the anchors with gun oil to try to preserve the metal. They were especially interested in maintaining the eighteenth-century remnant.

What was happening on the Kamchatka Peninsula in the eighteenth century? Probably lots of things, but historians note that Peter the Great sent expeditions there, it was mapped in 1720, and it was mapped even better in 1755. The first lengthy description of the peninsula was written in 1755 by explorer Stepan Krasheninnikov, An Account of the Land of Kamchatka.

These mappings and expeditions made it possible for the Russian-American Company to set up camp and the fur trade and launch an overseas empire into Alaska and get into fights over maritime territory with Americans and Canadians and Japanese and all manner of other things.

The earliest surviving anchors were built during the Bronze Age – about 3300 BCE to 1200 BCE – and were made of rocks. Experts assume that anchors prior to that were also made of rock.

You Might Also Like

The Shtandart

The Shtandart

On the banks of the Neva River’s northernmost curve, the wooden skeleton of a great frigate is slowly taking shape.
Raising the Shtandart
  • March 01, 2016

Raising the Shtandart

In the spring of 1703, Peter the Great oversaw the building of Russia’s first Baltic fleet flagship. In 1995, Vladimir Martus decided to build a replica.
Peter's Ship
  • March 01, 2016

Peter's Ship

Fifteen years after the new Shtandart launched, boat builders on Solovetsky created a replica of an even older ship: the first Russian naval ship built on Russian soil, in 1693.
Like this post? Get a weekly email digest + member-only deals

Some of our Books

A Taste of Chekhov
December 24, 2022

A Taste of Chekhov

This compact volume is an introduction to the works of Chekhov the master storyteller, via nine stories spanning the last twenty years of his life.

Woe From Wit (bilingual)
June 20, 2017

Woe From Wit (bilingual)

One of the most famous works of Russian literature, the four-act comedy in verse Woe from Wit skewers staid, nineteenth century Russian society, and it positively teems with “winged phrases” that are essential colloquialisms for students of Russian and Russian culture.

Russian Rules
November 16, 2011

Russian Rules

From the shores of the White Sea to Moscow and the Northern Caucasus, Russian Rules is a high-speed thriller based on actual events, terrifying possibilities, and some really stupid decisions.

Steppe
July 15, 2022

Steppe

This is the work that made Chekhov, launching his career as a writer and playwright of national and international renown. Retranslated and updated, this new bilingual edition is a super way to improve your Russian.

Murder at the Dacha
July 01, 2013

Murder at the Dacha

Senior Lieutenant Pavel Matyushkin has a problem. Several, actually. Not the least of them is the fact that a powerful Soviet boss has been murdered, and Matyushkin's surly commander has given him an unreasonably short time frame to close the case.

The Latchkey Murders
July 01, 2015

The Latchkey Murders

Senior Lieutenant Pavel Matyushkin is back on the case in this prequel to the popular mystery Murder at the Dacha, in which a serial killer is on the loose in Khrushchev’s Moscow...

About Us

Russian Life is the 31-year-old publication of an award-winning publishing house that also creates books, and other products for Russophiles the world over.

Latest Posts

Our Contacts

Russian Life
73 Main Street, Suite 402
Montpelier VT 05602

802-223-4955