Chirikov, Aleksei Ilich

Born 1703; died November 1748 in Moscow. Russian navigator. Commodore admiral.

Chirikov graduated from the Naval Academy in 1721. He was V. Bering’s aide on the First (1725–30) and Second (1733–43) Kamchatka expeditions. On July 16, 1741, aboard the packet boat Sv. Pavel (St. Paul), Chirikov became the first European to reach the western coast of North America; he also discovered several of the Aleutian Islands. In 1742, while sailing in search of the packet boat Sv. Petr (St. Peter), which was commanded by Bering, Chirikov fixed the position of Attu Island. In 1746 he took part in the final charting of Russian discoveries in the Pacific Ocean. Capes on Kyushu Island, the Anadyr’ Gulf, Taui Guba, and Attu Island, as well as an underwater peak in the Pacific Ocean, have been named after Chirikov.