Providence Bay, Siberia in the context of William Hulme Hooper

⭐ Core Definition: Providence Bay, Siberia

Providence Bay (Russian: Бу́хта Провиде́ния, Bukhta Provideniya) is a fjord in the southern coast of the Chukchi Peninsula of northeastern Siberia. It was a popular rendezvous, wintering spot, and provisioning spot for whalers and traders in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Emma Harbor (now Komsomolskaya Bay) is a large sheltered bay in the eastern shore of Providence Bay. Provideniya and Ureliki settlements and Provideniya Bay Airport stand on the Komsomolskaya Bay. Plover Bay in English sources sometimes refers specifically to the anchorage behind Napkum Spit within Providence Bay (also called Port Providence) but was commonly used as a synonym for Providence Bay; Russian 19th century sources used the term for an anchorage within Providence Bay.

Plover Bay takes its name from HMS Plover, a British ship which overwintered in Emma Harbor in 1848–1849. HMS Plover with captain Thomas E. L. Moore left Plymouth in January 1848 for the Bering Sea to find the lost Franklin Expedition. On October 17, 1848, Moore anchored his ship in a safe harbor; he is given credit for the name Providence Bay and for the first successful wintering of a ship in Bering Sea region. Lieutenant William Hulme Hooper of the Plover attributes the name Port Emma (or Emma's Harbor) to Captain Moore but provides no explanation of the choice of name.

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⭐ Core Definition: Providence Bay, Siberia
Providence Bay, Siberia in the context of First Kamchatka expedition
Providence Bay, Siberia in the context of Cape Chukotsky

Providence Bay, Siberia in the context of First Kamchatka expedition

The First Kamchatka Expedition was the first Russian expedition to explore the Asian Pacific coast. It was commissioned by Peter the Great in 1724 and was led by Vitus Bering. Afield from 1725 to 1731, it was Russia's first naval scientific expedition. It confirmed the presence of a strait (now known as Bering Strait) between Asia and America and was followed in 1732 by the Second Kamchatka Expedition.

The expedition spent the first two years, from January 1725 to January 1727, traveling from Saint Petersburg to Okhotsk, using horses, dog sleds and river boats. After wintering in Okhotsk it moved to the mouth of the Kamchatka River on the east coast of the peninsula. In July–August 1728 it sailed north and then north-east along the shore, exploring Karaginsky Gulf, Kresta Bay, Providence Bay, Gulf of Anadyr, Cape Chukotsky, and St. Lawrence Island.

View the full Wikipedia page for First Kamchatka expedition

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Providence Bay, Siberia in the context of Cape Chukotsky

Cape Chukotsky is located in the south-east of the Chukotka Peninsula, at the east entrance to the Providence Bay and the northern boundary of Gulf of Anadyr; it borders the Bering Sea and Bering Strait. This rocky cape hosts a bird colony with a population of one thousand northern fulmars, pelagic cormorants, black-legged kittiwakes, Urias, pigeon guillemots and horned puffins.

The cape was discovered by the First Kamchatka Expedition on 8 August 1728. On that day, a boat of eight Chukchi men approached an expedition ship, which hinted Aleksei Chirikov to choose the name for the cape.

View the full Wikipedia page for Cape Chukotsky

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