During the Great Northern (second Kamchatka) expedition, it fell to the lot of Kh. Laptev (cousin of D. Laptev) to continue the work of the untimely deceased head of the third detachment V. Pronchishchev, that is, to explore and describe the coast of the Arctic Ocean from the mouth of the Lena River to the Khatanga bay.

Kh. Laptev began serving in the Baltic Fleet in 1718, participated in a long voyage to the shores of Italy, in 1734 he went to the Don River with an order to find a convenient place for shipbuilding shipyards, and in 1737 he commanded the court yacht “Dekrone”.

Lieutenant Kh. Laptev went to his new destination - Yakutsk in 1738. In July 1739, under his leadership, the sailing and rowing ship "Yakutsk" left the mouth of the Lena River into the sea. Overcoming great difficulties of navigation in ice, the Yakutsk passed the mouth of the Olenek River, rounded the Bolshoi Begichev Island from the north and entered the Khatanga Bay. Near a small river, the researchers set up a food warehouse for the future winter hut. Then they began to move north in heavy ice and reached Cape Thaddeus. It was impossible to go further. Kh. Laptev decided to return and spend the winter in Khatanga Bay. During wintering, a land survey was carried out on the eastern shores of the Taimyr Peninsula for almost 150 km. A small detachment under the leadership of V. Medvedev crossed almost the entire peninsula in a westerly direction on dogs, reached the Pyasina River and descended along it to the sea. In April 1740, he returned to the wintering place of the main detachment, making a description of the route more than 1000 km long. Another member of the expedition, surveyor N. Chekin, also walked along Taimyr on dog sleds from east to west: from Nizhnyaya Khatanga to Lake Taimyr and further along the Nizhnyaya Taimyr River to its mouth. Here he described the sea coast west of the mouth for more than 100 km.

The campaigns of Medvedev and Chekin confirmed Kh. Laptev in the idea that it was most reliable to carry out an inventory of the shores by land, but he nevertheless decided to make another attempt to break through the ice by sea at the mouth of the Yenisei. But it also turned out to be unsuccessful. The ship was covered in ice. The team, having unloaded food supplies onto the ice floe, left the Yakutsk, which, along with the ice, was soon carried out to sea. Kh. Laptev decided to return to the Khatanga River.

The unsuccessful voyage and the loss of the Yakutsk did not stop Laptev. In order to explore as much of the peninsula as possible, he divided the detachment into three parties. The first, under the leadership of Laptev’s assistant S. Chelyuskin, was supposed to go to the mouth of the Pyasina River and from there follow the coast east to the mouth of the Nizhnyaya Taimyra River. N. Chekin was tasked with describing the eastern and northern shores of the peninsula. Laptev himself went from the Khatanga River to Lake Taimyr, and then to the mouth of the Lower Taimyr and from there to survey the sea coast to the west. All units completed the task. At the end of 1741 they gathered in Turukhansk and summed up the results.

Having spent the winter in Turukhansk, Laptev’s expedition at the beginning of 1742 again set out in separate parties on dog sleds along almost the same routes to clarify geographical data. By the end of the summer of 1742, the expedition completed its work, and Laptev left with a report to St. Petersburg.

The significance of the Laptev expedition is very great. The researchers surveyed a large and inaccessible area of ​​northern Siberia (Taimyr Peninsula), hitherto unexplored. For the first time, general geographical information about this region was obtained: on meteorology, tides, ice, magnetism, fauna, flora, and ethnography. The “Notes” compiled by Laptev are notable for their accuracy, especially in terms of observations of the sea ice regime.

At the end of the expedition, Kh. Laptev served in the Baltic Fleet with the rank of captain 1st rank. The coast between the mouths of the Pyasina and Nizhnyaya Taimyr rivers and two capes are named after him (in addition to the Laptev Sea).

Years of life 1700 – 1763

The pedigree of the Laptev family began with the famous Prince Rodega, who left the Kosu Horde. A descendant of this prince, Gleb Romanovich Sorokoumov, had a son, Bartholomew, nicknamed Lapot, from whom the Laptevs descended.

The year is 1700 - in the family... of Laptev, the owner of the village of Pokarevo (it still lives and is almost well), a son was born - Khariton Laptev. A year later (in 1701), a son, Dmitry Laptev, was also born into the family of his brother Yakov Laptev, owner of the village of Bolotovo (the village disappeared during the war). The boys were baptized in the Slaoui parish church. Here it is worth paying special attention to one point: Khariton and Dmitry are considered cousins. But if you believe the pedigree of the Laptev family, compiled by Khariton’s son, Kapiton (S. Petrov writes about it in his article dedicated to seafarers), then it turns out that the fathers of the famous explorers were cousins, and Khariton and Dmitry themselves were second cousins.

The boys were born at a time when Tsar Peter was just putting the Russian fleet in order, and therefore the thought of the sea crept into the heads of the young offspring living on the shores of the calm Lovat, fishing in the surrounding lakes. It didn’t just creep in, it captivated them so much that their parents sent them to St. Petersburg. And there their uncle Boris Ivanovich Laptev, who was in the service of the sovereign (as a ship master at galley shipyards), placed the boys in the newly created Naval Academy.

After completing their studies, the brothers went different ways: the youngest, D. Laptev, two years after graduating from the academy, became a midshipman, and soon a non-commissioned lieutenant and ship commander. Khariton had to reach the rank of midshipman serve for six years as a navigator. The brothers also took part in military battles, but what brought them fame was, as they would say now, their research activities. Since 1736, Dmitry has led one of the northern detachments of the Second Kamchatka Expedition, and his brother soon joined him.

The fate of the sailors was long. Khariton Laptev lived to the age of 63 and died on December 21, 1763 in St. Petersburg. According to one version, he was buried on his estate near Velikiye Luki, although not a single contemporary of ours saw his grave.

Dmitry Laptev retired in April 1762 and settled on his estate Bolotovo. Until recently, the date of death and burial place of D. Laptev were unknown. But around 2005, employees of our archive found the metric book of the Trinity Church of the Slaui churchyard, Velikoluksky district for 1771, where in part three “On the Dying” under No. 2 the priest wrote: “Died on January 20, 1771 of the village of Bolotov, nobleman Dmitry Yakovlev, son of Laptev, 70 years".

What remains of the Laptevs on the land of Velikiye Luki? Yes, practically nothing except the memory of world-famous fellow countrymen. Pokarevo is almost a holiday village. Small, but with a monument. There was absolutely nothing left of Bolotov except beautiful hills and topography suggesting that people had once lived here. In 2001, a wooden memorial cross was erected on the site of the village.

The Pokaryovo estate is the birthplace of Khariton Prokofievich Laptev.

Sources:
1. Pskov Encyclopedia // Chief editor - A. I. Lobachev. Pskov: Pskov regional public institution - publishing house "Pskov Encyclopedia", 2007. - P. 435.
2. S. Petrov Velikolukskaya antiquity. Historical and local history mosaic / S. Petrov. - Velikiye Luki, 1999.

Dmitry Yakovlevich and Khariton Prokopyevich Laptev (XVIII century)

The Russian Navy gave our country not only wonderful naval commanders and scientists, but also a whole galaxy of brave travelers and explorers. The latter include cousins, fleet lieutenants Dmitry Yakovlevich and Khariton Prokopievich Laptev, remarkable Russian polar explorers, participants in the Great Northern Expedition.

Peter I laid the foundation for one of the most ambitious scientific expeditions of all time - the Great Northern Expedition. The first, so-called Kamchatka, expedition set out to determine whether Asia and America are connected by an isthmus or separated by a strait. Commander was appointed head of the expedition Vitus Jonassen Bering, a Dane by origin, who was accepted by Peter I into service in the Russian fleet in his youth and served in it for 37 years.

This expedition, successfully carried out from 1725 to 1730, was the prologue to the second stage of work - the Great Northern Expedition, which worked from 1733 to 1743 and was led until 1741 by V. Bering.

The task of the expedition was to study and inventory the Russian shores from Yugorsky Shar to Kamchatka and put them on maps. Up to 600 people took part in it, divided into several detachments.

Two of them, under the command of lieutenants Pronchishchev and Lasinius, were supposed to, leaving Yakutsk along the Lena into the sea, examine and make an inventory of the coast - Pronchishchev from the Lena to the Yenisei and Lasinius - from the Lena to Kolyma and further to Kamchatka.

The units did not complete their task.

Peter Lasinius, Swede by nationality, was accepted into Russian service in 1725. He sailed a lot and was a competent navigator. Lasinius volunteered for the expedition. Bering appointed him head of a detachment that was supposed to describe the coast from the mouth of the Lena to Kamchatka. The detachment had a built in Yakutsk bot "Irkutsk""Eighteen meters long, five and a half meters wide, with a draft of two meters.

Lasinius and his detachment left Yakutsk on June 29, 1735, simultaneously with Pronchishchev’s detachment. Both detachments arrived on August 2 at Stolb Island, located at the beginning of the Lena delta.

On the second day, the Irkutsk, having passed the Bykovskaya Channel, reached the seaside. Two days later, after waiting for a fair wind, Lasinius took his ship out to sea.

Navigation was made difficult by large accumulations of ice and unfavorable winds. Therefore, already on August 18, Lasinius brought the boat to the mouth of the Kharaulakh River, deciding to spend the winter here.

The team quickly built a house from driftwood lying on the shore.

Counting on another two years of work, Lasinius decided to save food and halved the ration. Chronic malnutrition and ignorance of anti-scorbutic drugs led to widespread scurvy, which claimed the lives of thirty-eight people. Lasinius himself was one of the first to die.

Only 9 people survived this terrible winter. To save 9 people, Commander Bering sent a special expedition under the command of navigator Shcherbinin, who took them to Yakutsk. The boat "Irkutsk" remained at the mouth of Kharaulakh. Bering appointed one of his closest assistants, Lieutenant Dmitry Yakovlevich Laptev.

Dmitry Yakovlevich Laptev born in 1701 in the village of Bolotovo near Velikiye Luki. In 1715, together with his cousin Khariton Laptev, Dmitry entered the Maritime Academy in St. Petersburg. After graduating from the Academy in 1718, he was promoted to midshipman and began serving in the Baltic Fleet on the ships of the Kronstadt squadron.

In 1721, Laptev received the rank of midshipman; in 1724, for special services in maritime science, he was promoted to non-commissioned lieutenant. Since 1725, the young officer served on the ship "Favourite", sailing along the Gulf of Finland. From 1727, for two years, Dmitry Laptev served as commander of the frigate "St. Jacob", and then as commander of a packet boat plying between Kronstadt and Lubeck.

Laptev's first acquaintance with the northern seas took place in the summer of 1730, when he sailed in the Barents Sea on the frigate "Russia" under the command of Captain Barsh. In 1731, Dmitry Laptev was promoted to lieutenant.

A highly educated and knowledgeable officer, Dmitry Laptev, was noticed by the Admiralty Board and included in the list of participants in the Great Northern Expedition. In July 1735, D. Ya. Laptev arrived in Yakutsk. He was instructed to lead a caravan of small river ships with the expedition's property along Aldan, May and Yudoma as close as possible to Okhotsk, build warehouses, store cargo in them, and then bring the ships to Yakutsk. Laptev successfully completed this task, guiding the ships to the Yudoma Cross.

Initially, it was planned to assign Lieutenant Laptev to the Bering-Chirikov detachment or to the Shpanberg detachment. However, in 1736, when the tragic fate of Lieutenant Lasinius’s detachment became clear, a decision was made to appoint Dmitry Laptev as the new commander of the Lena-Yenisei detachment.

Having received an order to replace the deceased Lasinius, D. Ya. Laptev formed a detachment in Yakutsk and in the spring of 1736, going out to sea along the Lena, he reached the mouth of the river in light boats. Kharaulakh, where the abandoned Irkutsk stood.

Having put the ship in order, D. Ya. Laptev returned to the river delta. Lena for loading food and equipment, delivered there in advance by boats from Yakutsk. On August 22, 1736, D. Ya. Laptev completed loading and went to sea, heading east. Heavy ice blocked the path. Just four days later, D. Ya. Laptev was forced to turn back. With difficulty he reached the Lena and, having climbed it, stood for the winter somewhat higher than Bulun.

The scurvy came again. But D. Ya. Laptev took into account the sad experience of his predecessor. He recommended to his team more air, more movement, and adequate nutrition. As a result, the winter went relatively well - everyone got scurvy, but only one person died.

In the summer of 1737, D. Ya. Laptev returned to Yakutsk to agree with Bering on a plan for further work. But Bering was no longer in Yakutsk. Here D. Ya. Laptev learned about the sad fate of Pronchishchev.

Biography

Born in 1702 in the Bogimovo estate of the Tarussky district of the Kaluga province (12 kilometers from the city of Aleksin) into the noble family of the Pronchishchevs. He was the fifth child in the family. In April 1716 he entered the Navigation School in Moscow, located in the Sukharevskaya Tower, as a student.

In 1718 he was transferred to St. Petersburg to the Naval Academy (he studied with Chelyuskin and Laptev) and became a midshipman. From 1718 to 1724, he served as a navigator's apprentice in the Baltic Fleet on the ships "Diana" and "Falk", the brigantine "Bernhardus", on the ships "Yagudiil", "Uriil", "Prince Eugene", and the gukor "Kronshlot".

In 1722 he took part in Peter's Persian campaign.

In 1727 he was promoted to navigator. Joined the commission for certification of naval ranks. In 1730 he was promoted to the rank of navigator 3rd rank. Vasily Pronchishchev serves on the packet boat "Postman", in 1731 on the ship "Friedrichstadt", on the frigate "Esperanza".

Lena-Yenisei detachment of the Great Northern Expedition

In 1733 Pronchishchev received the rank of lieutenant and took part in the Great Northern Expedition, leading the Lena-Yenisei detachment, which explored the coast of the Arctic Ocean from the mouth of the Lena to the mouth of the Yenisei.

June 30, 1735 Pronchishchev went from Yakutsk down the Lena to double boat "Yakutsk".

The Yakutsk crew consisted of more than 40 people, including navigator Semyon Chelyuskin and surveyor Nikifor Chekin.

But the name of Vasily Pronchishchev stands out especially in this series, because he went on a voyage with his wife, who became the world's first female polar explorer. Most likely, they knew each other since childhood - their fathers once served in the same regiment, and their family estates were located next door. Vasily Pronchishchev was born in 1702 in the town of Mytny Stan, Tarussky district, Kaluga province, into the family of a small nobleman. Tatyana Fedorovna Kondyreva born in 1710 near the city of Aleksin of the same Kaluga governorate and also in a family of poor nobles. ...Actually, the Admiralty Board allowed officers to take their wives and children with them. And this step was completely justified in view of the obvious duration of the expedition. But the presence of women on the campaign was allowed only on the basis of long stops and inevitable wintering quarters. In the same detachment, an extraordinary, incredible event occurred: contrary to the well-known naval tradition, Lieutenant Pronchishchev interferes with his young wife in the execution of a matter of state importance. A woman on a warship is an unprecedented case! Pronchishchev did this without permission or with Bering’s unofficial consent, modern history does not know. But for a long time, in all subsequent historical and memoir references, she was mistakenly called Maria.

The voyage along the Lena passed safely and on August 2, 1735, the expedition reached the island of Stolb, from which the Lena delta begins. Initially, Pronchishchev planned to go through the Krestyatskaya channel, which led to the west, but the search for a fairway in it due to the decline in water was not crowned with success, so he decided to lead the double-boat along the Bykovskaya channel to the southeast. On August 7, the ship anchored at the mouth of this channel, waiting for favorable winds.

On August 14, 1735, Pronchishchev took the ship around the Lena delta. After quite a long time, “Yakutsk” rounded the Lena delta and headed along the coast to the west. Pronchishchev was the first to map the Lena delta. The delay in the Lena delta did not allow Pronchishchev to advance far during the first navigation. The short northern summer was ending, a rather strong leak developed on the ship and Pronchishchev decided to winter in places where fins were still found and the ship could be repaired. On August 25, the detachment stopped for the winter at the mouth of the Olenyok River (river) near the settlement of fur traders, having built two huts from driftwood. The winter passed safely, but scurvy began in the detachment.

The spring of 1736 in Ust-Olenyok turned out to be late and the sea cleared of ice only by August. Despite the difficulties that arose, in the summer of 1736 Pronchishchev continued along the coast to the west. On August 5, 1736, the detachment reached the mouth of the Anabara River. Surveyor Baskakov, going upstream of the river, discovered ore outcrops.

On August 17, 1736, off the eastern coast of Taimyr, the expedition discovered islands that they named in honor of St. Peter. Transfiguration Island was also discovered.

Moving further north in the following days along the edge of the continuous ice fast ice, which lies off the coast of the Taimyr Peninsula, the detachment passed several bays. The northernmost of the bays, Pronchishchev, was mistakenly mistaken for the mouth of the Taimyra River (in fact, it is Teresa Klavenes Bay). The coast was completely deserted, without the slightest sign of habitation. At latitude 77, the path to the wooden ship was finally blocked by heavy ice, and the frost began to draw in the free water. These days Chelyuskin wrote:

“At the beginning of this 9 o’clock calm, the sky is cloudy and gloomy, there is a great frost and there is slush on the sea, from which we are in great danger, that if it stays so quiet for one day, we are afraid of freezing here. We entered deep ice that on both sides and in front of us there were great standing smooth ices. They walked by rowing oars. However, God be merciful, God grant us a capable wind, then this sludge was blown away.”

Soon the travelers lost sight of the shore. Pronchishchev ordered to determine the position of the vessel using navigation instruments. "Yakutsk" ended up at 77° 29" N. This is the northernmost point reached by the ships of the Great Northern Expedition. Only 143 years later, Baron Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld on the ship "Vega" will advance in these places just a few minutes further north. The further path was closed. In the north and west there was continuous ice with rare polynyas and it was impossible to pass them on a double boat. "Yakutsk" turned back with the intention of wintering at the mouth of the Khatanga. Subsequently it was established that the expedition entered the Vilkitsky Strait and moved slightly to the north and reached a latitude of 77 degrees 50 minutes. Only poor visibility did not allow the expedition members to see the Severnaya Zemlya archipelago and the northernmost point of Taimyr and all of Eurasia - Cape Chelyuskin.

Pronchishchev refused to land in Khatanga Bay, having found no settlements there, and the ship headed to the former Olenyok winter quarters.

On August 29, Pronchishchev went on a reconnaissance boat and broke his leg. Returning to the ship, he lost consciousness and soon died. The true cause of death - fat embolism syndrome due to a fracture - became known only recently, after the traveler's grave was opened in 1999. Previously it was believed that Pronchishchev died of scurvy.

The Yakutsk made its further journey under the command of navigator Chelyuskin. A few days later he managed to reach the Ust-Olenyok winter quarters, where Pronchishcheva was interred, and Tatyana Pronchishcheva soon died.

On October 2, “Yakutsk” went into winter quarters, and Chelyuskin went with a report to Yakutsk by sleigh. He was appointed the new commander of the dubel-boat and the head of the Lena-Yenisei detachment. Khariton Prokopyevich Laptev.

Seeing the difficult situation of the expedition, Dmitry Yakovlevich Laptev, as the closest assistant to the absent Bering, decided to go for instructions and help to St. Petersburg, to the Admiralty College.

D. Ya. Laptev covered the long journey from Yakutsk to St. Petersburg on horseback. D. Ya. Laptev had enough time to think about the reasons for the failures of Lasinius, Pronchishchev and his own and outline a plan for future actions. D. Ya. Laptev arrived in St. Petersburg, firmly knowing what was needed for further work.

The Admiralty Board listened carefully to the messages of D. Ya. Laptev and, having discussed them, considered it necessary to continue the work. The board released additional funds and equipment and, at the suggestion of D. Ya. Laptev, instead of the deceased Pronchishchev, appointed commander of "Yakutsk" Khariton Prokopyevich Laptev.

Kh. P. Laptev previously served with his brother on Baltic ships, traveled to the Don, looking for places suitable for organizing a shipyard. Returning to the Baltic in 1737, Kh. P. Laptev was appointed captain of the yacht "Dekrone".

In March 1738, the Laptev brothers, having received the funds and equipment necessary to extend the work, left St. Petersburg for Yakutsk.

Upon arrival at the site, they inspected and repaired their ships, equipped them, and made careful plans for the expedition, designed to carry out work both from sea and from land.

On June 18, 1739, Dmitry Yakovlevich Laptev left Yakutsk on the Irkutsk with a crew of 35 people; On July 5, having passed the Lena delta, he was already at sea, heading east.

According to the adopted plan, D. Ya. Laptev sent a detachment under the command of senior sailor Loshkin, heading to the mouth of the Yana River by land, and a second detachment to the mouth of the Indigirka River under the command of surveyor Kindyakov. It was also planned to organize the work further - between Indigirka and Kolyma. On July 8, the Irkutsk reached the mouth of the Yana River and gradually moved further and further east, until ice conditions near the mouth of the Indigirka River forced it to winter.

The crew left the ship and spent the winter on the shore. Everyone continued to work. The wintering went well, and during this time the team did a great job of studying the territory. With the onset of spring, D. Ya. Laptev sent some of the people by land to Kolyma to carry out an inventory of the shores, and he himself and the rest of the team returned to the ship. The ship was trapped in ice. It was separated from clean water by an ice field about a kilometer long. D. Ya. Laptev took a difficult but true path. A channel was cut through the ice for a kilometer, through which the ship came out into clear water.

But the sailors' joy was short-lived. A storm broke out, again surrounding the ship with ice and throwing it aground. To refloat the ship, it was necessary to completely unload and disarm it, even the masts were removed. The sailors fought for the life of the ship and their own for two weeks. But finally, the Irkutsk was refloated and safely reached the mouth of the Kolyma; Having completed the necessary work here, D. Ya. Laptev moved further to the east.

Impassable ice was encountered at Cape Baranov. D. Ya. Laptev decided to return for the winter to Nizhnekolymsk on the Kolyma River. Wintering went well again. People continued to work.

In the summer of 1741, D. Ya. Laptev made another attempt to travel by sea east of Kolyma. Again, impassable ice was encountered at Cape Baranov, forcing the expedition to return to Nizhnekolymsk.

Having carefully processed the compiled inventories of the coast from the Lena to the Kolyma, D. Ya. Laptev went to the Anadyr prison on dogs and made a detailed inventory of the river. Anadyr and in the fall of 1742 returned to St. Petersburg.

Khariton Prokopyevich Laptev left Yakutsk at the end of July 1738, somewhat later than his brother. The Yakutsk crew, sailing with Lieutenant Pronchishchev, was taken by him almost unchanged. The navigator also set off on a new voyage Semyon Ivanovich Chelyuskin.

On August 17, Kh. P. Laptev reached the bay, to which he gave the name “Nordvik”. Having explored the bay, Kh. P. Laptev moved further to the west, visited Khatanga Bay and, leaving it, discovered Transfiguration Island. Then he headed north, following the eastern coast of the Taimyr Peninsula. At Cape Fadeya, ice blocked the way. Winter was approaching. Kh. P. Laptev returned back and spent the winter at the mouth of the Bludnaya River, in Khatanga Bay.

The team spent the winter safely in a house built from driftwood collected on the shore. Despite the winter conditions, work did not stop. At the same time, preparations were made for summer work from the sea and from the land.

At the wintering site, Kh. P. Laptev left large supplies of food and equipment. With the onset of spring, land survey work began. The boatswain Medvedev was sent to the mouth of the Pyasina River, and the surveyor Chekin with troops and food was sent to the mouth of the Taimyra River. These two detachments were unable to complete the work, but they found out the situation and gave Kh. P. Laptev the information necessary for the successful completion of work in the future. Kh. P. Laptev himself in August 1740, immediately after the ice broke up, made another attempt to bypass the Taimyr Peninsula by sea from the north. The attempt failed. The ship was trapped in ice and died. The crew and cargo were, by order of Kh. P. Laptev, transferred to the ice in advance.

The shore was 15 miles from the accident site. The team walked on foot, carrying loads, and moved towards the shore. But the closest accommodation was the expedition base at the mouth of the Bludnaya River. Kh. P. Laptev sent his detachment there. Four people could not bear the difficulties of the journey and died along the way. The rest made it to the base. Again a successful winter in the old place. The spring of 1741 came. Kh. P. Laptev, having lost his ship, decided to continue his research by land. He singled out three groups from his detachment. He sent one group under the command of navigator Semyon Chelyuskin to the mouth of the Pyasina River with the task of exploring the coast from the mouth of the Pyasina towards the mouth of the Taimyra.

The second group, under the command of surveyor Chekin, was supposed to examine the coast from the mouth of the Taimyra River. The third group was headed by Kh. P. Laptev himself. He had in mind to explore the interior regions of the eastern part of the Taimyr Peninsula and go to the mouth of the Taimyr River, where he was supposed to meet with the first two groups.

To ensure the normal operation of the groups, Kh. P. Laptev sent spare food and equipment ahead of each of them. Kh. P. Laptev sent all the people who were not included in the expedition groups and excess cargo on reindeer to Turukhansk.

Chekin soon returned to base, having not completed the task due to the difficulty of the journey and illness. Chelyuskin reached his destination and began work.

Kh. P. Laptev himself headed deep into the Taimyr Peninsula, went to Lake Taimyr, went down the Taimyr River to the sea and went to meet Chelyuskin.

Having finished their work, the travelers spent the winter in the city of Turukhansk on the Yenisei. In the spring of 1742, Semyon Chelyuskin returned to Taimyr to explore the remaining undescribed part of the peninsula and reached the extreme northern point of Asia - a rocky cape, which was later named after him. Cape Chelyuskin is located at 77°43" north latitude and 104°17" east longitude.

Having finished his work, Khariton Prokopievich Laptev returned from Turukhansk to St. Petersburg, where he continued to serve in the navy, holding command positions. He died on January 1, 1764.

More than two centuries separate us from the time when, overcoming constant difficulties and hardships, exposing themselves to all sorts of dangers, the Laptev brothers studied the distant and harsh sea and its coast.

They carried out their work on weak wooden ships, with primitive equipment and tools. They provided a variety of information about the nature of the region, its geography, coastline, sea depths, tides, population, magnetic declination, fauna, vegetation, etc. The thoroughness, accuracy and conscientiousness with which they carried out their work is amazing, how The strength of their will and love for their homeland is amazing, which allowed them to complete such a difficult task.

The sea whose shores they studied was named Laptev Sea.

Laptev Khariton Prokofievich– famous Russian Arctic explorer was born in 1700 year in the village of Pekarevo, in the Velikosluta province (now Pskov region). Future navigator and discoverer received his first education at Trinity Church under the guidance of priests. Khariton Laptev with 1715 years continued his studies at the St. Petersburg Maritime Academy, which he graduated from 1718 year. After passing all the exams, he enlists as a midshipman in the Baltic Fleet.

Khariton Prokofievich sailed on various ships during his service in the Baltic Fleet. IN 1720 In the year he had already risen to the rank of non-commissioned officer and became a navigator. IN 1725 year, as part of a naval mission, he went to Italy, upon his return from which he received the rank of midshipman.

Midshipman Laptev received the first ship under his command in 1730 year, and in the war that unfolded four years later against Leshchinsky’s supporters, he took part under the command of Defremery on the frigate “ Mitau", who was captured by the French fleet by deception. For surrendering the ship without a fight, Kh. Laptev, along with the rest of the officers of the frigate, was handed over to the court and sentenced to death, which never took place thanks to an additional investigation carried out in 1736 year. The entire crew was pardoned and found innocent.

The return to service of the Baltic Fleet took place in 1736 year, and already this year Laptev sailed on the frigate " Victoria"on the Don River in order to find a suitable convenient place to build ships on it.

In 1737 he was appointed commander of the court yacht " Dekrone", and then - in November of the same year presented to the reigning Empress Anna Ioannovna application for participation in the Great Northern Expedition. December 13, 1737 year receives a double boat under his command " Yakutsk"and the next rank is fleet lieutenant. The Lena-Yenisei detachment, which included the boat "Yakutsk", according to the received instructions, was to go west from the Lena River to the mouth of the Yenisei, along the way describing unknown shores.

In March 1738, together with his cousin Dmitry Laptev, participant, and lieutenant Chikhanov, departs from St. Petersburg to Yakutsk, where he arrived in May 1739 of the year. July 9, 1739 year, under the leadership of Khariton Laptev, the Lena-Yenisei detachment set sail with instructions to describe the shores of the Arctic Ocean, which extend west of the Lena. The result of the expedition was descriptions made by the expedition members of a number of islands and a section of the coast between the mouths of the Pyasina and Khatanga rivers - the Taimyr Peninsula.

Laptev set out on his second voyage along the northern coastline of the Taimyr Peninsula in the summer 1740 year, but faced with extremely difficult ice conditions, the double-boat " Yakutsk"was abandoned by the team, and in August 1740 years crushed by ice. Thus, the team’s considerable efforts to circumnavigate the Taimyr Peninsula by sea over the course of two years failed.

Khariton Laptev decided to begin land (on dogs) trips to inventory the Taimyr Peninsula. Three groups began implementing this task in the summer 1741 of the year. The groups were headed Khariton Laptev, Semyon Chelyuskin and Nikifor Chekin. The tasks assigned to the group were successfully completed, and the expedition ended in August 1742 years after the entire Lena-Yenisei detachment arrived in Yeniseisk.

Khariton Laptev continuing his service in the Baltic Fleet, with 1746 year commanded the ship " Ingermanland", and in 1752 year received the appointment of assistant chief of the Naval Cadet Corps. During from 1756 to 1762 year (the period of the Seven Years' War), under his command was a 66-gun warship and Kh. Laptev rose to the rank of captain of the first rank, and at the end of the war he received the rank of Ober-Ster-Kriegs-Commissar.

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