Vitus Bering

A Case of Mistaken Identity

“Soon the ship is without a captain, as Bering joins

the list of men at Death’s door.”

“On December 8, Captain

– Commander Bering

died, from whom this

island later got its name.

Page 138

Men were continually dying. Our plight was so wretched that the dead had to lie for a considerable time among the living, for there was none able to drag the corpses away, nor were those who still lived capable of moving away from the dead…

Captain-Commander Bering died on 8th December. His corpse was tied fast to a plank and thrust down into the ground. None of the other dead were buried with a plank.

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Dr. Viktor Zviagin presents the state of Alaska

with a bust of Danish explorer Vitus Bering on

August 22, 2010. The bust will be placed on

display at the Alaska State Museum in Juneau.

Dr. Viktor Zviagin, an expert in

facial reconstruction at the

Russian Center of Forensic

Expertise, in his Moscow lab, at

the end of 1991.