Nikolaya Bay

Nikolaya Bay (Russian: Zaliv Nikolaya) is a small, narrow bay in the northwestern Sea of Okhotsk, just south of the Shantar Islands. It is a southeastern branch of the larger Akademii Bay to the north.

History

Nikolaya Bay was frequented by American whaleships between 1853 and 1874.[1] The ships anchored off Potter’s Head and sent smaller whaleboats into the bay to search for bowhead whales. It was initially called Wild Goose Bay and then Potter's Bay, after David C. Potter, a 19-year-old native of Dartmouth and crew member of the ship Good Return, of New Bedford, who died of tuberculosis and was buried on the west side of the bay on 9 August 1854.[2] On 7 October 1856, the ship Natchez (524 tons), of New Bedford, was wrecked on the west side of the bay while attempting to seek shelter from a gale. Most of the crew was rescued by the bark Harmony; four men, including the third and fourth mates, decided to stay the winter and protect the ship. In July of the following year the ship Italy picked up the three survivors – one had died in June after a prolonged illness. She also salvaged most of the 1,200 bbls of oil and 18,000 lbs of whalebone left aboard the vessel when she had wrecked.[3][4]

Russian schooners and boat crews from Mamga also cruised for bowheads in the bay from 1865 to 1871.[5]

References

  1. ↑ Fortune, of New Bedford, Sep. 26-Oct. 5, 1853, Nicholson Whaling Collection (NWC); Mary Frazier, of New Bedford, July 17, 1857, NWC; Florida, of Fairhaven, July 26, 1860, in Willaims, H. (1964). One whaling family. Boston, Houghton Mifflin, p. 146; Sea Breeze, of New Bedford, July 12-13, 1874, G. W. Blunt White Library.
  2. ↑ Good Return, of New Bedford, Aug. 9, 1854, Old Dartmouth Historical Society.
  3. ↑ Hawaii. (1865). Reports of a portion of the decisions rendered by the Supreme Court of the Hawaiian Islands in law, equity, admiralty, and probate. Honolulu: Govt. Press.
  4. ↑ Starbuck, Alexander (1878). History of the American Whale Fishery from Its Earliest Inception to the year 1876. Castle. ISBN 1-55521-537-8.
  5. ↑ Lindholm, O. V., Haes, T. A., & Tyrtoff, D. N. (2008). Beyond the frontiers of imperial Russia: From the memoirs of Otto W. Lindholm. Javea, Spain: A. de Haes OWL Publishing.

Coordinates: 53°42′N 138°34′E / 53.700°N 138.567°E / 53.700; 138.567

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Wednesday, March 30, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.