Polar explorer Georgy Sedov: biography, discoveries
All those who happened to live in the Soviet period,remember the enthusiastic epithets addressed to the first Russian traveler, who set as his goal the conquest of the North Pole, - G. Ya. Sedov. He, a native of the poorest strata of society, was credited with energy and determination, which allowed the village boy to become world famous. He tried not to talk about the results of his expedition, as it ended tragically, demonstrating an example of a thoughtless and frivolous approach to solving the most complicated scientific task.
Son of a fisherman from a poor family
The future Lieutenant of the Navy GeorgeSedov was the youngest son in a large family of Yakov Yevteevich - a fisherman from the Krivaya Kosa farm in the Donetsk region. He was born on May 5, 1877. The Sedovs lived in extreme need, the cause of which was the frequent binges of his father. The situation was also not saved by the fact that the brothers, and there were five of them, were hired to work for the richest in the rural areas - they paid the pathetic pennies to the boys.
He began to study late. Only when he was fourteen years old, his parents gave him to the parish school, where he showed extraordinary abilities. Three years of education, the teenager graduated in two years, while receiving a commendable leaf. However, no bright changes in his life came. You also had to work from morning till late at night.
A daring dream
Having mastered the reading and writing, George was carried away by reading, and hea dream was born to become a captain of distant voyage - a desire absurd and unattainable for a village boy. Even the parents, upon learning of this, were categorically against such a venture. And here one of the main features of his character was vividly manifested - extraordinary perseverance in achieving this goal.
Secretly from all the young man began to prepare fora trip to Rostov-on-Don, where seaworthy courses were opened at that time. When, after prolonged ordeals, he finally reached the goal of his first journey in life, the inspector treated him very kindly, but as a test he sent for a few months a sailor to the steamboat Trud, which made voyages through the Azov and Black Seas. Having thus received a sea baptism, George began his studies.
Master of merchant vessel
Three years later, the school leftgraduated navigator of coastal navigation Sedov George Yakovlevich. It was not the old village boy who had been squeezed into poverty, but a specialist who knew his own worth and had reasons for pride. In the course of the next time he passed additional training and soon he was captain on the ship "Sultan". But I wanted more. Standing on the bridge, Georgy Sedov was thinking about marine science and expeditionary activity. The goal is attainable, but for this it was required to go over to the navy.
From the civil fleet to the management of cartography
After parting with your dry cargo ship, the young captainwent to Sevastopol, where he entered the volunteer in the training team. Soon he was given the rank of lieutenant, and with a letter of recommendation from the inspector of naval courses of Rear Admiral AK Drizhenko, Georgy went to St. Petersburg to work in the Admiralty's Main Cartographic Directorate. There was a wide open space for his research activities. In 1902, an expedition was formed to study the Arctic Ocean. Together with other participants to the islands of Vaigach and the mouth of the Kolyma River, Georgy Sedov also travels.
From this time his biography goes completelya different level. Georgy Sedov is no longer just a sailor, many of whom are in the Russian fleet; he is a passionate researcher, a man possessed by a thirst for discovery. The next year, as an assistant to the chief of the expedition, he studies the Kara Sea and, having met there with the captain of the vessel "America" Anthony Fial, becomes infected with him by the idea of conquering the North Pole. But soon the Russian-Japanese war begins, and so ambitious plans have to be postponed.
Military service and marriage
Instead of long journeys, life was prepared for him inmilitary years of service in the Siberian Military Flotilla, and after the end of hostilities - work as an assistant to the Grand Master Nicholas-on-Amur fortress. Here, for merits in work to improve the shipping conditions on the Amur, Senior Lieutenant Georgy Sedov was granted the Order of St. Stanislaus of the third degree.
In 1909, in his personal lifehappy event. Returning to St. Petersburg, he soon gets acquainted with his future wife Vera Valerianovna May-Mayevskaya, who was the niece of a prominent military commander of those years, General VZ May-Majewski. The following year, the Sacrament of the capital was performed in the Admiralty Cathedral of the capital, which became not only the beginning of a happy married life, but also opened doors for it to a higher society.
Painful self-esteem, demanding satisfaction
Travel biographers disagreeabout this, in this period in it began with a special distinctness to manifest a trait, which later served as one of the reasons for his tragic death. Having risen from the most social lower classes of society and finding himself among the aristocracy of the capital, Sedov was constantly inclined to see a certain contempt for others from outside as an upstart man and not their circle. Whether there were real prerequisites for this, or such a judgment was the result of a sick pride - it is difficult to say, but all those who knew him personally noted in his character excessive vulnerability and ambition. They said that for the sake of self-affirmation, he was capable of the most rash actions, which were many.
Expedition of Georgy Sedov to the North Polebecame one of the links in this chain. Works on its preparation began in 1912. By that time, already two Americans had announced the conquest of the pole, and Sedov could not claim the laurels of the discoverer, but he found this journey, made exactly in that year, necessary. The fact is that in 1913 the celebrations connected with the 300th anniversary of the House of Romanov were to take place, and the Russian flag on the extreme northern point of the globe could be a wonderful gift to the sovereign, and the traveler would have earned unquestioned authority and fame.
The Resonant Opinion of Hydrograph Scientists
To meet the upcoming anniversary, it was necessaryhurry, because there was very little time left. First of all, the preparation of the expedition required money, and considerable. Submitting an application to the Main Hydrographic Office, Sedov received a polite but categorical refusal. The learned men tactfully pointed out to him the entire adventurousness of the planned plan, citing the fact that in the absence of sufficient technical means, academic knowledge and specialists in this area, one enthusiasm is not enough.
The refusal was regarded as a manifestation of arrogantconceit to the descendant of the people and even more excited in him the desire to prove by all means to all "who is who." The article published in one of the Moscow magazines testifies to the frivolity of the plans. In it, Sedov writes that, without setting himself any "special scientific tasks", he simply wants to reach the pole, as if it is a question of sporting achievement.
Hasty and stupid fees
But if nature denied him prudence, then withmore than endowed with energy. Turning through the press to the general public, Sedov managed to collect the required funds in a short time among voluntary donors. The idea was so exciting that even the sovereign made a private contribution of ten thousand rubles, which was twenty percent of the required amount.
The collected money was bought by the oldsailing-steam schooner "Holy Great Martyr Fock", which had to be repaired and brought into proper form. Haste is a bad helper, and from the very beginning it affected the preparation of the expedition. It was not possible not only to assemble a professional crew of seamen, but they could not even find real sled dogs, and already in Arkhangelsk they caught on the streets homeless mongrels. The fact that at the last moment they had been sent from Tobolsk got it. Merchants, taking advantage of the opportunity, slipped the most unfit products, most of which had to be thrown away. To top it all off, it turned out that the ship's carrying capacity does not allow taking all the provisions of the vessel on board, some of which remained on the quay.
Two years among the polar ice
Anyway, on August 14, 1912 the shipcame out of Arkhangelsk and took a course in the open sea. Their journey lasted two years. Twice reckless daredevils made winterings among the ice hummocks, submerged in the darkness of the polar night. But even in such conditions they did not lose time for nothing and made geographic maps and descriptions of all sections of the coast where they had occasion to visit. During the second wintering a group of seamen was sent to Arkhangelsk with papers for transfer to the Geographical Society of Petersburg. They contained the results of research and the request to send a ship with a supply of food and other provisions, which was never done.
The tragic end of the expedition
The decisive assault on the North Pole began on February 21914 year. On this day the Russian explorer Georgy Sedov and two sailors from his team left the Tikhaya Bay and went by dog sled to the north. Even before the start of the journey, they all suffered from scurvy, and a few days later the condition of Georgy Yakovlevich deteriorated sharply. He could not go, ordered to tie himself to sledges, and on February 20, 1914 died. From the two thousand kilometers of the sledge way that was to come to this moment, only two hundred were passed.
According to the official version, the sailors beforeturn back, buried him, making a grave in the snow and putting a cross on it on skis. But there is another version of what happened, based on quite reliable information. It was once described by the director of the museum of the history of the Arctic Maritime Institute G. Popov. In order for the sailors to get to the shore alive, they needed workable sled dogs, which by then were already falling from hunger. Being on the verge of death, the sailors dismembered the corpse of their commander, and his remains were fed dogs. No matter how blasphemous it may seem, they managed to survive.
The memory left for the children
In the history of science traveler Sedov GeorgeYakovlevich entered as a tireless hydrograph and explorer of the Arctic Ocean. Son of a poor fisherman, he became an officer in the fleet, a member of the Russian Geographical and Astronomical Society, was awarded several orders. In the Soviet period, Georgy Sedov, whose discoveries formed a part of the national science, was a symbol of the development of the North. His memory is immortalized in the names of the streets of many cities. On the map you can see the geographical objects named after George Sedov. His name was worn by a famous icebreaker. Once the drift of "Georgy Sedov", withered in the ice of the ocean, was at the center of attention not only to the public of our country, but the whole world.
Today many heroes of the past years have moved to the secondplan, giving way to the new time. However Sedov George Yakovlevich will remain in our history as a dedicated traveler, a man of unbending will and unbending character. He always set himself a super task, and it was not his fault that the latter cost him his life.
