Otto von Kotzebue

Explorer, Author

1787 – 1846

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Who was Otto von Kotzebue?

Otto von Kotzebue was a Baltic German navigator in Russian service.

The second son of writer and diplomat August von Kotzebue, he was born in Reval, then part of the Russian Empire. After attending the St Petersburg school of cadets, he accompanied Adam Johann von Krusenstern on his voyage of 1803–1806. On promotion to lieutenant, Kotzebue was placed in command of an expedition, fitted out at the expense of the imperial chancellor, Count Nikolay Rumyantsev, in the brig Rurik. In this vessel, with only twenty-seven men, including the naturalists Johann Friedrich von Eschscholtz and Adelbert von Chamisso, and the artist Louis Choris, Kotzebue set out on July 30, 1815 to find a passage across the Arctic Ocean and explore the less-known parts of Oceania.

Proceeding via Cape Horn, he discovered the Romanzov Islands, Rurik Islands and Krusenstern Islands, then made for Kamchatka, and in the middle of July proceeded northward, coasting along the north-west coast of North America, and discovering and naming Kotzebue Sound or Gulf and Cape Krusenstern in the remote Chukchi Sea. Returning by the coast of Asia, he again sailed to the south, sojourned for three weeks at the Sandwich Islands, and on January 1, 1817 discovered New Year Island. After further cruising in the Pacific Ocean, he again proceeded north, but severe illness compelled him to return to Europe, and he reached the Neva on August 3, 1818, bringing home a large collection of previously unknown plants and much new ethnological information.

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Born
Dec 30, 1787
Tallinn
Parents
Ethnicity
  • Baltic Germans
Nationality
  • Russian Empire
  • Germany
Profession
Died
Feb 15, 1846
Tallinn

Submitted
on July 23, 2013

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