Cruise Through History - Itinerary 15 - Ports of the Far East with Indonesia

By Sherry Hutt

Enter Itinerary XV in Cruise through History stories at the northern divide of east and west at the Bering Strait and sail south through the Far East to the Wallace Line, dividing Asia from the South Pacific at the eastern edge of Indonesia. Along port stops meet cultures known to each other through trade fo

• Language: English
• Publisher: Motumas Publishing
• Release date: Jul 16, 2021
• ISBN: 9781942153252

Book preview

INTRODUCTION

TRAVEL THE BLEND OF HISTORY IN THE FAR EAST

Enter Itinerary XV in Cruise through History at the northern divide of east and west at the Bering Strait and sail south through the Far East to the Wallace Line, dividing Asia from the South Pacific at the eastern edge of Indonesia. Along port stops meet cultures known to each other through trade for thousands of years, yet thought exotic to westerners until the mid-nineteenth century. Meet real kings, queens, emperors, rajah and presidents, building nations ancient and modern, and mythical Righteous Princes and Queens of the Southern Ocean. In this Itinerary Dragons are real and endangered.

Begin the Itinerary in the developing cruise port of Petropavlovsk, made possible by a Dane, Vitus Bering, at the insistence of Peter the Great. A museum and monument to contributions of a foreigner are small in this Russian outpost. Bering’s story is a chilling tribute to his skill, when he gave his life to map the northern reach of the world.

In Japan, history is a celebration of culture expressed in art forms of haiku, raiku, bonsai and ikebana, evoking Zen balance in the Wabi Sabi of life. Enter Japanese theater in Kabuki, Noh and Doll theater. Visit Tokyo, begun as Edo by Shogun, Samurai and Ninja, until an emperor reasserted authority and built a modern nation. Visit the stunning site of ancient Jomon people in Aomori; cherry blossom covered grounds of historic castles; the fort of the last Shogun in Hakodate; the last Samurai; and the opening of Japan to the world in Yokohama, at the insistence of Commodore Perry. In Hiroshima and Nagasaki view the Bomb and Modern Japan from the perspective of Japanese people today.

Korea, caught through history between China and Japan, built its own culture from Ancient Ways to Modern Adaptations. In Busan and Jeju visit a modern tiger economy and an island preserve of natural vegetation and people with a comic sense of humor. Dive deep into history and culture with mermaids of Jeju.

In China discover the root of blended history of Asia, in the beginnings of writing, currency, drama and art. Visit Beijing, the Forbidden and Inviting City and Shanghai, the Home of Old and New China. View the recent history of Hong Kong from rocks on a beach to High Rises and Street Markets.

Taiwan sits at the Cross Currents of Culture. Geography placed indigenous cultures, varied and independent, under rule by the Dutch, Japan, China and the exiled Republic of China. The story in Taiwan is a continuing search for identity in a tumultuous history.

In the Philippines learn of two wars known to Filipinos and not taught in the United States. Enjoy travails of election battles of two female presidents, the Steel Butterfly and the Sainted Madonna. Sail on Manila Galleons to Acapulco, beginning trade connections between old and new world, upon which a Modern Tigress economy is built.

Brunei’s story begins with a rogue adventurer, muse for Joseph Conrad’s Lord Jim. The little-known British Rajah of Sarawak fought headhunters of Borneo. In Brunei today, the wealthiest monarch in the world enjoys the small domain that fended off giant nations.

This Itinerary moves due south to include eastern islands of Indonesia in Java, Bali and Komodo. Java, Ancient and Modern is central to the story of Indonesia, with its wealth of ancient temples to ancestors, large Buddhist temples, cities built by Dutch in the colonial era and a modern powerhouse economy. In Bali, Balinese Aga maintain their compass Rose of the Winds in a sea of Islam and ancient rice cultivation, amid artist colonies and beach resorts thick with tourists. The Indonesian government battles to preserve Dragons in Komodo as it seeks to Create Unity out of Diversity in Indonesia.

As in all Itineraries in Cruise through History, stories enhance enjoyment of places visited on port stops through the perspective of locals. The travel experience begins and ends with meeting new characters without bias or judgment. Read, enjoy and learn from travel!

CTH

Bering Museum Petropavlovsk

RUSSIA

PETROPAVLOVSK

Vitus Bering in the Arctic

Petropavlovsk, at the edge of the Kamchatka Peninsula, gateway to the Arctic in the north Pacific, was named for patron saints of Russia, Peter and Paul, by its founder, a Dane. Sitting over four thousand miles east of Moscow, and thirteen hundred miles north of Vladivostok, the eastern point of the first Russian transcontinental railroad, the port at Petropavlovsk remained small, remote and of significance only to explorers until the twenty-first century. Now, Petropavlovsk is turning its remote location into an asset for wilderness travelers, Arctic researchers and cruise visitors. In this Russian outpost city, Lenin still dominates the main square with a statue, while its Danish founder has a museum dedicated to his achievements and a small, obscure monument.

Vitus Jonassen Bering went to the Pacific Arctic in 1724, sent by Russian emperor, Peter I, with the mission to resolve the most vexing question of the day, the northern boundary of Russia and a possible land-connection to Alaska. A monarch is unable to govern a country of unknown territory. It mattered not to Peter that Bering was Danish. Peter promoted officers based on talent. Bering was a loyal employee.

Bering made two voyages, drawing Russia’s North Pacific map. The Kamchatka Expedition of 1724 was followed by the Great Northern Expedition, undertaken in 1733, in which Peter’s progeny, Empress Anna, gave Bering a long list of assignments. The most Herculean feat, in the list of assignments given to Bering, was crossing the expanse of Russia to launch. For Bering, the actual voyage into unchartered seas was satisfying and less problematic than reaching the east coast of Siberian Russia, in order to sail.

Bering’s obstacles, on land and at sea, were conquered by talent and determination, to the extent he had control of his assignments. Political decisions in Moscow, were the cause of his demise. His ending became lore of the Arctic. His place name on maps was earned.

Fifty years after Bering shipwrecked close to his starting point, Captain James Cook came north. His mission on behalf of Britain, in his third voyage of discovery, was validating Bering’ maps and completing Europe’s picture of the world. Britain desired control of Canada to the west coast. Mapping territory was key to control.

Sailing with Cook, on his third and fateful voyage, was George Vancouver. After the death of Cook in Hawaii, Captain Vancouver contributed to knowledge of the North Pacific by filling gaps in charts left by Bering and Cook. Bering made possible control of Alaska by Russia. Bering, the Danish seaman, became a Russian hero. Cook and Vancouver have their story in other Itineraries. This is Bering’s story and that of his city, Petropavlovsk.

Bering: Sailing for Sovereigns of Russia

At the beginning of the eighteenth century, Peter I of Russia earned his moniker of Great, by building a world-class city on land of his enemy Sweden in the Baltic. Peter I was an aficionado of gaining knowledge. He founded a university and began a museum in St. Petersburg. He sent dozens of young nobles to Europe on a grand tour, with the intent of expanding potential for Russia in science, commerce and the arts. Late in life, Peter I turned his attention to a map of his sprawling domain.

A nation that does not know the boundaries of its territory is unable to defend them from other nations. Russia was interested in Arctic exploration to define a northern boundary. Of key concern was whether Russia’s Asian turf was connected to the American continent across a land bridge, at the northern reach of the Pacific Ocean.

In 1725, Peter I launched the Great Northern Expedition to map northern reaches of Siberia. Peter sent Danish sea captain Vitus Bering, a senior captain in the Russian navy, on a mission to determine whether Russia and North America were joined. For the explorer, traversing the landscape of Russia to begin his voyage was a feat. There were no established towns, or outposts, between Moscow and the east coast. Bering spent the winter on Kamchatka Peninsula, before a journey through the strait named for him.

Vitus Bering

Vitus Jonassen Bering was born in Denmark in 1681. Rather than follow his two brothers into the University of Copenhagen, he became a ship’s boy at age fifteen. Bering was a standout sailor. He completed naval officer training by age eighteen in Amsterdam. By then, he sailed the Caribbean, Atlantic, Baltic and North Atlantic seas. At the advice of a Norwegian-Russian mentor, Bering joined the Russian Navy in 1704. To the end of his life, Bering served only monarchs of Russia. Life in Siberian Russia was a difficult experience. Once he was at sea, Bering was at home, anywhere in the world.

Bering served Russia during the Great Northern War with Sweden, despite his marriage in 1713 to the daughter of a Swedish merchant. Although Bering was rarely home in St. Petersburg, from his marriage to the end of the war in 1721, the couple had nine children. Bering’s wife was ambitious on his behalf. Her sister married a Russian naval captain, who was a rear admiral by the end of the war. Bering never distinguished himself as a battle-captain. At the end of the war, he retired from the navy.

Retirement was brief. Peter I was known for spotting talent. He soon had Bering reinstated and assigned to the east coast of Russia. Once there, Bering built two ships and sailed north, keeping land to his port side, until the land veered west. The objective was resolving whether continents bordering the North Pacific were joined or separate. Sailing with Bering was the capable, yet inexperienced, Aleksei Chirikov, whose charts of Aleutian Islands were valuable in future years of Russian-Alaska exploration.

On his first mission, Bering sailed west into the Arctic Ocean, as far as Chukchi Peninsula, before turning back. He was able to confirm open water to the east, which established there was no land bridge to Alaska. He mapped the northern Atlantic Ocean, now named the Bering Strait. Before news of the successful mission reached St. Petersburg, Peter the Great was dead. It is four thousand miles to St. Petersburg from the east Siberian port of Vladivostok, where Bering accessed communication transmission.

Sailing the Bering Strait

Bering noted the big island of Diomede Islands, which Chirikov duly recorded as land of Russia. He missed sighting the little island of Diomede, due to fog. As a result, Little Diomede is United States territory. The islands separate the two nations by less than six sea miles and an international dateline.

Peter’s wife and successor, Catherine I, appreciated Bering’s efforts. Russian captains, jealous of his high status in the Russian navy, did not. While Denmark and Russia were aligned against Sweden in war, Russians tolerated Bering. When Russia was not at war, and with his supportive monarch gone, jealous captains regarded Bering as an outsider. When Peter rewarded Bering for meritorious service, and elevated him to Captain First Class, Bering became a Russian noble, without Russian blood. He was a Lutheran, in a Russian Orthodox community, of politically ambitious naval captains.

Peter’s niece, Anna, followed Catherine I. She appreciated Bering’s skill and had no reason to question his loyalty. Still, her greater loyalty ran with men determined to undermine any success of Bering. Anna had no children. Her ability to remain out of a convent depended upon support of Russian nobles and church leaders.

In 1733, Empress Anna sent Bering back to sea, with a long list of requests. He was to confirm absence of a land bridge, establish a new city and build lighthouses for future Arctic voyagers. Anna sent explorers over land, to map unchartered areas of Siberia. Traveling by dog sled, Dmitri Laptev and Semion Chelyuskin mapped the northern point of Russia by 1742, now known as Cape Chelyuskin. They reported it was impossible to sail east of the mouth of the Lena River, due to ice.

Anna had dreams. Reality was not her strong point. While Bering was enroute to Kamchatka, Anna added assignments to his mission. He was to establish more towns and a postal system between them. Bering’s subordinates were to inform on him to her.

To sail east from Kamchatka, Bering built boats at the port of Avacha. That he reached land in Alaska, making landfall on Kayak Island in 1741, despite rough seas and punishing weather, was astonishing. The greater accomplishment of Bering was launching from Avacha, after traversing the length of Russia, over three thousand miles, in winter, without roads, carrying supplies to build two vessels, with few able craftsmen and an inability to sufficiently feed and house workmen.

The Great Northern Expedition, envisioned by Anna, was a mission to explore the Icey Sea, now known as the Arctic Sea, map America, that is the west coast of Alaska, and determine a short route to Japan. That a route to Japan, so close to Russia’s Siberian ports, was unknown in Russia in the mid-eighteenth century, is testament to dearth of attention given the eastern frontier by monarchs. Russian Cossack fur trappers and adventuring sailors knew the strait. They had no obligation to report to the empress on their travels. From 1733 to 1743, the Great Northern Expedition produced enough new information to make Russia the envy of Europe. Anna expired before she received reports she craved.

The Great Northern Expedition to explore Alaska, commanded by Bering, left Avacha harbor on Kamchatka Peninsula, in June 1741, on two ships: St. Peter, captained by Bering and St. Paul captained by Aleksei Chirikov. Chirikov had discretion to chart his course. He sailed to Alaska and returned safely to Avacha by October 1741.

Monument to Bering in Petropavlovsk

Bering’s Ship St. Peter

At the insistence of Empress Anna, Bering had Russian subordinate officers, who held control over navigational decisions. Sea councils, a committee of officers, voted on the route, as it went along, causing delay in reaching land in Alaska and on return causing a stop on Bering Island, the final resting place of Bering and the St. Peter.

Sailing with Bering was his physician and ship’s naturalist, German theology student, Georg Wilhelm Steller. Steller’s diary, published after his death at age thirty-seven in 1746, casts him as a petulant academic, who felt unappreciated by veteran seamen. Steller shared Bering’s cabin, yet the two rarely spoke. Though initially critical of Bering, the naturalist appreciated Bering’s navigational skills.

Bering charted a route enabling arrival of St. Peter in Avacha ahead of the St. Paul. His decisions were countermanded by the Sea Council, to a fatal result. The crew enjoyed holding power over their captain, the Dane, who considered himself a Russian noble. Steller was the target of their jokes, when he wanted time on shore to collect specimen.

When it was clear to all that the Sea Council made poor decisions, prolonging the voyage and subjecting the crew to illness, including dreaded scurvy, Steller was the voyage savior. Acerbic plants, collected by Steller and fed to the crew, cured them of scurvy. He became the chief cook of nutritious meals. The Steller sea cow, a sea mammal, caught to feed the crew, and Stellar jay, spotted in North America, were named for him.

Petropavlovsk to Alaska 250 Years

On the outbound sailing, Bering took the St. Peter south of the Aleutians and east to the Gulf of Alaska. He turned north to Kayak Island, where Russians made the first landing of Europeans on Alaskan turf, on July 20, 1741. A few days prior, rains stopped and clouds cleared, bringing St. Elias mountain range in view. The scenery was breathtaking.

Steller wanted to find natives, who left campfires still warm when they absconded upon arrival of the Russian ship. Bering was anxious to fill water barrels and head home. The Sea Council voted to follow the Aleutian coast westward. Storms, avoided in the open sea, pounded the vessel and made the crew regret their decision.

Part of Bering lore is that he shipwrecked on the island named for him and died of scurvy. Actually, the Sea Council voted to land, erroneously thinking they were on Kamchatka. Bering calculated the ship was not near the mainland. Charting new territory in open sea was a skill Bering sharpened over his career. He was correct. If the ship continued west a few more days, port was ahead. Bering was outvoted.

The St. Peter crashed on approach to land. Storms pushed the ship inland, where it was covered by sand by October 1741. At the time, Chirikov on St. Paul reached home port.

Bering did not die of scurvy. Steller cured Bering of scurvy, as he did many of the crew. Bering died of heart failure, on December 8, 1741. At age sixty, having weathered many days at sea, Bering was not a fit outdoorsman, living without shelter on a beach. He died, half buried in sand, attempting to keep warm. Many of the crew died slowly and painfully.

In spring 1742, Steller roused surviving crew to build a small ship from remnants of the St. Peter. Survivors arrived in Avacha on August 25, 1742. Anna was no longer empress. Ruler of Russia was Elizabeth, Peter’s daughter. She had no interest in foreign captains.

Success of Bering was cast into shadows. His log was edited and published by Russians. Sea Council improvident decisions were attributed to Bering. Russia published maps of the expedition, keeping presence of fur seals in Alaska a state secret. A monopoly in fur trade was lucrative for the Russian treasury. That is another story, in another itinerary, in Alaska’s Russian history.

Post-Script to Bering in the Twenty-First Century Across the Pacific Arctic

Arctic Passage was a priority for Russia at the beginning of the twentieth century. Russia was at war with Japan in 1905. In the Battle of Tsushima Strait, every Russian ship in the engagement was lost. The Trans-Siberian Railway proved an insufficient means to send troops and supplies to the western frontier. For the next eighty-six years, until dissolution of the Soviet Union, there was a focus upon northern transit of the Arctic to the Pacific.

The last Russian monarch, Nicholas II, capitalized on advances in ice-breaker technology on two ships sailing from Murmansk in 1909, which reached the Bering Strait in 1910. The feat was repeated in 1914, leaving from the Pechora River Delta into the Kara Sea and arriving in the Pacific in 1914. The route was not sufficiently reliable for regular use.

Stalin made mastery of a Northeast Passage a priority. In 1932, he created the Central Administration of a North Sea Route. That year, the first single season voyage for any vessel, from any country, was the Soviet icebreaker Sibirakov. The following year the super-ship Chelyuskin, captained by Vlad Voronin, tried to repeat the feat. The ship anticipated a light ice year and was surprised by a sudden onset of ice at the Barents Sea. Trapped in ice, the ship floated to the Bering Strait. The current dragged the ship back north, where it sunk. Captain Voronin planned ahead. All crew and officers evacuated successfully. They were sufficiently provisioned until all were rescued by plane.

During the Soviet Era, sailors mastered a route of ten days from Murmansk to the Bering Strait, sometimes two or three times in a single season, over several years. Weather along the passage was always difficult to gauge. The voyage never became routine.

In 2010, China sent four ships across a northern route to the Bering Strait. Two years later, Chinese vessels, avoiding a route through the turbulent Suez Canal, employed the route. In one year, forty-six ships traversed the Northeast Passage.

Small luxury cruise ships, of an expedition class, competed with Spartan icebreakers for guest travel in 2016. Staterooms are pricy as the season is limited. Travel across the Pacific Arctic affords guests amazing views and unique bragging rights.

Petropavlovsk Kamchatka Today

Visitor Center Petropavlovsk

Today cruise ships port at Petropavlovsk on the Kamchatka peninsula, typically on cruise itineraries leaving Japan, or Vancouver, and transiting the Pacific Ocean. The port has increased attractions for cruise guests, with a craft booth village, built of logs, in the architecture of early Orthodox Russia. Land tours offer spectacular scenery.

Bering’s monument in Petropavlovsk is obscure. It is only visible when climbing beyond the street. The statue to Lenin is prominent, as expected. Petropavlovsk is a small city, with little traffic, and few tall buildings to block views of surrounding mountains.

Bering, a Dane who served Russia, still has a stigma from days of Empress Elizabeth and her distain for accomplishments of non-Russians. People of Kamchatka remember Bering fondly. The museum to his accomplishments is small, yet interesting. It tells the story of exploration during a Siberian winter. Cruise travelers are beneficiaries of efforts of Bering, Cook and Vancouver, who made the north Pacific part of the known world.

Travelers Love Petropavlovsk

Red Lacquer Temple Entrance in Tokyo

JAPAN

EDO - TOKYO CAPITAL OF EMPERORS

In 700 CE, Japanese scholars compiled a definitive record of Japan, then burned all prior books. Chronicles of Japan begin with ancient mariners, from whom the first emperor of Japan emerged. One hundred and twenty-five emperors ruled Japan, all of one dynasty.

From the ninth to the twelfth century, emperors lived in a grand palace in Kyoto. Lulled by peace or shielded from controversies of warring lords, power ebbed from emperor to advisors, until advisors were rulers, known as shogun. Lords of powerful families jousted for control as shogun.

Ascendency of the eighty-second emperor in 1183, while a young child, coincided with a decisive