First English edition: Ivan Fedorovich Krusenstern commanded this important Russian naval voyage to the Marquesas, Hawaii, Kamchatka, the Northwest Coast, China and Japan. His brilliant corps of officers -- Lisiansky (commanding the Neva), Rezanov, Langsdorff, Kotzebue and Bellingshausen -- all went on to make their mark on Pacific exploration.

First English edition: Ivan Fedorovich Krusenstern commanded this important Russian naval voyage to the Marquesas, Hawaii, Kamchatka, the Northwest Coast, China and Japan. His brilliant corps of officers -- Lisiansky (commanding the Neva), Rezanov, Langsdorff, Kotzebue and Bellingshausen -- all went on to make their mark on Pacific exploration.

The expedition is famous for the stunning visual record created by the scientist and illustrator Georg Heinrich von Langsdorff, whose images of tattooed men of the Marquesas (including European beachcombers) are some of the most enduring early nineteenth-century images of the Pacific. One such portrait, titled 'Native of Nukahiva' forms the frontispiece of the first volume of this book, while a view of Nagasaki Harbour as the second frontispiece is one of the earliest views of Japan published in the west.

The expedition consisted of two vessels, the Nadezhda and Neva, under the command of Krusenstern and Yurii Lisiansky. Both had trained in the British navy as young men where they first met and formed a lasting professional association. The voyage was sponsored by the Tsar and was primarily intended for scientific research and cartography. One of the expedition's ships spent some time on the Northwest Coast, reaffirming the Russian presence there and putting together a cargo of valuable furs bound for China. A Russian ambassador to Japan was taken aboard, and although it was intended that he stay in Japan, this advance was rebuffed and relations between the two countries were not established. Nonetheless good cartographic work between the Japanese islands northwards to the Kamchatka peninsula was achieved.

This book is of great Hawaiian interest as both vessels visited the islands following their rendezvous in the Marquesas, at which point Krusenstern sailed north to Kamchatka while Lisiansky remained in Kealakekua and Waimea procuring supplies. The following year, in October 1805, the Neva was almost wrecked on an unknown reef to the north of the Hawaiian group. Daybreak revealed a small uninhabited landmass that was christened Lisyansky Island, a name retained in recent times as part of the Hawaiian Islands.

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