Researcher of the seas Gabriel Andreevich Sarychev
Neither the place nor the exact date of birth of the outstanding Russian hydrograph Gabriel Sarychev is known. Based on the service records confirmed later by Sarychev himself, historians consider the time of his birth to be November-December 1763. The father of the future admiral, Andrei Sarychev, had a fiefdom in the Sevsky district with five serfs and served as an “ensign in the sea battalions” in Kronstadt. Together with him lived his family, numbering seven children. The Sarychevs lived very modestly, their father’s salary and income from the estate were small.Gabriel received his primary education at home — his mother Mavra Afanasyevna herself taught him to read and write. 5 November 1775 young man after the elder brother Alexey entered the Naval Cadet Corps. Sarychev studied diligently, although he did not grab stars from the sky - his name was never among the best students of the institution. He studied geometry, mathematics, ship navigation, marine inventory, ship architecture and some other sciences in depth, but his favorite subject was geography. In 1778, the young Gabriel Andreevich was ordained a midshipman and sent on his first voyage. The journey was not far away - on “St. Eustache”, together with his friends - the grandsons of the legendary explorer Bering - Christian and Jacob, Sarychev visited Revel (now Tallinn). On the frigate, young midshipmen carried watches, learned to work with navigational instruments, and got acquainted with the ship's device. A few weeks Gabriel Andreevich spent on the beach, enjoying the beauty and charm of the ancient city. He returned to Kronstadt already on the ship "Alexander Nevsky."
Corpus teachers were satisfied with his knowledge of the theory and practice of maritime affairs. They wrote about him and his comrades: “Good behavior. In training, they are diligent, they have maintained themselves decently, good behavior ”. In early spring, 1780 Sarychev along with his classmates was sent on horseback to Arkhangelsk, where he helped equip the ship “Do not touch me.” Built at the local shipyard. And then he went on it to Kronstadt. The Norwegian Sea met the ship with storms, bad weather and storms followed it in the North Sea. With great difficulty, the sailors and midshipmen managed the sails and kept the chosen course. However, everything ended well, “Do not touch me” reached the Baltic waters, and a few days later dropped anchor on the Kronstadt raid.
1 January 1781 Sarychev successfully passed the final examinations before the commission headed by Vice Admiral Samuel Greig. After that, he was assigned the rank of midshipman. In the spring of the same year, he again went to “Don't touch me” and went on a long three-year journey across the Mediterranean. During this time, the young sailor visited the French, English, Spanish, Italian, Greek ports, experienced many storms and storms. He learned to keep a logbook, marked the outlines of the coast on maps, measured the currents, noted “air changes” and ... never stopped dreaming. Dreamed, strangely enough, of the North, of its unexplored seas and lands. In Kronstadt, Sarychev returned to 1782 and was immediately sent to the ship "Three hierarchs", and soon again got on "Do not touch me" and sailed on it the whole 1783 year on the Baltic Sea.
In 1784, the Sarychev was sent to describe the banks of the left tributary of the Dnieper - the river Sozh. Apart from him, four other people took part in the campaign, among whom was his brother Alexey. With the rising of the sun and until dark, the brothers plotted on the maps of the coast of Sog, measured its depth, noticed shoals and steep meanders. By the way, each of the participants of the campaign offered his own version of the inventory of the river, but after consulting, the colleagues decided to give preference to the method of Gabriel Andreevich. Twenty years later he wrote: “I was happy that the rules I had invented were the best of them all ... When composing a map, the position of the river and the banks turned out to be true, its depths were indicated in their real places.
The successful debut of hydrographic works allowed Sarychev to gain confidence in his actions, take the initiative and get great job satisfaction. As soon as he returned to St. Petersburg, he heard rumors about the organization of a new campaign in Russian America, almost as large as the Second Kamchatka Expedition of Vitus Bering. It was about this journey that Gavriil Andreevich dreamed all his life. He sent a report to the Admiralty College with a request to enroll him in the list of participants. Together with him, Christian Bering also filed a petition, wishing to see the islands and lands discovered by his grandfather.
It should be noted that in those years the vast expanses of North America, as well as the islands of the Aleutian Ridge, discovered by Russian travelers, turned into objects of close attention from foreigners who openly invaded our waters. Because of this, relations with Spain worsened, and the mistress of the seas, Great Britain, sent the famous James Cook and representatives of the East India Company to the area of interest. The inhabitants of the Far Eastern lands, the so-called "non-peaceful Chukchi", also brought a lot of concern. As a result, political considerations and scientific tasks forced the Russian government to pay close attention to the territory of the extreme north-east of the country.
8 August 1785 officially approved a decree on equipping an astronomical and geographical expedition, whose main task was to study the northeastern coast of Russia, seas and islands in the northern Pacific, northwest coast of America. Captain Joseph (Osip) Billings, who took part in the last campaign of Cook, was appointed the head of the expedition, and then, having no means to organize his own expedition, he transferred to the Russian fleet on the recommendation of Count Vorontsov. Osip Osipovich chose lieutenants Sarychev, Bering and Gall among his assistants. In total, the expedition was attended by 141 people, among whom were such famous personalities as naturalist Karl Merck, self-taught scientist, Chukchi Nikolay Daurkin, artist Luka Voronin, whose works have survived to the present day.
From the end of the summer until the very departure, Gavriil Andreevich, under the guidance of the famous traveler and naturalist, academician Peter Pallas, learned how to correctly determine the coordinates, and in the second half of September he was the first of the officers of the march to leave the Northern Capital. With the support of the Irkutsk authorities, he was entrusted with the task of preparing a two-year supply of food for the expedition participants in one of the Kolyma forts next winter, and then to examine the condition of the ships there and their readiness for sailing in the Pacific Ocean in Okhotsk.
In Irkutsk, Sarychev arrived only on November 10. There he met with the local governor-general, and, handing him a demonstration requesting him to stock up all the necessary equipment and food, went further east. At the end of 1785, he reached the shores of the long-frozen Lena. The road was in the midst of the chaos of ice floes, the horses barely moved, and the sleigh often broke. During the day, Sarychev traveled no more than 30 kilometers. Finally, 10 January 1786 traveler arrived in Yakutsk, where he learned that local officials and ordinary people in the winter in Okhotsk prefer not to go, fearing to disappear in the midst of endless snow-covered deserts. Despite all the advice to wait for the spring and go on a journey along the river, Gabriel Andreevich began to get ready for the road. The dangers and difficulties did not frighten him - a brave sailor sewed warm clothes on a local model, took a two-month supply of food and set off, accompanied by Yakut guides and a Cossack translator.
Over 350 kilometers traveled along the flat terrain to the Aldan River. Sarychev carefully watched the nature around him, writing down everything worthy of attention in detail. The sailor also described the Yakuts accompanying him, their beliefs and customs, dwellings, clothing, livestock. The way to Oymyakon was extremely difficult, but only once in the records of Gabriel Andreevich there is a phrase that “the journey became unbearable and could not spend days on a horse, and spent the nights buried in the snow.” With Oimyakon in early March, their detachment was moving along with the reindeer Tungus. Two of their families and twenty-five deer became the constant companions of Sarychev up to Okhotsk. By the way, the horses could not walk in deep snow, and they had to be left, but it was much more difficult to ride reindeer - their saddles did not have girths and stirrups. But on the other hand, the Tungus carried with them a small yurt, in which all the travelers spent the night quietly. Every day in the journal of the young officer were added descriptions of new places, as well as sketches of nomadic residents, "who read the great punishment for living long in one place." Travelers overcame the final part of the trip from the village of Ark by dog sledding.
27 March Gabriel Andreevich reached Okhotsk. The impression left by the sailor was the worst: “The city, if you can only call it by this name, resembles more like a hospitality hospital without charity. The former chiefs, who are trying to benefit from their own benefits more than the total, brought to such a state. ” Marine equipment and supplies, years spent in collapsed sheds, were not suitable for arming ships, rigging and other gear almost completely rotted. And the two ships in the port were in such a deplorable state that they were unable to withstand not only the voyage to America, but also the journey to the coast of Kamchatka. After the inspection, Sarychev came to the conclusion that it was necessary to build new ships.
In April, Gabriel Andreevich went to inspect the local forests. The young sailor for the first time in his life embarked on skis and managed with difficulty. He often fell, his legs ached from sprains and bruises, but the insistent lieutenant traveled over seventy kilometers, looking for parts of the forest suitable for building ships. Immediately send people to logging did not work out - most of the locals suffered scurvy and barely moved. The first groups set off only at the end of May, when rivers opened up, fresh fish appeared, and people were able to improve their health. And in the beginning of July, Osip Billings arrived in the city with supplies and crew. From him, Sarychev learned that he was awarded the rank of lieutenant commander by order from 1786 March 7.
On August 1, by order of Billings Gavriil Andreevich, transferring everything to Okhotsk to lieutenant Robert Gall, together with the majority of the team, made an exceptionally difficult passage through the Chersky ridge and the Okhotsk-Kolyma highland to the Verkhnekolymsky jail. Ostrog stood on the Yaschnaya River, on which at the end of November the first fourteen-meter vessel was laid. It was built from materials delivered from Yakutsk and the local forest. Things were going slowly at first. The Cossacks were poorly understood by the shipmaster Timmerman, who did not know Russian, and was explained with gestures and interjections. In the end, he had to be replaced by a skipper Bukov. The work was immediately adjusted; in April, the first ship was completed and the second one, nine meters long, was laid. By the way, the winter that year was extremely harsh, the frost reached -43 degrees Celsius. On New Years, there was a problem of lack of fresh food, scurvy appeared. Fortunately, it did not come to deaths, but people were sick until April, when the first migratory birds returned.
After the opening of the river in mid-May 1787, two ships were launched into the water - the Pallas under the command of Billings and Yasashna under the command of Sarychev. Osip Osipovich took almost everyone who knew the maritime business. Three surveyors, a sub-clerk and twelve Cossacks as sailors were on board the Yasshny. Marine matter on the ship knew only the captain and boatswain himself. Gavriil Andreevich had no choice but to hastily train his subordinates. In a short time, two of his surveyors learned how to work with a compass, measure the depths of a lot and keep a logbook, a third surveyor mastered the commissariat's affairs, and three Cossacks learned steering.
25 May 1787 ships hit the road. Upon entering Kolyma, on June 18 they reached Nizhnekolymsk, where they replenished their supplies of provisions prepared in advance by local residents at the request of travelers. 24 June ships entered the "Arctic Sea" and headed east. But the next day, the participants of the campaign met the first huge ice fields moving under the influence of currents and wind from the north-west to south-east. In order to escape their pressure, the ships had to go to the shore and hide in the mouth of a small river. At this time, Sarychev was observing the sea and ice drift, ebbs and flows, noted the peculiarities of weather conditions. For three days "Pallas" and "Yasansha" stood in a small bay, and then the wind changed, and the ice began to fill the bay. The ships "with great danger" had to make their way back to Kolyma.
Only 1 July "Pallas" and "Yasashna" resumed their voyage. This time the captains decided to go north and undertake a search for the mysterious land located north of Shelagsky Cape, which Stepan Andreev observed from 1764 on the shores of the last Bear Island. For “Yashashny,” this voyage was unsuccessful. The smaller vessel did not have time for the Pallas, which soon disappeared into the fog. The ship of Sarychev hardly made his way between the ice floes or drifted along with them, looking for clear waters. In the end, the path was barred by huge ice fields, occupying all visible space. 4 July "Yassashna" met "Pallas", which also did not get even to the Bear Islands. After a series of unsuccessful attempts to break through to the east, travelers with difficulty got to Baranov Kamen. Billings and Sarychev climbed to its summit to inspect the position of ice in the sea from a height. After making sure that there is not a single polynya in the ice cover, the officers returned to their vessels.
17 July, the sailors made the third and final attempt to go east. Ships with difficulty chose a path among the gigantic blocks of ice, Gavriil Andreevich wrote: “It’s also a blessing that during our entire voyage there was no strong northern wind. In this case, our vessels would inevitably break against stone cliffs or ice floes; for there is no shelter all over the shore. " Finally the time came when the ice became an irresistible wall. Under their pressure, the ships had to step back again, and on July 21 Billings convened a council. On it, all the officers made a unanimous decision to stop further attempts to find the Northern Sea Route to the Pacific Ocean. And the next day, Sarychev, who landed on Baranov Kamen, managed to find collapsed earthen yurts, next to which, under the layer of earth, were found the remains of pottery, animal bones and stone knives. These were the first archaeological sites in the Arctic.
On July 26, Pallas and Yassashna entered Kolyma and anchored in Nizhnekolymsk five days later. In his notes, Sarychev reported a sad mood that prevailed among travelers after an unsuccessful voyage. There was even a proposal to circumvent Chukotka on dogs, but it was rejected due to the lack of animal feed. By the way, the analysis of the Arctic expeditions of the second half of the seventeenth - mid-nineteenth century suggests that in the Arctic at the considered time there was a strong cooling that significantly complicated swimming in the polar seas. This explains the fact that Billings and Sarychev did not manage to go along the Northern Sea Route, although several decades ago both Russian industrialists and foreign travelers passed by them almost unhindered.
Meanwhile, as soon as the rivers and marshes were completely frozen, the members of the expedition, leaving the vessels, moved overland to Yakutsk. Once again, travelers had to overcome river frost, snow-covered valleys and mountain ranges. And again they were tormented by fierce frosts, lack of food and scurvy. On each traveler, three cuisines were stretched, but they did not save either. It was impossible to sit on horseback for more than twenty minutes, people climbed down and walked on foot in order to warm up a little. The travelers slept all together under the open sky in a pit dug in the snow. Sarychev wrote: “Our faces were disfigured by frost ... In order not to freeze our noses and cheeks, we made fads from a bike ...”.
Finally, November 24 1787, the travelers arrived in Yakutsk. Billings went to Irkutsk, and Gabriel Andreevich went to the mouth of the Mai River. Throughout the winter and spring of 1788, he supervised the construction of boats necessary for the transport of goods to Okhotsk there. Having successfully transported cargo, Sarychev at the end of the summer headed in Okhotsk work on the construction of new ships. In addition, in the winter of 1788-1789, he completed a detailed description of the mouths of the Okhota and Kukhtuy rivers, drew a detailed plan for the port of Okhotsk. And on May 31, 1789, accompanied by ten people, Gavriil Andreevich went out to the Sea of Okhotsk on an eight-meter wooden canoe, built according to his own drawings. In five weeks, he described a significant portion of the sea shores and explored the Aldomu River and the Gulf of Aldom. When he returned safely to Okhotsk in July, the Glory of Russia ship was already anchored in the harbor. In September, travelers traveled there to the shores of Kamchatka. By the way, at the same time with the "Glory of Russia" was built another ship - "Good intention". However, when entering the Okhotsk raid on August 27, the ship landed on a sandy underwater beach and was broken by the river agitation. The whole load from him had to be removed and transferred to the "Glory of Russia". As a result, the travelers had to sail in the same ship, and the “Good intention” wreck was set on fire.
Expedition members stepped on October 5 to the land of Petropavlovsk Harbor, and on October 28 Billings told the crew about the production of Sarychev, Bering and Gall in the captains of the second rank. December 1789, Gabriel Andreevich, together with Christian Bering, dedicated a journey to the Bolsheretsk prison on dogs. In the villages of Kamchadal, they were accepted as good friends, treated to partridges, fish, grass roots and berries. Sarychev admired the sincerity, hospitality and peacefulness of the locals, to whom he devoted more than one page of his diaries. He also filmed the Avacha Bay and its bays, studied the nature of Kamchatka, in particular, he described in detail the 1790 eruption in January of the Klyuchevskoy volcano.
At the beginning of May, the travelers aboard the ship “Glory of Russia” left the Avacha Bay and along the southern side of the Aleutian Ridge headed for Russian America. After arriving at Unalashka, the “capital” of Russian villages in America, Billings gave Sarychev the task of describing Bobrovskaya Guba. Day after day, the tireless sailor searched for underwater cliffs, measured the depths, climbed the surrounding shores, noting the exact bearing of bays, capes, anchorages, river mouths on paper. The Bobrova Bay Inventory was completed on June 10, Sarychev returned to the ship, and the voyage continued - the expedition set about a detailed study of the islands of the North Pacific.
On July 19, travelers entered the Shugach Bay, the study of which was again headed by Gavriil Andreevich, disembarking along with sixteen sailors, a translator and a naturalist. Here his detachment was attacked by Indians, who, having received a number of gifts, wished to capture all the "treasures" of sailors. Noticing something wrong in time, Sarychev ordered his people to shoot in the air. This cooled the fervor of the attackers, and later the Indians kept friendly with the researchers. 27 July inventory was completed, and the "Glory of Russia" went out to sea, continuing to study the coast of America. However, in early August, due to the lack of fresh water, it was decided to turn off all the work and return to Petropavlovsk for the winter. At the end of this campaign, Sarychev reported: “It is impossible to describe the joys of the one we felt when we reached the shelter. All the water came out of us and when fresh water was brought to us from the shore, it seemed to us that in our whole life we didn’t drink tastier than a drink. ”
The second Kamchatka wintering also went well, and in the records of Gabriel Andreevich a lot of new information about this region appeared. In mid-May, the 1791 loading and repair work was completed, and Glory to Russia went to sea, taking the course to the Bering Strait in order to bypass Chukotka and return to the mouth of the Kolyma. When approaching the island the Copper ship almost jumped ashore - Billings led the ship on the English maps and did not trust the more accurate Russian. With great difficulty Sarychev persuaded the expedition leader to change the course for two points to the north. As a result, the "Glory of Russia" was just four hundred meters from the island, miraculously missed with the pitfalls. Examining the islands of St. George and St. Paul, as well as a number of small islands in the Bering Strait, on August 4, the ship anchored on the east coast of Chukotka in the bay of St. Lawrence.
After much deliberation, Billings canceled the voyage to Kolyma, deciding to cross Chukotka on reindeer. The officers tried to dissuade him from this risky and difficult trip, but Osip Osipovich, wanting to explore the entire coast from the Bering Strait to Baranov Kamen, insisted on his own. 13 August, he handed over command of the ship Sarychev and went on a long journey. Gabriel Andreevich, having left the lip of St. Lawrence, 29 August arrived in Unalashku. Lieutenant Robert Gall arrived here from Nizhnekamchatsk on a built boat, the Black Eagle, joining the command of the expedition as a senior officer. All winter Sarychev worked tirelessly. He took a long journey along the coast, visited many Aleutian settlements, setting out on paper legends about their origins, stories about wedding ceremonies, marriages and funerals, descriptions of dwellings, construction of canoes and weapons.
Returning to the wintering grounds, Gavriil Andreevich learned that fourteen members of the expedition had died from scurvy. The disease, according to the sailor, was the result of "wet weather", he wrote: "During the entire nine-month stay, we counted only nineteen days in which the heavenly light was visible." Food supplies also suffered from dampness, baked bread gave away rot, and it was almost impossible to dry wet clothes. In order to somehow fight the disease, Sarychev offered to take all patients to the Aleut settlements. This helped, no one died anymore, and at the end of April, the patients finally recovered, and on May 16, the ships entered the sea. After that, the captains decided to split up and built their routes in such a way that their voyages brought the greatest benefit to science.
19 June 1792, Sarychev brought the “Black Eagle” to Petropavlovsk, where the “Glory of Russia” already stood. After waiting for Billings for several weeks in vain, all the participants of the expedition on the boat went to Okhotsk. Upon arrival, they learned that Osip Osipovich had safely made his voyage by land and was expecting them in Yakutsk. Soon all the members of the campaign gathered there, from where, after eight years of wandering in the spring of 1794, they returned to Petersburg together.
After returning home, Sarychev sat down to prepare his notes for publication. Together with a book on the campaign, he decided to write also a guide to hydrographic work, outlining his own successfully applied methods of inventory and shooting. Unfortunately, neither his notes, nor the detailed report on the campaign written by Billings, were seen. The expedition was considered a secret, and the work of the sailors lay on the shelf of the archives of the Admiralty Board. It is curious that at the same time the book of Martin Sower was published in London, held throughout the journey by Billings' secretary.
At the beginning of 1796, Sarychev was appointed commander of the Svyatoslav, and on November 13 received the rank of captain of the first rank. In the summer of 1798, he was transferred to Prince Gustav, and then to John the Baptist. In the autumn of the same year, he received an order to go to Arkhangelsk and receive the new ship “Moscow”. With the start of the 1799 navigation of the year, he went on it to Edinburgh, from where he moved to Portsmouth, took the landing troops and successfully delivered them to Revel. Gabriel Andreevich returned to Kronstadt only in 1801 and in the same year received the rank of captain-commander.
In 1802, with the active support of the Minister of the Sea, Nikolai Mordvinov, The Journey was published fleet Captain Sarychev in the north-eastern part of Siberia, the Arctic Sea and the Eastern Ocean ... ". However, Gavriil Andreevich did not stop there. Based on various sources, he wrote a work on the land campaign of Osip Billings. The sailor also included in his composition the memoirs of Robert Gall about sailing on the Black Eagle. In the appendices to the work, the performed meteorological observations and the dictionary “Twelve Adverbs” of those peoples with which the sailors met during their trip were added. Thanks to Sarychev, the scientific results of the expedition became known to scientists around the world.
The release of "Travel" marked the beginning of a new period in the life of Gavriil Andreevich. In the same year he was appointed head of the shooting of the Baltic Sea, which continued four navigation. 9 January 1803 was assigned to him the rank of Rear Admiral, and after that he was included in the members of the Admiralty Board. At the same time, fate brought him to Anastasia Matskevich - Princess Maid of Honor Maria Pavlovna. In August, they married 1804 and were happily married until the end of their days.
In 1806, the shooting of the Baltic Sea was completed. Sarychev and his associates did a lot of work — the whole Gulf of Finland was re-laid on the map, approaches to the ports of the southern part of the sea were explored, Moonsund passages were measured, the longitude and latitude of three dozen islands and coast points were astronomically determined. Based on the research results in 1809, Sarychev released the Atlas of the Baltic Sea, and in 1817 - the Lottery of the Baltic Sea. Scientists have praised his achievements - the Petersburg Academy of Sciences included a sailor among the honorary members. Kharkov and Moscow Universities, Mineralogical and Free Economic Societies honored him with the same honor. In the spring of 1808, Sarychev was awarded the title of hydrograph of the Russian fleet and the rank of vice admiral. In addition, the navigator was appointed an honorary member of the State Admiralty Department in charge of the scientific activities of the Russian fleet.
In 1809-1811, Gavriil Andreevich, commanding the squadron, took part in the Russian-Turkish war. And then the Patriotic War began and geographical discoveries were forgotten for a long time. Only in the 1819 year, after the establishment of a lasting peace in Europe, did the Russian sailors return to the exploration of the seas. The subsequent years were the heyday of domestic voyages — from 1819 to 1821, the Russian fleet carried out 35 expeditions, which surveyed the entire north coast of the country, all of Russian America and most of the Arctic islands. The beginning of such a geographical “explosion”, first of all, was laid by Sarychev, who developed a unique program of scientific research and personally engaged in compiling instructions for most of the ships sailing and their equipment. Logs and expedition maps were also delivered to him after they were completed. In fact, Gavriil Andreevich became the center around which all the scientific hydrographic thought of Russia revolved.
In addition to current affairs, Sarychev was also attracted to sea voyages. In 1814, he led a squadron floating along the route Kronstadt-Gotland-Revel-Kronstadt, led the maritime practice of the lower ranks and officers. And in 1810, he headed a committee involved in the Kamchatka Territory transformation project. The project was developed over the year and subsequently executed. In 1826, the world saw the unique “Atlas of the Northern Eastern Ocean” of Sarychev, in which the scientist reflected all the rich data collected over the years during various round-the-world and semi-circular voyages.
Much has changed over the years in the personal life of Gabriel Andreevich. In 1809, his daughter Liza was born, and in 1811 - Katerina. In 1819, the wife Anastasia Vasilievna bought an estate consisting of the villages of Seliverstovo, Borki and Purovo. Sarychev liked to rest in Borki, located not far from wide Ladoga. However, he came here on short visits, living mainly in St. Petersburg. His work took away all his free time, and he devoted rare moments of rest to children and friends. It is also known that Gavriil Andreevich conducted an active correspondence with many famous sailors of the world.
The active and extremely fruitful activities of Russian navigators in the first half of the nineteenth century led to the unprecedented flourishing of marine hydrography. The Admiralty Department, due to the huge number of responsibilities, could no longer pay enough attention to hydrographic work, and therefore in 1827, it was decided to organize a special hydrographic body - the Office of the General Hydrograph. The vice-admiral Sarychev was appointed head of him, who at that time served as chief commander and military governor of Kronstadt.
From this point on, all research activities on the seas of Russia were carried out under his control and according to his plans. Hundreds of different cases aimed at improving the safety of navigation were solved by him competently, promptly and in compliance with the state interests. Gavriil Andreevich was engaged in the compilation and publication of nautical charts, supervised the service of signs and lighthouses, supervised the issuance of instructions and manuals for navigation, with his knowledge new nautical instruments were being introduced, the Naval Navigators Corps was subordinate to him. Sarychev was a brilliant organizer. All his orders were carried out in a timely, clear and complete manner. He paid serious attention to the processing of information collected and the storage of materials in archives. It is also known that Gavriil Andreevich was sensitive and attentive to the problems and needs of his employees. A native of the landed gentry, he helped people from lower ranks and simple non-titled officers, attached the services of sailors and soldiers to the service of children. 21 April 1829, Gavriil Andreevich became the full admiral.
In the summer of 1831, an epidemic of cholera broke out in St. Petersburg. Among her victims was 68-year-old hydrographer Gavriil Sarychev. He died of this terrible disease 30 July 1831 of the year. The death of the famous navigator was a complete surprise to his friends and colleagues. He was buried in the Cholera cemetery. Now this cemetery is not, as there is no grave of Sarychev.
According to the materials of the book A.I. Alekseeva "Gavriil Andreevich Sarychev" and V.M. Pasetsky from the collection "First movers".
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