In the spring of 1819 the Russian  naval  ministry was all abuzz with fears that  the  first  Russian expedition to the South Pole, scheduled to sail off  in two months' time, could never happen because of the lack of commander. It so happened  that  the  seasoned skipper, Captain  First Rank  Makar  Ratmanov who had originally been assigned to lead the expedition, was still recuperating  after a sea accident and had already tendered his resignation to Emperor Alexander I. 

"Then can you give me the name of the man who will lead the expedition?" the Emperor inquired. After a momentary deliberation Ratmanov said: "Captain  Second Rank Bellingshausen, Your Majesty!"

Faddei Bellingshausen was dreaming about the sea ever since he was a child. Graduating with honors from the Naval Academy, he was assigned to the Baltic Fleet. The young man's cold reserve, calculating mind and professional zeal were not lost on his commanders who recommended to include the promising young officer in the crew of the first Russian circumnavigation on board the sloop Nadezhda. 

Faddei Bellingshausen made the best possible use of the three-year-long mission to perfect his navigational skills which means that by the time he was appointed to head the Antarctic expedition he was already a widely experienced sailor with extensive knowledge of astronomy, hydrography and physics.

Finally, on July 3rd of 1819 the two-ship flotilla set sail from Kronstadt with Faddei Bellingshausen commanding the sloop Vostok and Mikhail Lazarev steering the other one, Mirny.  The ships headed for the South Pole.

The large swath of land lying concentrically around the South Pole also called, Terra Australis Incognita had for centuries attracted knowledge-hungry scientists and seafarers but none of those attempts had ever been a success. Fifty years before the start of the Russian expeditions the British seafarer James Cook who had made two unsuccessful attempts to discover the southern continent wrote the following: "I have proved beyond any reasonable doubt the total impossibility of this continent's existence. I am absolutely certain that no one will ever try to venture any farther south than I did. The Russians had to prove the daring Englishman right or do something to disprove his assertion.

The southward expedition was ridden with problems, sailing against the cold winds, maneuvering their way between the icebergs and, when the passage was blocked by floating ice, pushing back and looking for detours.

By mid-January the sloops had crossed the Antarctic Circle and approached the 70th parallel - the first time man had ever ventured so far deep into the South. On January 16th Vostok and Mirny reached the brink of the pack ice extending the way to the South Pole. Flocks of stormy petrels were flying overhead and the travelers could hear the voices of penguins coming from afar. Bellingshausen realized that land was near which was true because the Antarctic was extending only 20 miles away…

Ice-covered water is not the best place in the world for a sailing ship and so Bellingshausen decided to move northward to Port Jackson, Australia.  There, they had their journey-battered ships repaired and replenishing their food stocks the expedition moved on to Polynesia, then a largely unknown part of the Pacific.

They sailed there for three months discovering in the process nearly twenty new islands which were later named the Society Islands. Then the flotilla made another, more successful, attempt to reach the southern continent…

On January 20th of  1821 the  sloops fired  a triumphant salvo celebrating the discovery of the  Peter the First Island. A week  later the travelers saw the rocky shores of Antarctica which they named after the Russian Emperor Alexander I. 

Thus ended the first Russian Antarctic expedition led by Faddei Bellingshausen. After traveling for 751 days, the expedition finally uncovered the eternal mystery shrouding the Fifth Continent.