Russia’s tall ships are to undertake a round-the-world trip to celebrate the 200th anniversary of Antarctica’s discovery by the Bellingshausen-Lazarev expedition, according to official information from Moscow.
In effect, 2020 marks the 200th anniversary of the discovery of Antarctica by the expedition led by Fabian Bellingshausen and Mikhail Lazarev. In honor of this event, plans are underway for the round-the-world sailing of the tall ships Pallada (pic aside to the left), Sedov (pic below to the right) and Krusenstern (pic at the bottom of the page) in 2019-2020.
The south polar expedition consisting of two sloops-of-war
, the Vostok, commanded by Fabian Bellingshausen, and the Mirny, commanded by Mikhail Lazarev, left Kronstadt in 1819 and discovered Antarctica on 28 January 1820. In 1821, the ships returned to Kronstadt. They stayed at sea for 751 days and covered over 92,000 km. In addition to Antarctica, the expedition discovered 29 islands and one coral reef. The Russian sailors conducted scientific research, including oceanographic research.
The global tour is planned to start at the end of 2019 when the ships set sail from their respective ports: Pallada from Vladivostok, Sedov from Kronstadt and Krusenstern from Kaliningrad. Thus, the expedition will consist of Sedov and Pallada sailing around the world and Krusenstern taking a transatlantic voyage. Most of the places and ports the ships will call on were discovered by the Russians during their expeditions around the world.
Milestone events during the expedition will be the meetings of the three ships in the Atlantic Ocean on the Ushuaia-Cape Town leg, in the UK South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands, with Pallada’s itinerary reaching its nearest point to Antarctica.
Sedov takes off from Kronstadt in December 2019 and will be back in Kaliningrad in December 2020.
Read more at: https://en.mercopress.com/2019/03/30/russia-to-celebrate-200th-anniversary-discovery-of-antarctica-by-bellingshausen
Russians are clever guys and wonderful Hams, we’re sure they will carry on this expedition some radio operators as WW Ham Radio world will be please to catch the opportunity to work the ships involved in the round the world trip and eventually some places in Antarctica and Sub-Antarctic sites!