Dark, impenetrable grey gradually lightens and tinges with blue. The dense fog clears slowly, then whips away to reveal a wall of stark, dazzling whiteness. The spectacular contours of Mount Elias . . .
The First Officer goes below to report.
Bering lies on his bunk in his cramped quarters. He is sixty and looks twenty years older. His eyes are closed.The First Officer reports that their mission has finally been accomplished. They have sighted the North American continent. From the east. There is no land bridge between Russia and the Americas.
Bering’s eyes flicker open. He stares unblinking at the bulkhead above his bunk. He says nothing, gives no sign of acknowledging the First Officer’s presence.
The First Officer waits, shrugs his shoulders and leaves.
Bering continues to stare at the bulkhead, motionless.
There is no need to go on deck. He has lived and relived the scene in his mind’s eye for nearly a quarter of a century.
Empress Anna Ivanova decrees that Danish-born Captain-Commander Vitus Jonassen Bering is to spearhead an ambitious Imperial Great Northern Expedition to explore and map the coastal waters off Siberia, chart a northern sea route to Japan and Cathay, and prove or disprove once and for all the existence of a new continent believed to lie between Russia and the Americas.
The hazardous 8,000-kilometre overland trek from St Petersburg to Siberia is no more than a prelude to many months of cruel hardship at sea. For Vitus Bering, this epic expedition is a voyage of self-discovery and the realisation of a lifelong ambition. For Bering’s wife Osa, it proves a dramatic and life-changing experience. For Bering’s dedicated lieutenants, charismatic Martin Spanberg and loyal First Officer Sven Waxell, it is a unique test of their seafaring skills and their instincts for survival. And for timid German naturalist Georg Wilhelm Steller, it will be in every sense a rite of passage. All the while, back in the hotbed of political intrigue and in-fighting that is St Petersburg, the time has come to forge new alliances and settle old scores. This extraordinary novel charts the thrilling of one of the greatest but least known of all journeys of exploration.
Edward John (Eddie) Crockett was born in Aberdeen, Scotland and educated at the Universities of Aberdeen and Zürich. After a seven-year spell as a lecturer at Zürich University, he moved into journalism and then into public relations and media consultancy. He is best-known as a translator and editor of major sporting autobiographies (Niki Lauda, Alain Prost, Muhammad Ali), volumes of art history (De Chirico, Raphael) and publications on European Union issues. He lives in Southern Brittany. This is his first work of fiction.
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