Khimkov Alexey
Kormschik from Mezen, repeatedly going to fish in
Svalbard. He
became famous for his wintering on Edge Island (Russian was called
Little Brun), where he lived with three comrades (his son Ivan
Khimkov and sailors Stepan Sharapov and Fyodor Verigin) for 6 years
(1743-1749), leading the life of a polar robinson. On
the island of Edge, the Khimkov’s vessel turned out by chance, being
brought to it by unfavorable winds. Having
decided to winter on the island, the industrialists sent ashore a
party of the above four people in order to find the hut built by the
Mezens once, of which they were aware. They
really found the hut and, after spending the night there, went back
to the ship. But he was no longer on the spot -
he was carried away by a violent
storm raging at night. The
equipment, which Khimkov and his comrades took with them from the
ship, consisted of a gun, twelve bullets, a small amount of
gunpowder, an ax, a small cauldron, a knife, 20 pounds of flour,
flint, tinder and a bottle of tobacco.With this pathetic equipment,
Khimkov and his comrades lived on Edge Island for 6 years and 3
months, setting an example of exceptional restraint and ability to
fight the polar nature. However,
one of the Arctic Robinsons (F. Verigin) did not live to the end of
wintering - he died of scurvy in the sixth year of his stay in
Svalbard.
In the summer of 1749, the ship Amos Kornilov from Arkhangelsk
approached the island of Edge. Kornilov
agreed on his ship to deliver the Spitsbergen prisoners to their
homeland.
The wintering of Khimkov on Svalbard was described according to his
words (Khimkov was summoned to Petersburg) by a member of the
Russian Academy of Sciences Le Roy in the book “The Adventures of
Four Russian Matroses, to the island of Ost-Svalbard the storm
brought where they lived for six years and three months”. This
essay has been translated into many European languages. It
was last reprinted by the Arctic Institute in 1933. Two
participants of wintering on Edge Island, Stepan Sharapov and Ivan
Khimkov, on their return home went to industrial life to Novaya
Zemlya, where they died in the first wintering season (according
to Vize, V.Yu., 1948).
Mountain in
West Svalbard with coordinates 78°30′N and
18°30′E. |