ALEKSEI IVANOVICH NAGAEV, RUSSIAN ADMIRAL 1704-1781.

Atlas Vsego Baltijskago Morja s Finskim i Botniceskim Zalivami s Skagerakom, Kategatom, Zundom, i Beltami.
Aleksei Ivanovich Nagaev, Russian admiral 1704-1781

Aleksei Ivanovich Nagaev - admiral, member of the Admiralty College, principal commander of Kronstadt Port, one of the first Russian scientific hydrographers. A. I. Nagaev was born in March 1704 in the village of Sertykino, Moscow Government, and came from an impoverished noble family. At eleven years of age the boy was taken to Petersburg and sent to the Naval Academy, from whence on 2 March 1721 he was promoted warrant officer. In the following year he supervised the works at Kronstadt of the digging of the canal, and then on 19 December he was sent to train the naval cadets. This period of teaching lasted about seven years, by which time he had trained 419 naval cadets. Until September 1724 he was located with his cadets at Kronstadt, and then he taught navigation at the Naval Academy until May 1729.

In March 1729 the Admiralty College decided to send to Arkhangel’sk two frigates for practical research under the command of Captain Second Rank D. Kalmykov. Nagaev was appointed to the frigate “Amsterdam-Galei”, on which he accomplished the voyage to “Kil’diuin” and back. Then in 1730 Nagaev was sent to Astrakhan and ordered to survey the Caspian Sea. For Four years he worked diligently on the compilation of hydrographic charts of the areas of the Caspian bordering Astrakhan. At that time on the instructions of General-in-Chief V. Ia. Levashev he built several flat-bottomed barges for transporting heavy loads. In 1733 Nagaev was appointed to the special committee in Astrakhan charged with investigating measures to halt the widespread destructive effect of the sea winds in Giliani.

Promoted on 19 March 1731 to lieutenant, Nagaev on 18 January 1733 was gazetted on the staff with the rank of lieutenant-major, and in 1735 he returned to Petersburg. Several month later he was ordered to the Smolensk Government Chancery to investigate outstanding debts due to the Admiralty, and on returning from there was nominated on 25 November 1737 to the commission investigating arrears, irregularities and thefts needing reparation in the provinces. The following year Nagaev was on the commission “formerly under the direction of the State Senate” to investigate more quickly income owing to the Admiralty from the provinces.

In 1739 Nagaev was commissioned to investigate the measurements of the fairway from St. Petersburg to Vyborg. In the archives of the General Naval Headquarters is preserved a large volume of some 200 leaves written by Nagaev himself containing the result of his work in this naval investigation. The volume is entitled “24 July 1739 Journal of naval content on boat no. 5 on the measuring of the fairway from Kronstadt lighthouse to Vyborg under the command of Lieutenant of the Fleet Aleksei Nagaev”. For these activities Nagaev in the following year on 3 November was promoted captain with the rank of colonel.

At the beginning of 1741 Nagaev was commissioned captain of the frigate “Cavalier” on which he accomplished the journey from Kronstadt to Arkangel’sk. This was one of the most taxing sea voyages. Although the journey was without accident, in the course of the 57-day voyage, the crew of the squadron of three frigates lost 121 men from disease, besides carrying back from Arkangel’sk 326 sick (the total crew consisted of about 700 men). In 1742 Nagaev was given command of the frigate “Mercurius”, and the following year set off in that ship from Arkangel’sk to Kronstadt. During the voyage the frigate struck the island of “Anaut” and sank, and Nagaev returned on a Danish ship to Petersburg. Brought to trial he alone in 1744 was acquitted and again was enrolled into the service. Appointed immediately as adviser to research at the Academy he fulfilled these duties for two years.

In 1741 came the news of the death of Captain-Commodore Bering, and on returning to Petersburg his colleagues Captain Chirikov and Lieutenant Vaksel presented to the Admirality College his journals and notes. The College commissioned Nagaev and Lieutenant Afrosimov to compile charts of the Sea of Kamchatka and the coast of America, and also to compile maps from the notes of Captain Shpanberg and Warrant Officer Shel’g. For a year Nagaev compiled detailed charts of the Kamchatka Sea and mouth of the Amur, which were the first, and for a long time the only maps of that region.

In 1746 he was given command of the ship “Fridemaker” (Peacemaker). Besides this in May 1746 Captain Malygin, commander of the navigation company, gave a report in which all the compasses made for the Admiralty had quite striking differences and errors in declination. On receiving from the Admiralty College instructions to look into the matter, Nagaev ascertained the veracity of Malygin’s statement and proposed the elimination of the errors:

1. To make pointers from the best steel instead of two wires.

2. For the regulation of compasses to pass at Kronstadt Port a meridian line, without which it was practically impossible to check the veracity of the compass reading.

These proposals were accepted by the College, and the laying of the meridian line was supervised by Nagaev himself.

Nagaev completed this task and sailed in 1746 round the Baltic Sea on the “Fridemaker”. Early in October that year he returned to Petersburg and was appointed to research for the Academy. On 11 November 1746 Nagaev was instructed by the Admiralty College with “effecting naval charts with the greatest accuracy”. In December that year Nagaev presented to the College in this connection a detailed report on everything that was necessary in his view for the speedy completion of the task entrusted to him. The College sanctioned everyting he proposed, and early in 1747 he started his task. The results of this task appeared in an atlas of maps of various parts of the Baltic Sea. Each map was presented to The College and was inspected by members independently, and in 1752 they were all engraved. All the maps were well executed and thoroughly accurate as they contained not only the results of Nagaev’s material, collected by Russian sailors, but also material from Swedish charts.

Enrolled on 5 September 1751 as Captain Second Rank Nagaev the following year took an active role in education at the Naval Sailing Corps. Promoted on 15 March 1757 to Captain First Rank, Nagaev was then commissioned as Director of the Naval Sailing Corps and member of the commission of building at Rogervik. In 1756 Nagaev was charged with compiling new signals for the fleet, and in April the following year he presented to the College his work which was printed in the press of the Naval Corps. The atlas, published in 1757, served as a guide to sailing the Baltic and German Seas for sixty years, until the publication of the atlas of the Baltic Sea by Admiral Sarychev. Several of the depths in the northern part of the Baltic Sea from the Island of Ezel’ and Gotland north to the Aland skerries remained in Russian as well as in foreign charts taken from Nagaev’s atlas for more than 100 years.

On 5 May 1757 Nagaev was promoted to Captain Commodore. Relieved of his duties as director of the Naval Sailing Corps in 1761, Nagaev was appointed a member of the commission for putting the fleet in good order on 16 February the following year. On 10 April he was promoted to Rear Admiral. On the accession to the throne of Empress Catherine II, Nagaev sailed from Kronstadt to Pilau with a squadron of three ships for delivery of the sick from the Russian army marching into Prussia. Returning at the end of September to Petersburg Nagaev attended meetings in the Admiralty College, and in October was appointed member of the Kolberg Commission.

At the beginning of the following year he was commissioned to compile instructions for Lieutenants Bulgakov, Bukovskij and Laptev, who had been ordered to produce a description of Lake Ladoga. In the same year during the whole of the summer sailings he executed the duties of quartermaster on Her Majesty’s sloop at the time of Empress Catherine II’s progresses up the Neva. Early in 1764 Nagaev together with Count I. G. Chernyshev drew up a plan for two expeditions which were preparing to investigate the Northern Arctic Ocean. Promoted on 4 May 1764 to Vice-Admiral Nagaev was then appointed as principal commander of Kronstadt port. Not long before this, Nagaev’s house was damaged in a serious fire and some of his charts and manuscripts were destroyed.

In his duties as principal commander of Kronstadt port Nagaev served about two years. Awarded in 1765, the Order of St. Anne, he was relieved of his duties as principal commander and in December appointed member of the Admiralty College. Returning to Petersburg at the beginning of 1766 Nagaev together with Lieutenant-Captain D. Selianinov worked hard on the compilation of Lake Ladoga.

On 3 January 1767 Nagaev was commissioned by the Admiralty College to compile instructions for the expedition preparing to describe the White Sea. However he was soon forced to go to Moscow, when he was chosen on 22 January as deputy from Vasil’evskii Island and from the Admiraly College to serve on the commission investigating a new code of laws. He remained in Moscow for about a year serving on the commission, and on 14 December was ordered by Empress Catherine II also to appear at the commission in Petersburg. Nagaev did not appear to play a particularly active role in work on the new law code. More often than not he tened to agree with the opinions of the other deputies. In addition to attending the meetings of the Great Assembly, Nagaev also became a member of the subcommittee on caution of contradiction between military and civil laws.

While still in Moscow and besides the work for the committee and subcommittee, he described together with Navigator S. Zakharov the River Moscow. Then having received from Navigators Pososhkov and Trubnikov a description of the River Oka from its source to its confluence with the Moscow River, he compiled from them maps of that river, which were collected in a separate atlas. Returning to Petersburg in January 1768 he as before attended the Admiralty College and soon after received instructions to prepare a fairway, which would be needed to carry the stone to be used in the monument to Peter I.

Promoted on 4 July 1769 to Admiral, Nagaev fulfilled his duties as an elder member of the Admiralty College for some time. In due course he was ordered to Reval to supervise the repair of damaged frigates from Spiridov’s squadron which had been forced by accidents to put in at Reval. Nagaev also supervised all the new buildings of the Naval Department at Reval. Returning to Petersburg Nagaev again occupied himself with hydrographic work.

In January 1779 the governor of Siberia D. I. Chicerin sent to the Admiralty College Foreman Lobashkov, who had described the shores and mouth of the River Kolyma and Bear Island. Nagaev was appointed to compile maps from the details in these notes, which he presented to the Empress Catherine II.

About this time Lieutenant Captain Levashev returned from the expedition to Kamchatka, he was a companion of Captain Krenitsyn, who had drowned in the River Kamchatka. Levashev handed over to the College all the plans, notes and measurements made by Krenitsyn and also his own. The College gave this material for editing by Nagaev, who was instructed to compile from them a general map of the route of the expedition, which he quickly fulfilled. From April 1773 to the end of the following year Nagaev governed the Admiralty College during the absence of Vice-President Count Chernyshev, who had been granted 18-months’ leave. At that time Nagaev’s deteriorating health forced him to leave the College, and to soon request his retirement. On 10 July 1775 he was retired on account of ill health with a pension based on his last year’s service and awarded the Order of St. Alexander Nevskii. However despite the state of his health Nagaev did not cease to work on the correction and compilation of naval charts and draughts.

In 1789-90 Nagaev’s “Sailing Directions of the Sea Voyage, containing Descriptions of the fairways and entrances to ports found in the gulf of Finland, the Baltic Sea, the Sound and in the Skagerrak” was published in 3 volumes by the Press of the Naval Cadet College at St. Petersburg.

“In his home”, wrote his biographer Pagaev-Verevkin, better known as an admiral, “there was no room but for papers, books and maps he was studying. Only when he slept did he not have a slate-pencil, pen or crayon in his hands”.

Nagaev died in Petersburg on 8 January 1781. After that, besides numerous maps and plans remained many papers among which he had hoped to prepare for publication both the voyages of Bering and the naval journals of Captains Chichagov and Krenitsyn. He had also collected materials for the biographies of Russian sailors, and the letters of Peter the Great. These latter served as a basis for the work of V. N. Berkh under the title “Collection of Letters of Emperor Peter I to various Individuals, with their replies”. (Russian Biographical Dictionary, St. Petersburg, Imperial Russian Historical Society, 1914.)

Bagrow, A History of Russian Cartography up to 1800, pp. 221 ff.