Talk:Pavel Pereleshin

Lieutenant Pereleshin, 1863

I was researching background for Fort Stikine earlier tonight and came across this:

tikine River. Rises in northern British Columbia and flows into the Pacific,

through Alaskan territory, after a course of 335 miles. The name is a corrup- tion of the Thlinkit word sta-hane, meaning " the river." The mouth of the river was visited by Captain Cleveland in 1799. The Russians built Fort Dionysius there, in 1834, on the site of the present town of Wrangell. Three years later, the post was acquired by the Hudson's Bay Company, and renamed Fort Stikine. The upper waters of the river were visited by J. McLeod, of the Hudson's Bay Company, in 1834. The river was explored in 1863 by Lieutenant Pereleshin, of the Russian navy; and in 1866-1867 by the surveyors of the Western Union Telegraph Company. Index : D Attempt to establish Hudson's Bay Company fort there in 1834 frustrated by Russians, 119-120 ; Russians hand over their fort at mouth of river to Hudson's Bay Company, 121. Bib. r. Blake, Geographical Notes upon Russian America and the Stickeen River;

Dawson, Report on Yukon District (GeoL Survey Report, 1887-1888).

Which is from "Index And Dictionary Of Canadian History", Edited by Lawrence J. Burpee, F.R.G.S. Librarian of the Carnegie Library, Ottawa, and Arthur C. Doughty, C.M.G., Litt.D., Dominion Archivist, Ottawa, publ. Morang & Co., Toronto 1911 Now, given that Pavel Pereleshin was appointed rear-admiral in 1863, this couldn't have been him; but was it, as i think is probably likely, one of his sons? The source is only an index of a twenty-volume set, which would be in teh Nat'l Library or Nat'l Archives in Ottawa, so I can't provide a first name; if anyone can please start a bio; I hadnt' heard of this expedition before, and it's abit surprising in that the Stikine, or nearly all of it, was formally British territory by this time (see Stikine Territory). If ever much is found out, he should probably be mentioned on Russian America and also listed in Category:Explorers of Alaska (which seems to need creating...) and Category:Explorers of British Columbia....Skookum1 (talk) 02:27, 31 December 2008 (UTC)

AHA!! - should have just looked in BCGNIS to start with - see here re Lieut. Pereleshin...still no first name, though, just "Lieutenant Perelshin".Skookum1 (talk) 02:33, 31 December 2008 (UTC)

Could be one of his relatives. He had a brother Mikhail Pereleshin who was another hero of the Sevastopol siege. Must be somehow related to Pereleshins family. There was a mayor-general in the Russian army named Pereleshin, a nephew to Pavel Pereleshin. Records say that he was one of the honor participants of the Pavel Pereleshin funeral ceremony in 1901. Could be him. ISasha (talk) 22:54, 5 January 2009 (UTC)

I think one of the refs mentions he was a navy lieutenant, not army, and AFAIK all military personnel in Russian America were naval, not army, but I don't have any backup from that; I've just only ever heard of naval officers in relation to the history of Russian America....could be wrong about that....I'll post something on the Wrangell, Alaska page, which is the nearest town to where this expedition took place, and/or look for a museum link there; but there was no Russian fort there at the time I guess, he would have been based at Sitka, or on a ship at Sitka at the time (1860s); the expedition was to confirm that gold prospectors on the Stikine River were not active in Russian territory....Skookum1 (talk) 00:41, 6 January 2009 (UTC)

A Russian work describes him as a "Corvette Lieutenant A. Pereleshin". Here's the account of his expedition (from "America's gold: A Klondike that did not happen" by A.V. Grinyov):

Чтобы окончательно убедиться в бесперспективности золотых приисков на Стикине, И.В. Фуругельм в начале мая 1863 г. вновь отправил туда партию старателей под руководством П.П. Андреева на зашедшем в Ново-Архангельск военном корвете "Рында". 8(20) мая корабль прибыл к устью Стикина. Отсюда вверх по реке для разведки была отправлена на байдаре партия, состоявшая из лейтенанта корвета А. Перелешина, инженера П.П. Андреева, американского профессора У.П. Блэйка, шести матросов и лоцмана-тлинкита. Байдара возвратилась 19(31) мая без одного матроса, утонувшего в стремнинах реки в 128 милях от ее устья, и без индейского лоцмана, дезертировавшего на обратном пути. 23 мая (4 июня) корабль снялся с якоря и отправился в Ново-Архангельск, прихватив туда в качестве пассажиров 8 английских золотоискателей, которых затем доставили в Викторию.[66]

Сопровождавший экспедицию Андреева на прииски в 1863 г. профессиональный геолог Ульям Блэйк оставил довольно подробное описание бассейна Стикина. Он был взят на борт корвета "Рында" еще во время посещения Японии, где работал в качестве корреспондента одной из калифорнийской газет, и возвратился на нем в США. Участником экспедиции на Стикин Блэйк стал по любезному приглашению капитана корвета В.Г. Басаргина. По данным американского профессора, к весне 1863 г. прииски здесь были почти уже полностью выработаны, а из 90 золотоискателей, зимовавших на Стикине, 9 человек умерло от цинги и лишений; остальные же намеревались вскоре покинуть негостеприимный край. Блэйк отмечал, что индейцы принесли им несколько довольно крупных золотых самородков с севера, с р. Таку, впадавшей в океан в русских владениях.[67] Но эта информация американского геолога не заинтересовала ни администрацию русских колоний, ни руководство РАК, хотя именно вблизи устья этой реки впоследствии (в 1880 г.) было обнаружено одно из богатейших месторождений драгоценного металла и возник город Джуно - столица современного штата Аляска.

To summarize: "To double-check that gold mining in the Stikine has no prospects, in early May 1863 the Governor of Russian America Johan Hampus Furuhjelm sent there another team of gold miners. Lead by P.P. Andreyev, the the team was taken from Novo-Arkhangelsk to the Stikine by the visiting Russian ship Rynda. On May 8 (20) the ship arrived to the mouth of the Stikine. A team of 10 people traveled from there up the river in the canoe; it included Corvette Lieutenant A.Pereleshin, engineer P.P. Andreyev, American professor William P. Blake, 6 sailors, and a Tlingit pilot. The canoe returned on 19 (31) May with just 8 people: one sailor had drowned in the rapids, and the Tlingit pilot had deserted. On May 23 (June 6) the ship left the Stikine for Novo-Arkhangelsk, taking along 8 passenegers: English gold miners, which it later took to Victoria.

Before coming to Alaska, William Blake had worked in Japan as a reporter for a California newspaper. There he was invited aboard the Rynda by the corvette's captain V.G. Basargin, and traveled with this ship to the USA with a stopover in Alaska. Blake, who was a professional geologist, left a fairly detailed description of the Stikine basin. According to him, by the spring of 1863 the gold mines there had been completely exhausted, and out of 90 gold miners who were spending the winter there, 9 died of scurvy and exposure. The survivors planned to leave this hostile land. Blake reported that the Indians had brought to the members of the expedition a few fairly big gold nuggets from the north - namely, from the Taku River that falls into the ocean within the Russian borders. But the administration of the Russian colonies, or the Russian American Company, did not pay attention to this report - even though later on (in 1880) a rich gold deposit was discovered near the mouth of the Taku, and the city of Juneau was built there." Vmenkov (talk) 11:27, 14 January 2009 (UTC)

Excellent, thank you, though we still don't have his personal name or patronymic so can't quite start a stub though it's enough for me to write up Mount Pereleshin when I get a chance now. Lots of nice detail. Maybe somewhere online there's a roster of Russian imperial-era naval officers? Or a genealogical site that might give more detail about the Pereleshin family? Again, thanks, nice find...Skookum1 (talk) 11:34, 14 January 2009 (UTC)

I have created Mount Pereleshin finally, using what I had, but will try to mix in information as provided in the Russian-language citation you've provided; for convenience of further discussion and note-taking I am copying the above discussion directly onto Talk:Mount Pereleshin.Skookum1 (talk) 22:39, 5 May 2010 (UTC)