Russian warship Neva

The Russian sloop-of-war Neva visits Kodiak.

Neva was a Russian sloop-of-war, bought in Britain. It was named after the Neva River.

It was the first Russian ship to circumnavigate the globe in 1804 under the command of Lieutenant Commander Yuri Lisyansky.^[1] In June 1807, the Neva was the first Russian ship to make contact with Australia.^[2]

The Neva played a key role in the 1804 "Battle of Sitka" when the town was retaken from the Tlingit who had captured it in 1802. Alexandr Baranov returned to Sitka Sound in late September, 1804 aboard the sloop-of-war Neva under the command of Lieutenant Commander Yuri Feodorovich Lisyansky. Neva was accompanied by the Ermak and two other smaller, armed sailing ships, manned by 150 promyshlenniks (fur traders), along with 400–500 Aleuts in 250 baidarkas, and succeeded in returning the region to Russian control.^[1]

Neva was a 200 foot-long (61 meter), three-masted sailing ship weighing in around 370 tons (380 metric tonnes). The warship was of English design and construction, carried 14 cannon, and was manned by a crew of 50 professional sailors.^{[citation needed]}

Built in 1802, "Nadezhda and Neva, as they were now respectively renamed, left England for the Baltic in May 1803, docking at Kronstadt on 5 June."^[3] Neva was purchased in London (and renamed) by Lisyansky in 1803 as part of the preparation to circumnavigation.^[1]

See also

• Battle of Sitka
• European and American voyages of scientific exploration

Footnotes

1. ^ ^{a b c} Postnikov, A. (2002).
2. ^ Massov (2006), pp. 203-214.
3. ^ Barratt (1987).

References

• Barratt, Glynn (1987). The Russian Discovery of Hawai'I: The Ethnographic and Historic Record. Editions Limited. ISBN 978-0915013081.
• Massov, Aleksandr (2006). "The visit of the Russian sloop Neva to Sydney in 1807: 200 years of Russian–Australian contacts." Australian Slavonic and East European Studies, Vol. 20, 1-2. School of Languages and Comparative Cultural Studies, The University of Queensland. ISSN 0818-8149. [1]
• Postnikov, A. (2002). Thesis. S.I. Vavilov Institute of the History of Science and Technology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia —"The first Russian round the world voyage and its influence on exploration and development of Russian America" accessed September 25, 2005.
• Tredrea, John and Eduard Sozaev (2010). Russian Warships in the Age of Sail, 1696-1860: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84832-058-1.