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Aleksandr Kuchin | |
|---|---|
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| Born | 1888 |
| Died | c. 1913 (aged 24–25) |
| Occupation | Oceanographer |
Alexander Stepanovich Kuchin (Russian:Александр Степанович Кучин; 28 September 1888 inOnega – 1913? in an unknown place in theKara Sea) was a youngRussianoceanographer and Arctic explorer.
Hailing from a humble background, Alexander Kuchin became a seaman in aNorwegian ship already when he was seventeen. The young man loved theNorwegian language, which he mastered in one year.
In 1907 Alexander Kuchin worked inBergen, at a Norwegian Biological Station, becoming a student of oceanography expert ProfessorBjorn Helland-Hansen. Meanwhile, his enthusiasm for the Norwegian language was such that he wrote a "Small Russian-Norwegian dictionary" ("Малый русско-норвежский словарь") in order to share his knowledge with his compatriots.
In 1910–1911, Alexander Kuchin was the only foreigner onAmundsen'sexpedition to theSouth Pole on theFram. He made numerous observations in the Southern Atlantic as an oceanographer and navigator. After his return to Norway, in December 1911, Alexander Kuchin was engaged to 18-year-old Aslaug Paulson, the daughter ofAndreas Paulson, a prominent Norwegian journalist.
In 1912, Kuchin returned to Russia, where he joinedVladimir Rusanov's expedition as captain of the shipGerkules toSvalbard. This expedition's goal was to investigate the coal potential of the Archipelago.He sailed from Aleksandrovsk-na-Murmane (nowPolyarnyy, nearMurmansk) on 26 June. The personnel consisted of thirteen men and one woman, Rusanov's French fiancée. Apart from Rusanov there was another geologist and a zoologist.
At the end of a very successful summer's field work, three members of the expedition (the geologist, the zoologist and the ship's bosun) returned to Russia viaGrønfjorden in Norway. The remaining ten, including Captain Alexander Kuchin, without consultation with the authorities inSt. Petersburg, set off with Rusanov in an incredibly rash attempt at reaching the Pacific Ocean via theNorthern Sea Route. However, their shipGerkules was too small for the kind of expedition Rusanov had in mind.
The last to be heard of Rusanov's expedition was a telegram left atMatochkin Shar onNovaya Zemlya, which reached St. Petersburg on 27 September 1912. In it, Rusanov indicated that he intended rounding the northern tip of Novaya Zemlya, and heading east across theKara Sea but nothing was heard from theGerkules thereafter. It is presumed to have disappeared without trace sometime after September 1912 in theKara Sea, off the northern coast of Siberia.
In 1914–15 the almost impossible task of searching for Rusanov's expedition (as well as for similarly disappeared CaptainBrusilov from another expedition), was entrusted toOtto Sverdrup with the shipEklips. His efforts, however, were unsuccessful.
In 1937, theArctic Institute of theUSSR organized an expedition to theNordenskiöld Archipelago on shipToros. Relics of the ill-fated 1912–13 expedition on theGerkules were found on one of theMona Islands and onPopov-Chukchin Island located at (74° 56'N, 86° 18'E) off Kolosovykh Island in theKolosovykh group.
Two small islets offSalisbury Island inFranz Josef Land have been named after Alexander Kuchin. Aslaug Paulson, Alexander Kuchin's Norwegian fiancée, died in 1987.
