Martin Spanberg

On the first of these voyages, Spanberg left 29 June 1738 aboard the Archangel Michael (Архангел Михаил, Arkhangel Mikhail)[2] with his own assistants William Walton (Вильям or Вилим Вальтон, Vilim Valton) and Alexander Shelting (Алексей Елеазарович Шельтинг, Aleksey Yeleazarovich Shel'ting) commanding the Sv.

On the second voyage, he gained a fourth ship—the Bolsheretsk (Большерецк)—and was the first Russian commander to visit Honshu in Japan, establishing Russo-Japanese diplomatic relations.

[3] His ships landed in a scenic area now part of the Rikuchu Kaigan National Park but, despite isolationist Japanese sakoku policy of the time, the sailors were treated with courtesy.

"States Island") and Company Land (Dutch: Compagnies Landt; French: Terre de la Compagnie) common on European maps after the 1643 visit of Maarten Gerritsz Vries of the Dutch East India Company were either nonexistent or much smaller in extent, grossly misrepresenting some of the Kurils like Urup[1] and Iturup.

This was not, however, immediately accepted, and the various phantom islands continued to appear on French and other maps for decades longer.