By the first of these, it was ordered that measures be taken "for the maintenance of our right" to the lands discovered by Russians, and by the second, to send four warships from the Baltic Sea by the Cape of Good Hope and Sunda Strait to Kamchatka.
rank Grigory Ivanovich Mulovsky [Wikidata] was appointed commander of this squadron (the number of whose ships was brought up to five) and in his instructions the Admiralty Board set out the problem of the protection of Russian interests in the seas between Kamchatka and America.
The expeditions was then to proceed along the coast of Alaska and to "formally to take possession" of it, to destroy foreign armorial bearings and insignia and everywhere establish signs of its belonging to Russia.
In the spring of 1787, Catherine II received his project for developing the fur trade in the Pacific Ocean, which included the dispatch of three ships from Kronstadt by Cape Horn: two would remain on the coast of Kamchatka, the third would take on furs obtained to China or Japan; one or two additional ships yearly would ensure communication with the Baltic, which had to become a very good school for Russian seamen, and ensure supplies for the traders.
The next year the Russo-Swedish War began, during which both Mulovsky and Trevenen perished in separate naval battles against the Swedes.