Vasily Golovnin

[2] Golovnin appeared set to continue the family tradition, but his father died while he was still a child, and at the age of twelve he was enrolled in the Russian Naval College as a cadet.

From 1798 to 1800 he served as adjutant and interpreter to Vice Admiral M. K. Makarov, commander of a Russian squadron operating jointly with the British fleet in the North Sea.

[9] He returned to Russia in 1806, and began compiling a code of naval signals on the English pattern, which remained in use by the Russian fleet for more than twenty years.

[2] Golovnin was given command of the sloop Diana in 1806, and made his first voyage around the world (1807—1809), with the object of conducting a survey of the northern Pacific, and transporting supplies to Okhotsk.

[6] In 1819, he published an account of their voyage, detention and escape, titled Journey of the Russian Emperor’s sloop Diana from Kronstadt to Kamchatka.

[9] After sailing around Cape Horn, the objective was to deliver supplies to Kamchatka, and survey previously unexplored islands along what is now the northwestern coast of Alaska.

[9] He arrived in Kamchatka the following May, then returned to Europe via the Cape of Good Hope, completing his circumnavigation by landing at St Petersburg on 17 September 1819.

[2][3] Though the journey had "achieved little in the way of new discoveries," Golovnin returned with "a vast store of scientific and astronomical information" to share with Russian scientists.

[3] In the book The Lost Pianos of Siberia by Sophy Roberts, it is mentioned that Golovnin was "busted" out of his Japanese captivity by Pyotr Rikord, the newly appointed chief of Kamchatka.

As a "thank you" Golovnin rewarded Rikord's wife Lyudmila, a keen pianist, with a piano shipped all the way from St Petersburg, which took eight months and eight days to deliver.

[2] Golovnin also served as a mentor to numerous Russian navigators, including the aforementioned Fyodor Litke and Ferdinand von Wrangel.

[2] Feopemt was described as "free thinking", and according to testimony given by individuals involved in the Decembrist Uprising, he was in close communication with several members of their society.

[4][18][19] In addition to his work as a naval officer and bureaucrat, Alexander served as director of the journal Morskoi Sbornik, and was actively involved in the Zemstvo.