Billings (Billinks), Joseph (1761–1806) – captain commander of the Russian Navy. He was born in England, starting from 1766 was listed in the Royal Navy, participated in the third (and last) circumnavigation of J. Cook (1776–1780), and took part in the navigation of expedition ships in the Bering and the Chukchi seas. In 1783, he was accepted to the Russian Navy as a midshipman. As a lieutenant commander, he was appointed head of the “secret” North-Eastern Geographical and Astronomical Naval Expedition (1785–1793) aimed at research and survey of the shores of northeastern Siberia and the Aleutian Islands. His assistants were R. Gall, G.A. Sarychev, and K.T. Bering, V. Bering’s grandson. In 1786, B. arrived in Okhotsk and moved to Verkhnekolymsk where he started the construction of two ships, “Pallas” and “Yasashna,” on the bank of the Yasashna River. Three attempts (1787) to reach the East Siberian Sea from the mouth of the Kolyma and to round the Chukchi Peninsula were not successful...
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(2016). Billings (Billinks), Joseph (1761–1806). In: Zonn, I.S., Kostianoy, A.G., Semenov, A.V. (eds) The Eastern Arctic Seas Encyclopedia. Encyclopedia of Seas. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-24237-8_80
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