Vitus Jonassen Bering, the Danish-born navigator who served the Russian Imperial Navy, died in December 1741 shipwrecked on the uninhabited island that now bears his name — stranded during the return leg of the Second Kamchatka Expedition after successfully sighting the Alaskan coast. His remains were recovered and identified by forensic archaeologists only in 1991.
Vitus Jonassen Bering, the Danish-born navigator who served the Russian Imperial Navy, died in December 1741 shipwrecked on the uninhabited island that now bears his name — stranded during the return leg of the Second Kamchatka Expedition after successfully sighting the Alaskan coast. His remains were recovered and identified by forensic archaeologists only in 1991.