1 17 Massov, A. Ia. the Flag of St Andrew Under the Southern Cross One of the Most Important and Significant Scientific Results

17 Massov, A. Ia. The Flag of St Andrew Under the Southern Cross One of the most important and significant scientific results of the presence of Russian seaman in Australia was the collecting of geological, botanical, and zoological collections, all of which found their way into the museums of Russia. The assembling of collections of so-called rarities constituted one of the duties of certain participants of all the round-the-world expeditions, regardless of the objectives of the latter. The collecting process would continue throughout the voyage. It would certainly not be an exaggeration to assert that, within the context of the early 19th century, items from Australia and Oceania made up one of the most interesting and valuable parts of the material in question. The greater part of these and other such collections were assembled by the mariners themselves; only seldom were items bought or received, already prepared, as gifts from others. This was the case, however with the Herbarium, of a specially rare varieties of Australian flora, presented by Governor Maquarrie to M.N. Vasiliev to be transferred subsequently, as a present, to the dowager empress Maria Fyodorovna. In the second and third decades of the 19th century, large quantities of material suitable for biological collections were still to be found in the immediate vicinity of European settlements. Captain M.N. Vasiliev even found himself obliged to issue an order banning the shooting of birds around the tents of the shore station, set up on the north shore of Port Jackson. The activity was not without some risk for the men undertaking repairs to the sloops. V. Ogievskii writes in his memoirs that the officers of the ship's Krasier and Ladoga hunted for parrots with great success in the vicinity of Hobart, furnishing him with several specimens of a great variety of species. It is true, however, that towards the end of the 1820's the situation changed and various effects of the husbandry already being undertaken by the white settlers became evident. Midshipmen E.A. 1 Barens of the ship Krotkii, visiting Sydney in 1829, complained that around that town itself there were no longer any birds. "They say that the birds have flown off to Broken Bay, where they are exceedingly abundant". (Morskoi Spornik, 1903, Number 2 page 54.) Significant collections from the animal and vegetable kingdoms of New Holland were taken to Russia by the expedition commanded by F.F. Bellingshausen and P.M. Lazarev. Among the objects collected were stuffed Australian birds and marsupials. "A regular museum of curios," writes Captain Vasiliev, "was put together by participants in the round the world expedition of the sloops Otkrytie and Blagonamerennyi." To judge by the materials from this expedition, no less than 45 drawers and five boxes full of material were submitted in St Petersburg, and among the items were "various stuffed items, plants, and the like." D.I. Zavalishin reports that the expedition of the frigate Kriser and the sloop Ladoga first brought to Russia from Tasmania black swans, a white hawk, and other things, as well as "two huge drawers containing corals of every conceivable type". (Moskovskie Vedomosti, 21 January 1884). Most of these early collections were submitted to the museum of the Admiralty department, subsequently finding their way thence into the museums of the Academy of Sciences. Many items remain to this day in the zoological and botanical museums of that academy. The mineralogical collection, herbarium, and collection of stuffed animals brought from Australia by I.M. Simonov, (which contained unique specimens), were submitted by the scientist himself to the "cabinet of curiosities" and the Museum of Natural History at Kazan University. At present, the items in question remain in the keeping of the geological and zoological museums of Kazan State University. Together with these natural historical collections, particularly important assemblages were formed by members of these Russian expeditions in the field of ethnographic study. The value of 2 the contribution made by Russian mariners to the development of ethnography as a science has been widely acknowledged in the literature. Let us note in this connection the works of Elya Shternberg, B.A. Lipshits, L. Volokhova, B.N. Komissarov, S.A. Tokarev, and L.A. Shur. (See Shternberg's Little Monograph, Ethnography: The Pacific Ocean. Russian Scientific Investigations, Leningrad 1926; B.A. Lipshits, Ethnographic Investigations on Russian Round-the-World Expeditions in the first half of the 19th century. Studies in the History of Russian Ethnography and Anthropology, Volume 1. Moscow 1956; L. Volokhova, "Russian Ethnographic Observations in Oceania in the Early 19th Century", Scientific Proceedings of the Chita State Pedagogical Institute, Number 2. Chita 1958; B.M. Komissarov, Brazil in the First Quarter of the 19th Century; Descriptions by Russian Mariners. Leningrad State University Herald, 1961, Number 14; by the same author, Russian Sources for the Geography, Ethnography and History of Brazil, Leningrad 1975; L. Shur "Diaries and Memoirs of Russian Travellers as Sources for the History and Ethnography of Countries of the Pacific Ocean: First Half of the 19th Century", Australia and Oceania. Moscow 1970) In the opinion of Soviet specialists, "the ethnography of Russian round-the-world voyages was distinguished by the breadth of it's scope and the depth of it's generalizations. They significantly prepared the way for Russian ethnographic research in the later 19th century" (B. Lipshits, op.cit., page 322). Russian ethnography in Australia, as in Oceania, had moreover a particular value, in as much as it was largely undertaken in the pre-colonial period of the history of the native peoples in that part of the globe. Consequently, "much of what was observed was later entirely lost, under European influences". (L. Shternberg, op.cit., page 167.) Particular aspects of the ethnographic work of participants in the round-the-world expeditions in Australia have also been 3 properly valued, in the Russian language literature. The ethnographic legacy of I.M. Simonov, for instance, has been studied with some thoroughness. On this topic, the reader may consult N.I. Vorob'ev, E.P. Busygin and G. Iusupov "The Ethnographic Made by I.M. Simonov on the Pacific Islands", proceedings of the All-Union Geographical Society , 1949, Volume 8, Number 5; also I.N. Alexandrov, "Professor I.M. Simonov, Participant in the Antarctic Expedition of F. Bellingshausen", Learned Proceedings of the Kazan Pedagogical Institute: Faculty of Natural History, Volume 9. Kazan 1950, A. Massov, "A Russian Investigator of Australia: Towards the Bi-centennial of the Birth of I.M. Simonov", Proceedings of the Russian Geographical Society, 1994, Volume 126, Number 1". The scientific significance of the collections illustrating material culture, assembled in the course of these Russian visits to Australia and the island of Oceania, have likewise been justly appreciated. Today, these materials form the basis of the capitalized division of Australia and Oceania in the Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography of the Russian Academy of Sciences. (On this, see N.A. Butinov, in SMAE, Volume 35, Leningrad, 1980; also T.K. Shafranovskaia and A.I. Azarov, "The Catalogue of Collections in the Sector of Australia and Oceania in MAE", SMAE, Volume 39, Leningrad 1984." I.M. Simonov's own collection of ethnographica remains in the keeping of the relevant museum at Kazan State University. The attention paid by Russian round-the-world mariners to the aboriginal peoples of countries visited, including the Australian aboriginals, was by no means a reflection of idle curiosity. Nor was it even the consequence of the pursuit of one line of scientific inquiry or work within one area of science. As noted, the study of the aboriginal peoples formed a part of the basic program of scientific tasks of the expeditions in question, and ethnography was required when new lands were 4 discovered even in the course of commercial voyages. The commanders of Russian ships, for their part, invariably encouraged members of their companies to acquire from native peoples items that could form part of incipient collections. In one of his instructions, for instance, the commander of the sloop Otkrytie, Captain M.N. Vasiliev directly enjoined "all persons serving aboard the sloop Otkrytie to obtain whatever may be of interest ... during our sojourns amongst savage peoples". (RGAVMF, f213, op.1, d27, l18.) Contact between Russian seaman and Australian aboriginals had begun even at the time of the Neva's visit to Sydney in 1807. Unfortunately, we do not know how well acquainted the crew of that sloop were able to become with the native inhabitants of the fifth continent: the captain of the Neva, L.A. Gagemeister, left no notes whatever on that matter. It is known, however, that a small ethnographical collection was made by the crew of the ship while Neva remained at anchor in Sydney. That small assemblage formed part of the collection of ethnographica put together, during the course of the voyage of Neva, "from places where there had been no Russian ships before us". (GAPO, f445, op1, d58, L11/obv.) In his inventory of the collection, drawn up by L.A. Gagemeister himself, we find in the "Australian" section: "arrows, for war games, simple and not jagged, 2; arrows for military use, 4; for fishing, 1. Also one board, with the aid of which arrows are cast. Also clubs for close in-fighting, rounded but straight, 2; smoothand bent, 1. Also two shields". (GAPO, f445, op1,d58, L12) The arrows referred to by the commander of the Nev'a were in fact spears, (the Australian aboriginals were ignorant of the bow and arrow), and the "board", was evidently a spear-thrower the collection put together by the crew of Nev'a would unquestionably be of extra-ordinary scientific interest today.

Load more