Alaska Sea

Far south of the Aleutian Islands, the North Pacific extends for thousands of miles between Asia and America. In 1741 Vitus Bering and Aleksei Chirikov sailed east from Kamchatka in search of the American coast, separating in the open ocean. Bering's return took him along the Aleutians, but storms and sickness overtook his ship; he died on the island where the survivors spent the winter before returning to Kamchatka.