Georg Wilhelm Steller

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Georg Wilhelm Steller
Born(1709-03-10)10 March 1709
Bad Windsheim, Holy Roman Empire
Died14 November 1746(1746-11-14) (aged 37)
Tyumen, Siberia Governorate, Russian Empire
Alma materUniversity of Halle
Several animals described by and named for Georg Steller, of whom no portrait is known to exist.

Georg Wilhelm Steller (10 March 1709 – 14 November 1746) was a German-born

North Pacific
region.

Steller pursued studies in theology and medicine before turning his attention to the natural sciences. In 1734, he joined the Russian Academy of Sciences as a physician, eventually being selected to accompany Bering's expedition to the uncharted waters between Siberia and North America. Steller's observations and record-keeping proved important during the journey.

Steller's name became synonymous with the discovery of new species, as he documented numerous plants and animals, many of which were previously unknown to Western science. Notable among his discoveries was the Steller's sea cow and Steller's sea eagle. His exploration of the Kamchatka Peninsula and the Commander Islands significantly expanded scientific knowledge about the region's biodiversity.

Biography

Early Life

Steller was born in

University of Wittenberg. He then traveled to Russia as a physician on a troop ship returning home with the wounded. He arrived in Russia in November 1734. He met the naturalist Daniel Gottlieb Messerschmidt (1685–1735) at the Imperial Academy of Sciences. Two years after Messerschmidt's death, Steller married his widow and acquired notes from his travels in Siberia not handed over to the Academy.[1]

Expeditions

Steller knew about

Yeniseisk in January 1739. Gmelin recommended that Steller take his place in the planned exploration of Kamchatka. Steller embraced that role and finally reached Okhotsk
and the main expedition in March 1740 as Bering's ships, the St. Peter and St. Paul, were nearing completion.

Steller's Arch on Bering Island

In September 1740, the expedition sailed to the

flotsam and wildlife, insisted they should sail northeast. After considerable time lost, they turned northeast and made landfall in Alaska at Kayak Island on Monday 20 July 1741.[2] Bering wanted to stay only long enough to take on fresh water. Steller argued Captain Bering into giving him more time for land exploration and was granted 10 hours. During his ten hours on land Steller noted the mathematical ratio of 10 years preparation for ten hours of investigation.[3]

While the crew never even set foot on the mainland, Georg Steller is credited with being one of the first non-natives to have set foot upon Alaskan soil. The expedition never made mainland landfall because of a stubbornness and a "dull fear". They left with only a sketch of what they think the mainland would look like. On a remarkable journey, Steller became the first European naturalist to describe a number of North American plants and animals, including a jay later named Steller's jay.

A 2009 memorial to Steller in a riverside park in Tyumen, Siberia, where he had died of fever at age 37.

Although Steller tried to treat the crew's growing scurvy epidemic with leaves and berries he had gathered, officers scorned his proposal.[2] Steller and his assistant were some of the very few who did not suffer from the ailment. On the return journey, with only 12 members of the crew able to move and the rigging rapidly failing, the expedition was shipwrecked on what later became known as Bering Island. Almost half of the crew had perished from scurvy during the voyage.[2] Steller nursed the survivors, including Bering, but he could not be saved and died. The remaining men made camp with little food or water, a situation made only worse by frequent raids by Arctic foxes. The crew hunted sea otters, sea lions, fur seals and sea cows to survive the winter.[4]

In early 1742, the crew used salvaged material from the St. Peter to construct a new vessel to return to Avacha Bay and nicknamed it The Bering. Steller spent the next two years exploring the Kamchatka peninsula. He was falsely accused of freeing Kamchadal rebels from prison by a jealous rival and recalled to St. Petersburg. At one point he was put under arrest and made to return to Irkutsk for a hearing. He was freed and again turned west toward St. Petersburg, but along the way he came down with a fever and died at Tyumen.

Some of his journals, which reached the academy and were later published by

Captain Cook. There is also a journal of Steller's published by Stanford University Press that is titled Journal of a Voyage with Bering, 1741-1742, which has detailed accounts of the Second Kamchatka Expedition or the Great Northern Expedition.[2]

Scientific Contributions

Of the six species of birds and mammals that Steller discovered during the voyage, two are extinct (Steller's sea cow and the spectacled cormorant) and three are near threatened and vulnerable (Steller sea lion, Steller's eider and Steller's sea eagle). The sea cow, in particular, a massive northern relative of the dugong, lasted only 27 years after Steller discovered and named it. The sea cow had a limited population that quickly became victim of overhunting by the Russian crews that followed in Bering's wake.

Steller's jay is one of the few species named after Steller that is not currently listed as endangered.[5] In his brief encounter with the bird, Steller was able to deduce that the jay was kin to the American blue jay, a fact which seemed proof that Alaska was indeed part of North America.

Despite the hardships the crew endured, Steller studied the flora, fauna, and topography of the island in great detail. Of particular note were the only detailed behavioral and anatomical observations of

sirenian mammal that once ranged across the Northern Pacific during the Ice Ages, but whose surviving relict population was confined to the shallow kelp beds around the Commander Islands
, and which was driven to extinction within 30 years of discovery by Europeans.

Based on these and other observations, Steller later wrote De Bestiis Marinis ('On the Beasts of the Sea'), describing the fauna of the island, including the

cryptid Steller's sea ape.

A statue in Bad Windsheim commemorating Georg Wilhelm Steller

Discoveries and namesakes

Georg Steller described a number of animals and plants, some of which bear his name, either in the common name or scientific:

Steller Secondary School in Anchorage, Alaska is named for Steller, as is Mount Steller at 58°25′47″N 154°23′29″W / 58.42972°N 154.39139°W / 58.42972; -154.39139.

Popular culture

Works
The standard author abbreviation Steller is used to indicate this person as the author when citing a botanical name.[7]

References

  1. ^
    doi:10.1890/0012-9623(2008)89[39:AHOTES]2.0.CO;2
    .
  2. ^ a b c d Steller, Georg Wilhelm (1988). Journal of a Voyage with Bering, 1741-1742. Stanford University Press.
  3. ^ Collins, Henry B. Jr. "Georg Wilhelm Steller". Encyclopedia Arctica. Dartmouth. Archived from the original on 12 August 2022. Retrieved 20 August 2022.
  4. ^ Littlepage, Dean. Steller's Island: Adventures of a Pioneer Naturalist in Alaska.
  5. ^ "Steller's Jay". American Bird Conservancy. Archived from the original on 1 May 2023. Retrieved 1 May 2023.
  6. ^ "Restella Pobed. | Plants of the World Online | Kew Science". Plants of the World Online. Archived from the original on 2 March 2021. Retrieved 16 March 2021.
  7. ^ International Plant Names Index.  Steller.

Further reading

External links

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