By March, 1742, the forty-five survivors (thirty of their number having perished) were confronted by the problem of how to make their escape when the ice should permit. Their boat was a total wreck, and their only hope lay in constructing from the débris a craft that would be sufficiently trustworthy to carry them to civilization. At Waxall’s suggestion, they took the old vessel to pieces, and one Sawa Slaradoubzov, a native of Siberia, who had worked in the shipyard at Okhotsk, offered to construct the new craft. Early in May the ship was started. It was forty feet long and thirteen broad, one masted, a small cabin in the poop and a galley in the fore part of the vessel. A second small boat was also made. On the 10th of August it was launched and christened the _St. Peter_. During a few days’ calm that followed, the rudder, sails, and ballast were adjusted. Provisions and such furs as they had collected were put aboard, and they set sail on the 16th. Although Slaradoubzov had never been a carpenter, his craft proved seaworthy and breasted a gale in fine shape. They sighted Kamtschatka, August 25, entered the Bay of Awatska the next day, and made port at Petropalovski, August 27. It is pleasant to note that the Russian government conferred the lowest rank of nobility upon Sawa Slaradoubzov, that of Sinboiarskoy. The Russians have been untiring in their endeavour to discover a passage eastward to the north of Cape Tainmer and Cape Chelagskoi. In 1760, Schalaroff attempted to force the passage that had proved so disastrous to Behring; in spite of mutiny and hardship, he renewed his attempt three times, but was finally wrecked about seventy miles east of Cape Chelagskoi, where he and his crew perished miserably from starvation. Admiral Tchitschagof endeavoured to force a passage round Spitzbergen in the year 1764, but in spite of courage and perseverance, his expedition was unsuccessful. Later Captain Billings in 1787 made two attempts, both of which were unsuccessful. [Sidenote: _ANJOU AND VON WRANGELL_] Many years later, 1820 to 1823, Lieutenant Anjou and Admiral Von Wrangell made a series of remarkable sledge journeys starting from the mouth of the Kolyma River. On the fourth journey, March, 1823, Von Wrangell reached latitude 70° 51´, longitude 175° 27´ W., one hundred and five versts in a direct line from the mainland over a frozen sea. Several times the party came near losing their lives by breaking through the ice. After reaching this high latitude and recognizing signs of open water to the north, Von Wrangell writes:—