Otto von Kotzebue (; 30 December 1787 – 15 February 1846) was a Baltic German naval officer in the Imperial Russian Navy. He commanded two naval expeditions into the Pacific for the purposes of exploration and scientific investigation. The first expedition explored Oceania and the western coast of North America and passed through the Bering Strait in search of a passage across the Arctic Ocean. His second voyage was intended as a military resupply mission to Kamchatka but again included significant explorations of the west coast of North America and Oceania. In this vessel, with only twenty-seven men, including the naturalists Johann Friedrich von Eschscholtz and Adelbert von Chamisso, and the artist Louis Choris, Kotzebue set out from Kronstadt on July 30, 1815 to find a passage across the Arctic Ocean and explore the less-known parts of Oceania.

Proceeding via Cape Horn, he visited the Chilean coast and arrived at Easter Island on March 29, 1816. From there he sailed west and reached the Tuamotu Archipelago around April 16 where he sighted several islands, some of which he named: Doubtful, so named because he thought it might be the Dog Island (Pukapuka); Romanzoff (Tikei); Spiridoff; the Palliser Islands discovered by Cook; Rurick's chain (Arutua); and Krusenstern (Tikahau). He reached Penrhyn atoll on May 1 and was greeted by the natives who came out in canoes. After leaving Polynesia, Kotzebue came upon the Radak and Ralik chains of the Marshall Islands in Micronesia.

Kotzebue then headed north for the Kamchatka Peninsula where he anchored at the harbor of St. Peter and St. Paul on June 18. From there he explored Bering Strait and the coast of Alaska. A sound north of Bering Strait was named Kotzebue Sound. In September he sailed south to California.

Returning by the coast of Asia, he again sailed to the south, sojourned for three weeks at the Sandwich Islands during the Schäffer affair, an attempt by the Russian-American Company to seize Kauai. On January 1, 1817, Kotzebue discovered New Year Island. After further cruising in the Pacific Ocean, he proceeded north. Severe illness compelled him to return to Europe, and he reached the Neva River in Russia on August 3, 1818, bringing home a large collection of previously unknown plants and new ethnological information. Many positions along the coast were rectified, the Navigator islands visited, and several discoveries made. The expedition returned by the Marianas, Philippines, New Caledonia and the Hawaiian Islands, reaching Kronstadt on July 10, 1826.

  • Kotzebue Street in the Kalamaja area of northern Tallinn in Estonia is named after him and after his father August von Kotzebue, who both lived on the street.
  • The butterfly Pachliopta kotzebuea was named after him by Johann Friedrich von Eschscholtz, a botanist aboard the Rurik.

See also

  • List of Baltic German explorers

References

Bibliography

  • Overview of Triigi (Kau) manor (owned by the von Kotzebue's) in Estonian Manors Portal
  • genealogy of the family Kotzebue