Q 01/05

In which country was Vitus Bering born?

A) Denmark

B) Netherlands

C) Sweden

D) Russia

Answer · why

A) Denmark

Denmark. He went to sea as a boy, joined the Russian navy as a young officer and spent the rest of his career in Russian service under the name Ivan I...

Q 02/05

The survivors of Bering's last voyage brought home pelts of which animal, setting off Russia's fur rush to Alaska?

A) Beaver

B) Silver fox

C) Sea otter

D) Pine marten

Answer · why

C) Sea otter

Sea otter. Hunters followed Bering's route from island to island toward America, and Russia went on to claim Alaska until it sold the territory to the...

Q 03/05

Whose navy did Bering join in 1704?

A) Louis XIV's

B) Charles XII's

C) Peter the Great's

D) Queen Anne's

Answer · why

C) Peter the Great's

Peter the Great's. The tsar was building a fleet almost from nothing and hired foreign seamen to officer it; Bering joined as a sub-lieutenant and sta...

Q 04/05

Where had the young Bering voyaged just before he joined the Russian navy?

A) East Indies

B) South Pacific

C) Mediterranean

D) West Africa

Answer · why

A) East Indies

East Indies. He came back from the voyage to Amsterdam, where a Norwegian-born admiral in Russian service met him and recruited him.

Q 05/05

Why did Bering briefly retire from the Russian Navy in 1724?

A) Embarrassment at his low rank

B) A dispute over unpaid wages

C) To run a family shipyard

D) Wounds from the Great Northern War

Answer · why

A) Embarrassment at his low rank

Embarrassment at his low rank. Passed over while others were promoted, he left the navy in 1724, yet within months he was back in service as a captain...