Count Feodor Ivanovich Tolstoy — cousin to the great author Leo — got himself a berth on the sloop Nadezhda on the First Russian Circumnavigation in 1803.
The event’s purpose was to bring prestige to the nation and advance scientific knowledge.
Tolstoy was royalty so he didn’t have an assigned role. He spent his time drinking, picking fights and playing jokes. He got the ship’s priest drunk, for instance, then glued his beard to the deck.
The final straw, though, was likely the orangutan.
During an island stop, he acquired a pet orangutan. He snuck it into the captain’s cabin, took out the logbook, put a blank sheet of paper on top and showed the ape how to cover it with ink. He left while ape went on drawing. When the captain returned, the records were ruined along with much scientific data.
Enough became enough and Tolstoy and the orangutan was marooned by the crew on the Kamchatka peninsula. From there Tolstoy made it to Aleutian islands and from there to Siberia and home.
He became known as The American due to his stay in Alaska. Nobody knows what happened to the orangutan.
Nobody knows what happened to the orangutan.
The orangutan married a polar bear and lived happily ever after
Count Feodor Ivanovich Tolstoy courted an eskimo woman named Nanuka. They had three children.
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