Bussol Strait

Bussol Strait (Russian: Proliv Bussol) is a wide strait that separates the islands of Broutona and Chirpoy to the west from Simushir to the east. It is nearly 58 km (about 36 mi) wide, making it the largest channel in the Kuril Islands.^[1]

It is named after the frigate Boussole.

History

The strait was a popular route in the 1840s for American whaleships entering^[2] and exiting^[3] the Sea of Okhotsk on their way to and from cruises for right whales. It was rarely used from the 1850s to the 1870s when ships primarily cruised to the north for bowhead whales, using the more convenient Fourth Kuril Strait further north instead.^[4] Among the few to use it during that period was the ship Susan (349 tons), of Nantucket, which was stove by ice and sank in the strait on the night of 27-28 April 1853 while attempting to enter the Sea of Okhotsk. Two men were lost, one drowning and the other perishing on the ice. The remaining twenty-five crew members crowded into two whaleboats and reached Urup on the afternoon of 29 April. Here they spent eight days before being rescued by the barque Black Warrior, of New London.^[5] With the revival of cruises for right whales in the southern part of the sea in the 1880s ships began to use it again.^[6] It was utilized as late as 1902.^[7]

References

1. National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. (2014). Sailing Directions (Enroute): East Coast of Russia. U.S. Government, Springfield, Virginia.
2. Eliza Adams, of Fairhaven, Aug. 2, 1847, Old Dartmouth Historical Society.
3. Splendid, of Edgartown, Sep. 4, 1848, Nicholson Whaling Collection (NWC).
4. Betsey Williams, of Stonington, May 4, 1853, NWC; Sea Breeze, of New Bedford, Oct. 13, 1874, George Blunt White Library (GBWL).
5. The Friend, Honolulu, Vol. II, No. 10, Nov. 1, 1853, p. 93.
6. Coral, of San Francisco, Sep. 27, 1888, Kendall Whaling Museum.
7. Charles W. Morgan, of New Bedford, Aug. 23, Sep. 27, 1902, GBWL.

Coordinates: 46°40′N 151°51′E / 46.667°N 151.850°E