Peter the Great ordered the 1725-30 Kamchatka expedition to sail from the mouth of the Kamchatka River north along the Pacific coast of Asia to define the northeastern borders of the Russian Empire and mark them on a map. It was the first time the Russian Navy undertook a voyage of discovery, and the first time a ship sailed the Pacific under its ensign. One of the few documents to come down from the voyage is the journal of Midshipman Piotr Chaplin, now in the custody of the Russian State Navel Archives in St. Petersburg. The team of editors and translators responsible for this edition include Tatiana S. Fedorova, Peter Ulf Møller, and Viktor G. Sedov as well as Urness. The journal begins and ends in St. Petersburg, so documents the overland journey to and from Okhotsk as well as the voyage. Modern maps augment contemporary ones. Essays discuss Vitus Johanssen Bering, the Russian Navy and mapping, navigation and surveying, and the literature on the expedition. Distributed in North America by The David Brown Book Co. Annotation ©2010 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)