On July 26, 1803, on Julian calendar, two three-masted sloops that were bought in England, Nadezhda and Neva left the harbor of Kronstadt. Nadezhda was commanded by Lieutenant-Captain Ivan Fedorovich Kruzenshtern, Neva – by his classmate from the Naval Corps Yury Fedorovich Lisyansky, and together they both set sail on the first Russian circumnavigation, which would triumphantly end a little over three years later, in August 1806. The expedition was set up by the Russian-American Company; one of its founders, Count Nikolai Ryazanov, sailed to the shores of Russian America and to Japan to negotiate on board of Nadezhda. The route Kronshtadt – England – Cape Horn – Easter Island – Kamchatka – Japan – Alaska – China – Macau – Southern Africa – England – Kronshtadt was full of storms, emergency repairs by jack-sailors-of-all-trades; it was also marked with the celebration of crossing the equator with Neptune that would become traditional later; different geographical discoveries, 142 days of voyages of the Neva without a port call, which set a record of the time of a total of three years... Does that seem long to you? Not at all – it was quite in line with the pace of those years. It took several years and about four thousand horses to travel to Japan and America across Siberia at that time. For example, ropes with anchors could not be transported this way at all – there was nothing to transport them on. They were cut into pieces and transported like that. What is left? The glory of the Russian fleet, the Kruzenshtern Strait, Lisyansky Island, the famous record-breaking bark Kruzenshtern. In 2008, Aeroflot named one of its planes after Yuri Lisyansky, which, naturally, today will fly around the world faster, though it won't make any discoveries.