Eine Kommentierte Transkription Der Tagebcher Von Hermann Ludwig Von Lwenstern. Band 2: Die Erste Russische Weltumsegelung 1803-1806, Teil 1

Description

The transcription of Hermann Ludwig von Lwensterns uncensored diaries (1793-1815) gives the modern reader a rare insight into the life of a Baltic German Russian naval officer at the end of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th centuries. Lwenstern traveled the world from the Baltic to the Mediterranean and Black Seas, from Reval to Paris and back by way of Berlin (1793-1801), and from Kronstadt to Copenhagen, Falmouth, Tenerife, Brazil, Nuka Hiva, Kamchatka, Nagasaki, Canton, St. Helena, Scotland and back to Kronstadt (1803-1806), and finally to Archangelsk and the Crimea (1806-1815) before retiring to marry and run three estates in Estonia. Every human endeavor engaged his attention: a sailors revolt in England; Russians rescuing Turkish sailors during race riots in Palermo; elegant balls attended by Lord Nelson and Lady Hamilton; Napoleon reviewing troops in Paris; Abbe Sicard lecturing at the Institute for the Deaf and Dumb; Japanese playing psychological games on the Russian Ambassador, Nikolai Petrovich Rezanov; fresh meat being secretly ferried to foreign ships in Canton; the bathhouses in Istanbul; the unbearable life in the swampy hellhole of Archangelsk; and the Crimean sect practicing castration. These diaries are also a treasure trove for students of languages since Lwenstern wrote as he spoke, that is, Baltic German with admixtures of other languages from around the world. This is the first volume of the two-volume Band 2.