After a voyage to the East Indies, Bering joined the fleet of Tsar Peter I the Great as a sublieutenant. In 1724 the tsar appointed him leader of an expedition to determine whether Asia and North America were connected by land, because Russia was interested both in colonial expansion in North America and in finding a northeast passage—i.e., a sea route to China around Siberia. (In 1648 a Russian, Semyon Dezhnyov, had sailed through the Bering Strait, but his report went unnoticed until 1736.) On July 13, 1728, Bering set sail from the Siberian peninsula of Kamchatka and in August passed through the Bering Strait into the Arctic Ocean. Bad weather prevented thorough observation, and, though he did not sight the North American coast, he concluded
