Ludwig von Hagemeister

Ludwig Karl August von Hagemeister (; Leontij Andrianovic Gagemejster; ) was a Russian naval officer who held the rank of Captain of the 1st rank in the Imperial Russian Navy. He was a maritime explorer of Alaska and the Pacific Ocean, and served briefly in 1817-1818 as the second Chief Manager of the Russian-American Company. Career in the Navy Hagemeister was born to an ethnic Baltic German family in the Russian Empire. He began his service in the Russian naval forces in 1795 as a volunteer midshipman. Along with a group of fellow junior servicemen, he joined the British Royal Navy in 1802 on board . In 1806 he was directed to take with provisions needed to Russian America; this was the first of three circumnavigations in his career to New Archangel. Departing on 20 October 1806 from Kronstadt, Neva began to cross the Atlantic Ocean to the south, to go around the continent of Africa and sail East. After passing the Cape of Good Hope, Hagemeister and his subordinates were the first Russian crew to visit the Australian mainland, reaching the port of Port Jackson on 4 June. Reaching New Archangel (now Sitka, Alaska) on 13 September, Hagemeister was stationed on Kodiak Island for most of 1808. The Russian forces were at war with the Tlingit. He was ordered by Chief Manager of the Russian American Company (RAC), Aleksandr Baranov, to secure needed provisions from the Kingdom of Hawaii on 30 November 1808 and perhaps find a suitable location for a Russian colony there. Hagemeister explored portions of the North Pacific and met with King Kamehameha I in early 1809. Amicable conversations were commenced with the monarch and Hagemeister purchased a cargo of salt. Delivering the salt to New Archangel, he later departed for Saint Petersburg in 1810 on Neva.