Lütke’s Russian sloop Senyavin arrives at Kosrae for a friendly stay of about three weeks.

What happened

The Russian navy sloop Senyavin, under Fedor Lütke, stopped at Kosrae while surveying the Caroline Islands. After islanders took three belaying pins and then returned them, relations stayed friendly for about three weeks; Lütke wrote that the stay cost not a drop of blood and that the people carried no weapons. The arrival is dated 6 December in the MicSem ship list and 8 December in the COM-FSM outline, while Lütke’s French edition has the ship sighting Kosrae on 4 December and entering port on 9 December.

Why it matters

Together with Lesson’s 1824 account, it describes a peaceful, unarmed Kosrae only a few years before ships and islanders clashed violently in the 1830s and 1840s.