Epic quest for a dire strait

Empire building was serious business in Russia in 1725 when Danish adventurer Vitus Bering accepted Peter the Great’s commission to seek the easternmost limits of Asia and map the mysterious Big Land (America) that lay beyond. Commandeering more than 10,000 men over 17 years of dogged pursuit, Bering led two lumbering land-sea expeditions 6,000 miles across Russia to the Gulf of Alaska, where he succeeded, but lost his life in the process.

Biographer Frost spins a sinewy saga of courage, Cossacks and uncooperative natives as the expeditions slog across the wilds of Siberia. The sea leg is just as harrowing. Lost, bedeviled by blasting gales, decimated by scurvy, Bering struggles to retain command. This rough adventure is humanized by the journals and letters of two remarkable people: his savvy, well-connected wife, Anna, and his outspoken nemesis, Gregor Steller, the expedition’s testy, scientist-physician.

Yes, giants once strode the earth. Vitus Bering was one of them.

-- Susan Dworski