The collection of the Vladimir Arseniev Museum of Far East History contains an amazing exhibit — an octant of Fridolf Heck, a brave navigator, whaler and explorer of the Far East. The octant is a device used in navigation and hydrographic operations for measuring angles and determining the location of stars in the sky.

Fridolf Kirillovich Heck was born in 1836 in Finland to a large family of impoverished noblemen. Having enlisted at the age of twelve as a cabin boy on the brig “Olga”, Heck decided never to give up the sea. In 1855, he entered a maritime school in the Finnish city of Abo (now Turku). Fridolf successfully passed the exam to become a navigator and was hired on the brig “Count Berg”, which went to the Pacific Ocean. In a short period of time, Heck mastered perfectly the techniques of the dangerous whaling business.

A few years later, the navigator’s fate took a sharp turn, which firmly tied his life to the Primorye region. In the summer of 1868 in Finland, a society of enthusiasts emerged who dreamed of starting a fair and better life. They decided to realize this good deed in the Primorsky region of Eastern Siberia. Fridolf Heck personally went to St. Petersburg to seek funding for the resettlement project and received funds for the purchase of the brig “Emperor Alexander II”. The nine-month voyage was not easy. However, the travelers reached Nakhodka and decided to settle in Strelok Bay. The settlers failed to build a utopia on the shores of the Sea of Japan: the Hunkhuz robbers, climate and failures in fishing activities interfered. In 1871, the society of emigrants ceased to exist, the land was returned to the state, and the brig “Emperor Alexander II” was transferred to the Siberian Flotilla as a loan payment.

After the resettlement project failed, Fridolf Heck returned to whaling. Fishing was quite profitable, and soon Heck bought his own ship called “Sea Cow”. He became a free skipper, which was the name given in Imperial Russia to merchant navigators who were not in government service.

The skipper decided to settle in the Far East and together with his friend Mikhail Yankovsky settled in the town of Sidemi (Bezverkhovo). In 1885, under the leadership of Fridolf Heck, the schooner “Siberia” sailed to the shores of Chukotka to establish business relations with the local population. In fact, the voyage became a scientific expedition: 63 settlements on the coast of Kamchatka and Chukotka were explored, maps and descriptions of the coasts were made, and many capes and bays were named.