Compagnie russe d'Amérique
Etolin transferred from the Imperial Russian Navy to the service of the Russian-American Company in July 1818. He served in the Pacific from 1818 to 1825 as a ship master, and was part of a group that surveyed the Bering Sea from 1822 to 1824. Having returned to European Russia in 1825, he re-joined the Russian-American Company in 1826, was named the adjutant for the Chief Manager ("Governor") of Russian America in 1834, and became Chief Manager himself from 1840 to 1845. He became a member of the board of the Russian-American Company in Saint Petersburg, Russia from 1847 to 1859.