Fyodor Litke Count Fyodor Petrovich Litke ( ; born Friedrich Benjamin Lütke ; – ) was a Russian navigator , geographer , and Arctic explorer . He became a count in 1866 , and an admiral in 1855 . He was a Corresponding Member ( 1829 ) , Honorable Member ( 1855 ) , and President ( 1864 ) of the Russian Academy of Science in St . Petersburg . He was also an Honorable Member of many other Russian and foreign scientific establishments , and a Corresponding Member of the French Academy of Science in Paris . Biography . Count Friedrich Lütke ( Russified in Fyodor or Fedor Litke ) came from a family of Baltic Germans . Count Litke ’ s grandfather was Johann F . Lütke , a German Lutheran preacher and writer on physical science and theology . In 1745 , Johann Lütke went from Germany to Moscow as pastor of a Lutheran parish in order to spread Protestantism to Russia and Baltic provinces . As a youth , Fyodor attended a Lutheran German - speaking school . His maternal language was German and he always spoke Russian with a German accent . He remained a practicing Lutheran . A book , in English , about Fyodor P . Litke , published in 1996 by The University of Alaska , entitled " Fedor Petrovich Litke " by A . I . Alekseev , ISBN 0 - 912006 - 86 - 2 , is a 262 - page biography of this 19th - century Russian scientist . This book was originally published in Russian in Moscow in 1970 . Litke started his naval career in the Imperial Russian Navy in 1813 . He took part in Vasily Golovnin ' s world cruise on the ship " " Kamchatka " " from 1817 to 1819 . Then from 1821 to 1824 , Litke led the expedition to explore the coastline of Novaya Zemlya , the White Sea , and the eastern parts of the Barents Sea . From August 20 , 1826 to August 25 , 1829 , he headed the world cruise on the ship " " Senyavin " " , sailing from Cronstadt and rounding Cape Horn . At the beginning , he was accompanied from Copenhagen and the Baltic Sea by Capt . Staniukovich who was in command of the sloop " Möller " . The scientific team included Heinrich von Kittlitz ( ornithologist ) , Karl Heinrich Mertens ( botanist ) and Alexander Postels ( mineralogist ) . During this voyage he described the western coastline of the Bering Sea , the Bonin Islands off Japan , and the Carolines , discovering 12 new islands . In 1835 Fyodor Litke was appointed by Tsar Nicholas I of Russia as tutor of his second son , Grand Duke Constantine Nicholaievich of Russia . Litke was the first one to come up with the idea of a recording tide measurer ( 1839 ) . They were built and installed along the coastlines of the Arctic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean in 1841 . Litke was one of the organizers of the Russian Geographic Society and its president in 1845 – 1850 and 1857 – 1872 . He was appointed Chairman of the Naval Scientific Committee in 1846 . Litke was a commander - in - chief and a military governor of the ports of Reval ( today ' s Tallinn ) and later Kronstadt in 1850 – 1857 . In 1855 , Litke became a member of the Russian State Council ( " Государственный совет " in Russian ; a legislative entity that predated the Duma , which came into existence only on 1906 ) . In 1873 , Russian Geographical Society introduced the Litke gold medal . A cape , peninsula , mountain and bay in Novaya Zemlya , as well as a group of islands in Franz Josef Land , Baydaratskaya Bay , and the Nordenskiöld Archipelago and a strait between Kamchatka and Karaginsky Island , as well as two Russian icebreakers were named after him . " Nereocystis luetkeana " was named after him by Mertens ( first as " Fucus luetkeanus " ) and then described by Postels and Ruprecht . Litke ' s contribution to the geography of Alaska . During his voyage round the world on the Russian corvette " Seniavin " Litke arrived at Sitka in 1827 . From there he sailed to Unalaska , surveying the Pribilof Islands , St . Matthew Island and the Commander Islands , before arriving to Petropavlovsk , a harbor which he used as a base for further surveys along the Siberian coast all the way to St . Lawrence Bay by the Bering Strait . After finally returning to Kronstadt Litke published an 3 - volume account of his explorations with atlases in Russian and in French , the latter being published in Paris and entitled " Voyage autour du monde , : exécuté par ordre de sa majesté l ’ empereur Nicolas Ier , sur la corvette Le Séniavine , dans les années 1826 , 1827 , 1828 et 1829 , par Frédéric Lutké , . . . commandant de l ’ expédition . Partie historique , avec un atlas , litographié d ’ après les dessins originaux d ’ Alexandre Postels et du baron Kittlitz . Traduit du russe sur le manuscrit original , sous les yeux de l ’ auteur , par le conseiller d ’ état F . Boyé . Tome I – III " . Very few copies were printed and especially the Russian original work with its nautical part became an extremely rare item . The nautical volume contains hydrographic and geographic details on the then little - known Bering Sea and Alaska obtained not only from Litke ' s own work but also from various previously unpublished Russian sources . Even though there were errors and delays in the publication that didn ' t satisfy the author , Litke ' s work is a valuable source of information on the evolution of geographic knowledge of Alaska and the Bering Sea . When W . H . Dall published an index for the book , Litke ' s name was given as " Lutke " , which reflects the spelling under which the book was published in Paris . Certain geographic features of the Alaskan coast , like the Walrus and Kritskoi Islands , Kudobin Islands and numerous other features in the Aleutians , were named by Count Feodor Litke in the maps that were subsequently published . The landhead now named Cape Lutke in Alaska was named after this Russian explorer by the Imperial Russian Hydrographic Service in 1847 .