From July 19 till August 9, 2010, on the Frantz Joseph Land a multipurpose expedition of the Wildlife Discovery Club “Following the trail of the two captains” was carried out with the support of Border Police, Federal Security Service of Russia Aviation and Russian Geographical society. 

The expedition’s primary objective was to discover the traces of presence and the possible place of death of the lost group of Brusilov’s expedition in 1912-1914, which left the ship in 1914 and headed in the direction of the Frantz Joseph Land archipelago. Brusilov’s expedition on the “St. Anna” schooner made an invaluable contribution to the Russian scientists Arctic exploration. Its story became the plot of Veniamin Kaverin’s novel “The Two Captains”.

The main information about the destiny of the group and their route was taken from the officially published journal of the group leader, navigator Valerian Albanov. According to the journal, the group of four people (the sailor Vladimir Gubanov, the steersman Petr Maksimov, the sailor Pavel Smirennikov, the steward Yan Regald) went missing on the Prince George Land island.

Searching took place on the territory with total coastline length of 50 kilometers. All the work connected with collecting historical materials was carried out under the academic advising and direct participation of the member of the Archaeology Institute of Russian Academy of Science, that has all the appropriate permissions for carrying out this type of work. During the expedition the detailed photo and video shooting was performed.

As the result the remains of the First Russian Northern Sea Route Expedition led by Georgiy Brusilov in 1912-1914 were disovered.

We found valuable material and documentary evidences of the lost expedition. They all mix well with the plot of the novel “The Two Captains”:  when young Sanya Grigoriev finds the postman’s bag with wet and hard-to-read letters, there is also a letter from the captain Tatarinov from the “St. Maria” schooner. For 96 years Frantz Joseph Land has been saving the journals we found, which are possibly the only preserved original documentary evidences from the ship “St. Anna”.

At the moments all the findings are subjected to expertise of the Criminal Science Institute of Federal Security Service of Russia. Decoding and reviewing of the documents found will let the Russian scientists to reveal the enigma of one of the most mysterious and tragic expeditions during the history of Arctic exploration.

Apart from the primary objective the following works have been carried out:

1. Allocation of the other Arctic expeditions’ traces of presence on the explored territory (the English one – that of Frederick Jackson (1895-1897); the Scottish one of Benjamin Lee Smith (1880-1881); the one of the “Krasin” icebreaker for the purpose of Nobile expedition rescue in 1928; Norwegian expedition on the ship “Bratvaag” in 1930).

2. Upon request of ornithological service of Arctic and Antarctic institute (Saint-Petersburg) observations of bird and mammal life were made on the Prince George Land island.

3. Glaciological observations of the Prince George Land island ice-flows.

4. By efforts of the expedition members a memorial cross was made and set in place, where the remains of one of the Brusilov’s expedition members had been found.

The success of our multipurpose expedition became possible after painstaking five-year study of historical documents and materials, comprehensive and careful preparation, selection of highly professional specialists and cooperation with Border Service, Federal Security Service of Russia Aviation, Archaeology Institute of Russian Academy of Science, Russian Geographical Society.