The SHORTSAD STORY of Steller’s SEA COW

It was November 1741, and the Russian exploration ship St. Peter was lost in the icy sea between Siberia and Alaska. Tossed by storms, the St. Peter drifted where she could. Her crew was too ill to manage her.

Then on the morning of November 5—land!

At first, the men hoped that they’d spotted Kamchatka, the Siberian peninsula from which they’d set out five months earlier. Instead, as they staggered ashore, they found themselves on a rocky, treeless, uninhabited island. Soon after, a storm drove their ship onto the beach, stranding them. It was the beginning of a desperate, nine-month struggle. The survival of the men turned on their fateful encounter with an animal unknown to science.

Finding Sea Cows

All around the island, drifting in and out with each tide, were enormous black animals. The ship’s naturalist, Geor Wilhelm Steller, had read descriptions of manatees, or “sea