Kadu’s Voyage and a Second Attempt at the Northern Passage

Abstract In the Marshall Islands, a man named Kadu joined the voyage of the Rurik for a year of exploration. Kadu was a trained navigator originally from the Caroline Islands, and he expressed a strong desire to explore the unknown parts of the surrounding ocean. He fascinated the ship’s personnel, who immediately began gathering knowledge from Kadu as he, in turn, sought information from these strange foreigners. Kadu’s voyage would include interactions with diverse groups of Indigenous islanders as well as his shocking discovery of a solid ice field in the far north of the ocean. In this second attempt to locate the Northern Passage, Captain Kotzebue turned the ship away from the Arctic icepack, leading to accusations of another failed attempt to find the Northern Passage.