In 1721, Chirikov graduated from the Naval Academy. In 1725 ? 1730 and 1733 ? 1743, he was Vitus Bering's deputy during the First and the Second Kamchatka expeditions. On July 15, 1741 Chirikov (on his ship the St. Paul) was the first European to land on the northwestern coast of North America, and thereafter discover some of the Aleutian Islands. In 1742, Chirikov was in charge of a search party for Bering's ship St. Peter. During this trip, he specified the location of the Attu Island.
Chirikov took part in creating the final map of the Russian discoveries in the Pacific Ocean (1746). Capes of the Kyusyu Island, Attu Island, Anadyr Bay, Tauyskaya Bay, and an underwater mountain in the Pacific Ocean bear Chirikov's name.
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