Providence Bay and Emma Harbor do not appear on maps before 1850; it is thought they were visited by whalers in the period 1845-48 just prior to the
Plover's visit. Providence Bay was probably visited by Russian explorer
Kurbat Ivanov in 1660 but his explorations of the
Gulf of Anadyr were not widely reported.
Golden Gate, a ship of the
Russian–American Telegraph Expedition, visited Plover Bay in September 1865, having just missed encounter with "the famed and dreaded"
CSS Shenandoah.
Frederick Whymper, member of this expedition, reported that by this time "it was no uncommon thing to find several
whaling vessels lying inside in summer". Whymper (and later
John Muir) described the mountains around Plover Bay as "composed of an infinite number of fragments split up by action of frost... innumerable and many-coloured
lichens and
mosses are the only vegetation to be seen, except on a patch of open green country near Emma Harbour, where domesticated
reindeer graze." The area around Providence Bay provided good whaling in the early days, particularly in the fall; this may account for some of its popularity as a wintering spot. In 1860, the Supreme Court of Hawaii ruled in favor of eight seamen of the whaling brig
Wailua of Honolulu which wintered in Plover Bay 1858-9 after staying too late into the fall. Captain Lass maintained he had become icebound unintentionally having entered the bay to take on water and remained because of the good whaling. The whaling in this instance was done from boats operating from the harbor, where the ship remained moored. The crew members alleged that Lass had planned on overwintering, subjecting them to hardship and extending their service in violation of their contract. The court ruled for the seamen, holding that although intention was not proved, Captain Lass's actions amounted to recklessness. Whymper describes witnessing the pursuit and processing of whales within the bay in 1866. In 1871, the whaling bark
Oriole, damaged by ice, limped or was towed into Plover Bay to attempt repairs. According to John Spears colorful account, Captain Hayes had taken his ship through the ice to reach open water off the Siberian coast, hoping to have the large schools of whales near Plover Bay to himself, but the ship hit a large ice floe. The
Oriole was subsequently abandoned in the bay; in Spears account, she was tipped on her side for repairs when a hatch gave way, flooding and sinking the ship in minutes. By 1880, a visitor on the schooner
Yukon found the village on the spit much reduced; whales were no longer abundant and many residents had moved west in search of better hunting. The village dogs had all died due to lack of food. In 1875 Russian
clipper Gaydamak under command of
Sergey Tyrtov anchored in Providence Bay. Tyrtov, ordered to enforce
state monopoly on coastal trading, distributed to local Chukchis printed leaflets addressed to foreign merchants. He then headed north to
Saint Lawrence Bay where he intercepted
Timandra, an American merchant boat involved in trading
walrus ivory for alcohol. An article from 1879 quotes a letter from
William Healey Dall, referring in passing to "the white men's trading station at Plover Bay". It is not clear whether Dall meant an established trading post, or simply a rendezvous. As late as 1880, the only settlement mentioned by an anonymous visitor on the
USC&GS schooner
Yukon was a native village. The Northeastern Siberian Company had a trading station, called Vladimir, on Plover Bay from at latest 1903 until about 1910. In 1908 the steamer
Corwin unloaded cargo at Vladimir Station; this was the former revenue cutter that carried Muir in 1881. By 1913 Emma Harbor was the home of baron Kleist, the Russian administrator for
Kamchatka uezd, of a district judge, and of an Estonian trader, Bally Thompson, who maintained a store there. Baron Kleist's house, built of squared logs with curlicue trim cut from planks, stood on the eastern shore of the bay between two outbuildings. It was put up about 1909 at a cost of about $15,000, with materials brought up from Vladivostok. In 1926, Yupik people from Provideniya Bay were recruited to settle Wrangel Island. Emma Harbor and Providence Bay were favored sites for scientific observers. These included investigators from the US Naval Observatory attempting to observe the
1869 solar eclipse, several ornithological collectors, geologists, and the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey (
geomagnetic observations) in 1921. The
Harriman Alaska Expedition visited there in July 1899 and produced many good photographs illustrating topography and native life. John Muir noted that by 1899 there were around fifty Chukchis living in a dozen huts covered with walrus hide, already "spoiled by the contact with civilization of the whaler seamen".
John Burroughs noted that "they were not shy of our cameras and freely admitted us to the greasy and smoky interiors of their dwellings" and "some of the natives showed a strain of European blood." In 1921, there were reported efforts by Japan to assert control of the area, and the strategic importance of the bay was noted by an American writer . Two Soviet-era settlements,
Provideniya and Ureliki, were built on Komsomolskaya Bay in the 20th century, and the bay was used as a naval harbor. It was the major supply point for the
Chukotka region during World War II. Ureliki, a military city, is reportedly now abandoned, but the adjacent
Provideniya Bay Airport remains. ==See also==