The Sivuch'i Rocks (Russian: Острова Сивучьи Камни, Ostrova Sivuch'i Kamni) are a group of barren islets and rocks on the eastern side of Uda Bay, in the western Sea of Okhotsk.[1]
Geography
They lie just north of Medvezhy Island. The largest are two islets, lying 4 km (2.5 mi) northwest and southeast from each other, the former 232 m (761 ft) high and the latter 171 m (561 ft) high. A 79 m (259 ft) high pillar rock lies just to the southwest of the latter of the two islets. Reefs fringe the group.[2]
History
Americanwhaleships and boat crews cruised for bowhead whales around the rocks between 1855 and 1874. They called them the Sugar Loaf or Pinnacle Rocks.[3] On the night of 11 October 1858, the bark Ocean Wave (380 tons), under Captain Hiram Baker, of New Bedford, was wrecked on one of the rocks during a gale. All hands were lost.[4][5][6]
^Lexington, of Nantucket, Aug. 28, 1855, Nantucket Historical Association; Favorite, of Fairhaven, July 19, 1860, Nicholson Whaling Collection; Sea Breeze, of New Bedford, Sep. 8, 1874, George Blunt White Library.
^Daily Alta California (Vol. 11, Nos. 332-335, Nov. 30-Dec. 3, 1859).
^The Friend (Vol. 16, No. 11, November 1, 1859, p. 87)
^Starbuck, Alexander (1878). History of the American Whale Fishery from Its Earliest Inception to the year 1876. Castle. ISBN1-55521-537-8.
