ABSTRACT
On 7 October 1852, the frigate Pallada set sail from the Russian port of Kronstadt for Nagasaki on a diplomatic mission to establish new trade relations with Japan. On board was the 40-year-old writer, Ivan Goncharov, who had written several short stories and a novel, and would become famous for his novel, Oblomov. Goncharov, hired as the admiral’s secretary, had been asked to keep an official account of the ship’s journey around the world. In his spare time during the long journey, Goncharov wrote letters to his friends back home as well as several short essays, which he published after his return to Russia in a collection entitled The voyage of the frigate Pallada.1 In one of his letters, Goncharov told a friend how sailing impressed him.
