>n 29 December 1724 [N.S. 9 January 1725], Peter I of Russia ordered Bering to command a voyage east, probably to map the lands (and possibly seas) between Russia's eastern boundary and the North America continent.[9] Preparations for the trip had begun some years before, but with his health rapidly deteriorating, the Tsar had ordered that the process be hurried, and it was with this backdrop that Bering (with his knowledge of both the Indian Ocean and the eastern seaboard of North America, good personal skills and experience in transporting goods) was selected ahead of the experienced cartographer K. P. von Verd.[9] His lieutenants for the journey, which would become known as the First Kamchatka Expedition, were the hardened Danish-born Russian Martin Spanberg and the well-educated but relatively inexperienced Russian Aleksei Chirikov, a respected naval instructor. They would receive annual salaries of some 180 roubles during the trip; Bering would be paid 480