Yakutat Bay is a 29-km-wide (18 mi) bay in the U.S. state

U.S. state

A U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...

 of Alaska

Alaska

Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...

, extending southwest from Disenchantment Bay

Disenchantment Bay

Disenchantment Bay extends southwest for 16 km from the mouth of Russell Fiord to Point Latouche, at the head of Yakutat Bay in Alaska....

 to the Gulf of Alaska

Gulf of Alaska

The Gulf of Alaska is an arm of the Pacific Ocean defined by the curve of the southern coast of Alaska, stretching from the Alaska Peninsula and Kodiak Island in the west to the Alexander Archipelago in the east, where Glacier Bay and the Inside Passage are found.The entire shoreline of the Gulf is...

. "Yakutat" is a Tlingit name reported as "Jacootat" and "Yacootat" by Yuri Lisianski in 1805.

Yakutat Bay was the epicenter of two major earthquakes on September 10, 1899, a magnitude 7.4 foreshock

Foreshock

A foreshock is an earthquake that occurs before a larger seismic event and is related to it in both time and space. The designation of an earthquake as foreshock, mainshock or aftershock is only possible after the event....

 and a magnitude 8.0 main shock, 37 minutes apart.

The Shelikhov-Golikov company

Grigory Shelikhov

Grigory Ivanovich Shelekhov Grigory Ivanovich Shelekhov Grigory Ivanovich Shelekhov (Григорий Иванович Шелехов in Russian; (1747–July 20, 1795 (July 31, 1795 N.S.)) was a Russian seafarer and merchant born in Rylsk....

, precursor of the Russian-American Company

Russian-American Company

The Russian-American Company was a state-sponsored chartered company formed largely on the basis of the so-called Shelekhov-Golikov Company of Grigory Shelekhov and Ivan Larionovich Golikov The Russian-American Company (officially: Under His Imperial Majesty's Highest Protection (patronage)...

, built a fort on Yakutat Bay in 1795. It was known as New Russia

New Russia (trading post)

New Russia , near Yakutat, Alaska was a maritime fur trading post and penal colony established by Russians in 1795. It was presumably named after Joseph Billings ship Slava Rossia, or "Glory of Russia". The post was attacked and destroyed by Tlingits in 1805...

, Yakutat Colony, or Slavorossiya.

Other names

Yakutat Bay has had various names.

• It has been called "Bering Bay", on the assumption that Vitus Bering
  Vitus Bering
  Vitus Jonassen Bering Vitus Jonassen Bering Vitus Jonassen Bering (also, less correNavy]], a captain-komandor known among the Russian sailors as Ivan Ivanovich. He is noted for being the first European to discover Alaska and its Aleutian Islands...
  
   visited it in 1741.
• Jean-François de La Pérouse
  Jean-François de Galaup, comte de La Pérouse
  Jean François de Galaup, comte de Lapérouse was a French Navy officer and explorer whose expedition vanished in Oceania.-Early career:...
  
  , who visited it in 1786, named it "Baie de Monti" for one of his officers.
• The same year, Captain Nathaniel Portlock named it "Admiralty Bay"
• the Spanish
  Spain
  Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
  
   called it "Almirantazgo."
• It was also called Port Mulgrave when Alessandro Malaspina
  Alessandro Malaspina
  Alessandro Malaspina was an Italian nobleman who spent most of his life as a Spanish naval officer and explorer...
  
   and José de Bustamante y Guerra
  José de Bustamante y Guerra
  José de Bustamante y Guerra , sometimes referred to simply as Bustamante, was a Spanish naval officer, explorer, and politician. He was a native of Corvera de Toranzo in Cantabria, Spain.-Early life:In 1770 Bustamante became a midshipman at the Academy of the Guardiamarinas in Cádiz...
  
   sailed into the bay, looking for the Northwest Passage
  Northwest Passage
  The Northwest Passage is a sea route through the Arctic Ocean, along the northern coast of North America via waterways amidst the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans...
  
  .

External links

• Marine Forecast for Yakutat Bay from the National Weather Service
  National Weather Service
  The National Weather Service , once known as the Weather Bureau, is one of the six scientific agencies that make up the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration of the United States government...
  
  

• Nikola Tesla
  Nikola Tesla
  Nikola Tesla was a Serbian-American inventor, mechanical engineer, and electrical engineer...