Bellingshausen's birthplace at Lahetaguse

Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen was born at Lahetaguse manor on Saaremaa in September 1778. His twin brother died at a year and a half. That same year his father sold the manor, and although the family got it back two years later, it was sold for good in 1785. At ten the boy was sent to the naval cadet corps in Kronstadt. He sailed round the world with Krusenstern as a cartographer. In 1820, leading the ships Vostok and Mirny, he was probably the first of three captains to see the coast of Antarctica. The manor house is gone. A memorial stone stands on the mound of its foundations.