Nagaev Bay or Nagayev Bay (), also known as Nagayeva Bay, is a bay within Taui Bay in the northern part of the Sea of Okhotsk, Magadan Oblast, Russia.
Geography
It is 6.4 km (4 mi) wide at its entrance and 14.5 km (9 mi) long.
[United States. (1918). Asiatic Pilot, Volume 1: East coast of Siberia, Sakhalin Island and Chosen. Washington: Hydrographic Office.] The city of
Magadan with its port (formerly Nagaevo port) is located at the head of the bay on the isthmus of the Staritsky Peninsula. Ice occurs in the bay from the end of November to the middle of June.
It was named after Russian hydrographer, admiral
Alexey Nagaev.
[ Great Soviet Encyclopedia. Entry on Nagayeva Bay ] It has been described as the best mooring place in the Sea of Okhotsk.
History
Between 1852 and 1869,
United States whaler anchored in Nagayeva Bay to obtain
wood and water and boil
whale oil.
[ Florida, of New Bedford, Aug. 25-28, 1852, Old Dartmouth Historical Society; Daniel Wood, of New Bedford, Sep. 9-10, 1853, Nicholson Whaling Collection (NWC); Cincinnati, of Stonington, June 7, 1859, NWC.][ Janus, of New Bedford, Sep. 14, 1869. In The Friend, Honolulu, December 1, 1869, Vol. 26, No. 12, p. 104.] They called it
Jeannette Harbor, after the ship
Jeannette (), of New Bedford,
which frequented Taui Bay in the early 1850s.
[ Jeannette, of New Bedford, June 18-October 12, 1852, Taui Bay, June 14-August 21, August 28-September 4, 1853, Taui Bay, ODHS.]
During the Gulag era, the bay was used as a transit point for Gulag inmates coming by sea and further directed to camps of Magadan and Kolyma to man the Dalstroy works. Since 1937 the headquarters of Sevvostlag were situated by Nagaev Bay.
Cultural references
Varlam Shalamov mentioned the bay as part of the Gulag industry in his memoirs
About Kolyma
Nagaev Bay is part of the refrain of Vladimir Vysotsky's song I Went to Magadan (Я уехал в Магадан)
