Vadim Vasilevich Blagodarev

Born 1843; died 1890. A Russian seafarer and captain first class.

During the years 1861–1865, Blagodarev circumnavigated the world, making a stop at the mouth of the Amur River. During the years 1869–1877 he completed two voyages from the Baltic Sea to the Pacific Ocean and back. He made this same voyage in 1882–85 in command of the corvette Vitiaz’, which was renamed the Skobelev. The officers of the Skobelev described the northwestern part of Astrolabe Bay of the Bismarck Sea (in Russian, the Sea of New Guinea) and discovered the Bay of Aleksei and several small islands, one of which was named Skobelev Island in honor of the corvette.