Martin Sauer (explorer)

Martin Sauer (fl. 1785-1806) was an English civil servant, stockbroker and explorer.

There is very little information available about Sauer's life. He resided in Saint Petersburg from at least 1792. He knew many languages (English, Russian, French and German).

Sauer got to know Joseph Billings in the 1780s in Saint Petersburg. He was also acquainted with Peter Simon Pallas. After the request of both, he agreed to take part in Billings's expedition as his secretary and translator (i.e., interpreter) on condition that he would be allowed to publish an account of it upon his return. The expedition lasted nine years and it carried the objects for which it had been organised with success.

The expedition returned to St Petersburg on 10 March 1794. Sauer was at that time in a very critical state of health, suffering from rheumatism. In his apartment he had hidden a diary, some notes and also possibly other secret materials from the expedition. Billings cautioned members of the Admiralty that Sauer might publish them to the world before the Empress Catherine the Great would like. As a result Billings received permission to search Sauer's room, but the only things he found were a few draft notes. Sauer claimed he had burned the material.

The doctors' recommendation being that he should visit a milder climate for some time, Sauer was released from Russian service and left for England where he published the first printed description of the expedition. There is some controversy regarding his activities after his return to St Petersburg in 1794. Suggestion has been made that he set off hurriedly for England in order to publish his account before the Russian authorities and scholars of the Russian Academy of Sciences could review its details. The Russians suspected that his illness had been simulated and had only been a ruse in order to be released from Russian service and prevent his apartment from being too thoroughly inspected. Sauer later was stockbroker in the St Petersburg exchange either resuming a former occupation or forging a new career for himself.

Sauer published his account in London in 1802 under the title of An account of a geographical and astronomical expedition to the northern parts of Russia: for ascertaining the degrees of latitude and longitude of the mouth of the river Kovima, of the whole coast of the Tshutski, to East Cape, and of the islands in the eastern ocean, stretching to the American coast, performed ... by Commodore Joseph Billings, in the years 1785, &c to 1794.

...
Wikipedia