KODIAK-The The Frigate Pallada arrived in Kodiak on Wednesday on its first port call in the United States during its four month around the world tour.

The Pallada’s voyage began on June 30th in Vladivostok, the sailing was made to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin’s first mission into space as well as to observe the 270th anniversary of Russia’s discovery of what is now Alaska. This voyage will take the ship and crew to different locations along America’s western coast that were explored by Russians during their first explorations there. There are 120 cadets from the Kamchatka Peninsula and maritime region aboard on the voyage.

It was for the observation of that discovery that the frigate docked in Kodiak. The first Russians founded Kodiak in 1784, Kodiak became the capital of Russian America eight years later in 1792. It would remain the capital until 1808, when the seat was moved to New Archangel in 1808. New Archangel is now the city of Sitka.

Anna Pareychuk of the Far Eastern State Technical Fishery University says of the journey, “This journey has two aims. First, sailing in the open sea is good training for the cadets. The second aim is to popularize Russia’s achievements in space – and the history of Russian explorations of Alaska and the Aleutian Islands.”

The Pallada is a 356 foot, three masted sailing vessel completed in 1989 in the Polish ship-building port Gdansk. The ship belongs to the Far Eastern State Technical Fishery University in Russia. It is currently the world’s fastest sailing ship with a top speed of 18 knots or 20.7 miles an hour. It was built as a training vessel and as such has trained over 12,000 students, while sailing 109 voyages and visiting 101 different ports in 35 nations over the 22 years of its operation

The ship plans to visit Canada, the U.S. and Japan during the Pacific portion of it voyage. Some of the U.S. cities include Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Honolulu.