Bering, on his return from his historic landings in North America, suffering from scurvy like many of his crew, had steadily became too ill to command the ship, passing control to Sven Waxell.

Storms, however, mean that the crew of Saint Peter had soon been driven to refuge on an uninhabited island in the Commander Islands group (Komandorskiye Ostrova) in the southwest Bering Sea.

Bering dies on December 8, 1741, on the uninhabited island near the Kamchatka Peninsula, which is later given the name Bering Island in his honor.

Bering's death, like that of twenty-eight men men of his company, is commonly assumed to have been the result of scurvy (although this has since been contested; alternately, according to "Bering" by Orcutt Frost, p. 7, Bering had died of heart failure); certainly, it had afflicted him in the final months.

The situation is still dire for Bering's expedition (now headed by Waxell); many of the members, including Waxell, are still ill and the Saint Peter is in poor condition.