In June of 1742 Vitus Bering, captain of the St. Peter, left from the Russian Kamchatkan Peninsula sailing eastward, hoping to discover land.
When they sighted a mountain range in mid July food was running low and the crew was getting sick from scurvy.
Georg Wilhelm Steller, a 33-year-old naturalist aboard the ship, sensed that by going ashore and eating grass he could get the proper nutrition and avoid scurvy. A few other sailors came ashore along the Aleution islands to eat some grass with Steller.