Six American whalers (shipwrecked at Naibuchi)

Six unnamed American whalemen whose boat was wrecked off Sakhalin's coast and washed ashore at Naibuchi; by the time Chekhov writes, they are living at Korsakovsky Post and, in his description, "walk about the streets with great dignity." They are awaiting the same steamer, the "Petersburg," that Chekhov himself is waiting for, and expect to sail off together with him.