Observations are presented on the features of the documentary and artistic organization of the book by V. M. Golovnin “Journey of Russian Imperial Sloop “Diana” from Kronstadt to Kamchatka...” (1819). Such issues as the thematic content of “Journey...”, the role of the author’s worldview in creating a single artistic whole, and the features of the aesthetic organization of documentary material are considered. The significance of the study is seen in the need to update the memory of the personality and literary work of V. M. Golovnin, an outstanding figure of Russian culture at the beginning of the 19th century. The presented material will allow supplementing with new facts the picture of the genre and style genesis of documentary and artistic genres in the Russian historical and literary process of the early 19th century. The relevance of the study is determined by the attention of modern literary criticism to the poetics of documentary and artistic genres. The novelty of the research is seen in the appeal to a little-known work of Russian literature of the first third of the 19th century. It is reported that the author showed the maritime way of life with its regulations, traditions, experience of intercultural communication. The work is considered in the main thematic lines: everyday life of a round-the-world sea expedition, seascape, battle studies, ethnographic sketches. It is noted that a value-semantic principle is revealed behind the empirical material, which gives the narrative artistic completeness and deeply brings Golovnin's “Journey ...” with the tradition of Russian classical literature.