Situated in the Arctic Ocean about 100
miles off the coast of Siberia between the East Siberian and Chukotka Seas
is the Wrangel island. It is named after
the famous Russian explorer Admiral Ferdinand Wrangel.
 Ferdinand
Wrangel was born in 1796 in Pskov in to the family of a nobleman. Back
in the 13th century his ancestors of Danish origin settled
in the Estonian village of Waranga. Wrangel's
grand-father was a chamberlain at the Imperial Court. Refusing to swear
allegiance to the new Empress Catherine II after she deposed her husband
Peter III in a palace coup he was stripped off his title and fortune,
and was forced to emigrate. Wrangel's parents, left without means of subsistence,
soon died and Ferdinand was brought up by his relatives. Once a well-known
seafarer Ivan Krusenstern visited them. His fascinating stories about trips
to Kamchatka and America excited the boy's imagination. Ever since he dreamed
about becoming a seaman.
Life smiled on Ferdinand. After graduating from the Naval Academy
of St.Petrersburg Wrangel took part in three round-the-world expeditions.
The one that brought him fame was a Polar expedition to the north-east
of Siberia carried out from 1820 to 1824. Its aim was to explore Russia's
arctic coast between the Kolyma river and the Bering Strait and furnish
evidence that there was no neck of land between Asia and America. It was
a risky venture. Because of severe frost dog sledges couldn't make more
than 20 to 26 miles a day. Here is an excerpt from Ferdinand Wrangel's
notes which shows what challenges he and his mates faced in
that expedition:
"We travelled about 30 miles between ice-hammocks, then got over a sharp-angled
icy wall and finally reached the northern extremity of Cape Shelagsky.
The next part of our journey was the most difficult. Often we had to climb
steep ice hills up to 90 feet high and from that height move down steep
slopes taking care not to break the sledges or run over the dogs.
Every moment we risked our lives. Sometimes we dragged ourselves through
vast snowy fields up to our waists in loose drifting snow. Occasionally,
we came across snow-bare spots between hammocks, strewn with crystals
of sea-salt. Then the sledge wouldn't slide and we harnessed ourselves
in and pulled it together with the dogs.
Gloomy black rocks, centuries-old never melting ice hills,
the immense ice-bound sea lit by faint rays of the Polar sun hanging low
over the horizon. No sings of life, no sound breaking the dead silence.
Nature seemed dead..."
The material collected by Wrangel during
that expedition was of great value for the further exploration and development
of the arctic. He disproved the earlier hypothesis claiming that
there was a neck of land between Asia and America. The expedition
also provided rich ethnographic material.
After the expedition Ferdinand Wrangel was offered high posts in the Navy
and in St.Petersburg, but he didn't relish the prospect. Lured by the expanses
of the oceans, the world of Indians, forests and rocks, islands and bays,
he volunteered to go to Russian America. In 1829-1834 Wrangel was Governor-General
of Russian America and in 1840-1849 director of the Russian-American
Trade Company.
At the age of 40 he attained Vice-Admiral's rank in the Navy and in 1855-1858
he was acting Minister of Marine.
Wrangel bid a farewell to sea expanses, but remained faithful to geography.
He was among the active founders of the Russian Geographical Society.
His books on geography and accounts of his expedition to the Polar Sea
were translated into English and German.
|