Baron Ferdinand Friedrich Georg Ludwig von Wrangel (russian: Барон Фердина́нд Петро́вич Вра́нгель,
tr. ; – ) was a Baltic German explorer and seaman in the
Imperial Russian Navy
The Imperial Russian Navy () operated as the navy of the Russian Tsardom and later the Russian Empire from 1696 to 1917. Formally established in 1696, it lasted until dissolved in the wake of the February Revolution of 1917. It developed from a ...
, Honorable Member of the
Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences
The Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS; russian: Росси́йская акаде́мия нау́к (РАН) ''Rossíyskaya akadémiya naúk'') consists of the national academy of Russia; a network of scientific research institutes from across t ...
, a founder of the
Russian Geographic Society
The Russian Geographical Society (russian: Ру́сское географи́ческое о́бщество «РГО»), or RGO, is a learned society based in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It promotes geography, exploration and nature protection wi ...
. He is best known as chief manager of the
Russian-American Company
The Russian-American Company Under the High Patronage of His Imperial Majesty (russian: Под высочайшим Его Императорского Величества покровительством Российская-Американс ...
, in fact governor of the Russian settlements in present-day
Alaska
Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S., ...
.
In English texts, ''Wrangel'' is sometimes spelled ''Vrangel'', a
transliteration from Russian, which more closely represents its pronunciation in
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
** Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ge ...
, or ''Wrangell''.
Biography
Wrangel was born in
Pskov
Pskov ( rus, Псков, a=pskov-ru.ogg, p=pskof; see also names in other languages) is a city in northwestern Russia and the administrative center of Pskov Oblast, located about east of the Estonian border, on the Velikaya River. Population ...
,
into the noble
Baltic German
Baltic Germans (german: Deutsch-Balten or , later ) were ethnic German inhabitants of the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea, in what today are Estonia and Latvia. Since their coerced resettlement in 1939, Baltic Germans have markedly declined ...
Wrangel family and was a distant nephew of Generalfeldmarschall
Friedrich von Wrangel. He graduated from the
Naval Cadets College in 1815. He participated in
Vasily Golovnin
Vasily Mikhailovich Golovnin ( Russian: Василий Михайлович Головнин; , Gulyniki, Ryazan Oblast – , Saint Petersburg) was a Russian navigator, Vice Admiral, and corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences ...
's
world cruise
Circumnavigation is the complete navigation around an entire island, continent, or astronomical body (e.g. a planet or moon). This article focuses on the circumnavigation of Earth.
The first recorded circumnavigation of the Earth was the Magel ...
on the ship ''Kamchatka'' in 1817–1819 and belonged to the cohort of Baltic-German navigators who were instrumental in Imperial Russia's maritime explorations.
Kolymskaya expedition
He was appointed in 1820 to command the Kolymskaya expedition to explore the Russian polar seas. Sailing from
St. Petersburg
Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
, he arrived at
Nizhnekolymsk
Nizhnekolymsk (russian: Нижнеколы́мск) is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, rural locality (a ''village#Russia, selo'') in Pokhodsky Rural Okrug of Nizhnekolymsky District in the Sakha Republic, Russia, located within the Arct ...
on 2 November 1820, and early in 1821 journeyed to Cape Shelagskiy on sledges drawn by dogs. He sailed afterward up
Kolyma River
The Kolyma ( rus, Колыма, p=kəlɨˈma; sah, Халыма, translit=Khalyma) is a river in northeastern Siberia, whose basin covers parts of the Sakha Republic, Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, and Magadan Oblast of Russia.
The Kolyma is frozen ...
, advancing about 125 miles into the interior, through territory inhabited by the
Yakuts
The Yakuts, or the Sakha ( sah, саха, ; , ), are a Turkic ethnic group who mainly live in the Republic of Sakha in the Russian Federation, with some extending to the Amur, Magadan, Sakhalin regions, and the Taymyr and Evenk Districts ...
. On 10 March 1822, he resumed his journey northward, and traveled 46 days on the ice, reaching 72° 2' north latitude. He left Nizhnekolymsk on 1 November 1823, and returned to St. Petersburg on 15 August 1824.
[
He established that north of the ]Kolyma River
The Kolyma ( rus, Колыма, p=kəlɨˈma; sah, Халыма, translit=Khalyma) is a river in northeastern Siberia, whose basin covers parts of the Sakha Republic, Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, and Magadan Oblast of Russia.
The Kolyma is frozen ...
and Cape Shelagsky there was an open sea, not dry land, as people thought. Together with Fyodor Matyushkin
Fyodor Fyodorovich Matyushkin (russian: Матюшкин, Федор Федорович; - ) was a Russian navigator, Admiral (1867), and a close friend of Aleksandr Pushkin, who studied with him at the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum. ''Сло ...
and P. Kuzmin, Wrangel described the Siberia
Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a part of ...
n coastline from the Indigirka River
The Indigirka ( rus, Индиги́рка, r=; sah, Индигиир, translit=Indigiir) is a river in the Sakha Republic in Russia between the Yana to the west and the Kolyma to the east. It is long. The area of its basin is .
History
The is ...
to the Kolyuchinskaya Bay in the Chukchi Sea
Chukchi Sea ( rus, Чуко́тское мо́ре, r=Chukotskoye more, p=tɕʊˈkotskəjə ˈmorʲɪ), sometimes referred to as the Chuuk Sea, Chukotsk Sea or the Sea of Chukotsk, is a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean. It is bounded on the west b ...
. (See Northeast Passage
The Northeast Passage (abbreviated as NEP) is the shipping route between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, along the Arctic coasts of Norway and Russia. The western route through the islands of Canada is accordingly called the Northwest Passage (N ...
.) His expedition made a valuable research in glaciology
Glaciology (; ) is the scientific study of glaciers, or more generally ice and natural phenomena that involve ice.
Glaciology is an interdisciplinary Earth science that integrates geophysics, geology, physical geography, geomorphology, climato ...
, geomagnetic
Earth's magnetic field, also known as the geomagnetic field, is the magnetic field that extends from Earth's interior out into space, where it interacts with the solar wind, a stream of charged particles emanating from the Sun. The magnetic ...
s, and climatology
Climatology (from Greek , ''klima'', "place, zone"; and , '' -logia'') or climate science is the scientific study of Earth's climate, typically defined as weather conditions averaged over a period of at least 30 years. This modern field of stud ...
and also collected data about natural resources and native population of that remote area.
''Krotky'' world voyage
Having been promoted to commander, Wrangel led the Russian world voyage on the ship ''Krotky'' in 1825–1827.
Governor of Russian Alaska
He was appointed chief manager of the Russian-American Company
The Russian-American Company Under the High Patronage of His Imperial Majesty (russian: Под высочайшим Его Императорского Величества покровительством Российская-Американс ...
in 1829, effectively governor of its settlements in North America
North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...
(present day Alaska
Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S., ...
). Wrangel was the first of a series of bachelor appointees to the office of governor who had to find a wife before assuming the duties in America, the Russian American Company rules having been changed in 1829. Prior to his departure for Russia's American colonies, he was married to Elisabeth Theodora Natalie Karoline de Rossillon, daughter of Baron Wilhelm de Rossillon.
He traveled to his post early in 1829, by way of Siberia
Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a part of ...
and Kamchatka
The Kamchatka Peninsula (russian: полуостров Камчатка, Poluostrov Kamchatka, ) is a peninsula in the Russian Far East, with an area of about . The Pacific Ocean and the Sea of Okhotsk make up the peninsula's eastern and wes ...
. After thoroughly reforming the administration, he introduced the cultivation of the potato, opened and regulated the working of several mines, and urged upon the home government the organization of a fur company. He promoted investment, and sent out missionaries. He began a survey of the country, opened roads, built bridges and government buildings. He made geographical and ethnographical observations, which he embodied in a memoir to the navy department. Recalled in 1834, he returned by way of the Isthmus of Panama
The Isthmus of Panama ( es, Istmo de Panamá), also historically known as the Isthmus of Darien (), is the narrow strip of land that lies between the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean, linking North and South America. It contains the country ...
and the United States, where he visited several cities.[
]
Admiral
Wrangel was promoted to rear admiral in 1837, and made director of the ship-timber department in the navy office, which he held for twelve years. He became vice-admiral in 1847, but resigned in 1849, and temporarily severed his connection with the navy to assume the presidency of the newly reorganized Russian-American Company.[ Wrangel had been a member of the board of directors of the Russian-American Company from 1840 to 1849.][ Richard A. Pierce: ''Russian America: A Biographical Dictionary'', Alaska History no. 33, Limestone Press, Kingston, Ont. and Fairbanks, Alaska, 1990, p. 547.]
In 1854 he re-entered active service and was made chief director of the hydrographical department of the navy [ He was the ]Minister of the Navy Minister of the Navy may refer to:
* Minister of the Navy (France)
* Minister of the Navy (Italy)
The Italian Minister of the Navy ( it, Ministri della Marina del Regno) was a member in the Council Ministers until 1947, when the ministry merged ...
1855–1857.
Retirement and death
Wrangel retired in 1864. He opposed the sale of Alaska to the United States in 1867. Wrangel wrote the book ''Journey along the northern coastline of Siberia and the Arctic Ocean'' and other books about the peoples of northwestern America.
He lived in his last years in Ruil (''Roela'' in Estonian) in the eastern part of Estonia
Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...
. He had bought the manor in 1840. He died in Dorpat
Tartu is the second largest city in Estonia after the Northern Europe, Northern Europe, European country's political and financial capital, Tallinn. Tartu has a population of 91,407 (as of 2021). It is southeast of Tallinn and 245 kilometres ...
, Livonia
Livonia ( liv, Līvõmō, et, Liivimaa, fi, Liivinmaa, German and Scandinavian languages: ', archaic German: ''Liefland'', nl, Lijfland, Latvian and lt, Livonija, pl, Inflanty, archaic English: ''Livland'', ''Liwlandia''; russian: Ли ...
.[
]
Writings
An account of the physical observations during his first journey was published in German (Berlin, 1827), and also in German extracts from Wrangel's journals, ''Reise längs der Nordküste von Sibirien und auf dem Eismeere in den Jahren 1820-1824'' (2 vols., Berlin, 1839), which was translated into English as ''Wrangell's Expedition to the Polar Sea'' (2 vols., London, 1840). The complete report of the expedition appeared as "Puteshestvie po severnym beregam Sibiri, po Ledovitomu Moryu, sovershennoe v 1820, 1821, 1822, 1823 i 1824 godakh" (2 vols., St. Petersburg, 1841), and was translated into French with notes by Prince Galitzin, under the title ''Voyage sur les côtes septentrionales de la Sibérie et de la mer glaciale'' (2 vols., 1841). From the French version of the complete report an English one was made under the title ''A Journey on the Northern Coast of Siberia and the Icy Sea'' (2 vols., London, 1841).[ The book influenced ]Charles Darwin
Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all species of life have descended fr ...
's thinking on animal navigation
Animal navigation is the ability of many animals to find their way accurately without maps or instruments. Birds such as the Arctic tern, insects such as the monarch butterfly and fish such as the salmon regularly migrate thousands of miles t ...
, leading him to propose that humans and animals possess an innate ability for dead reckoning
In navigation, dead reckoning is the process of calculating current position of some moving object by using a previously determined position, or fix, and then incorporating estimates of speed, heading direction, and course over elapsed time. ...
. Darwin wrote:
Wrangel also published:[
* ''Ocherk puti iz Sitki v Sankt-Peterburg'' (Report of Travel from Sitka to St. Petersburg) (1836)
** French translation: ''Journal de voyage de Sitka à Saint Pétersbourg'' (Paris, 1836)
** English translation prepared from the French: ''Journal of a Voyage from Sitka to St. Petersburg'' (London, 1837)
* ''Nachrichten über die Russischen Besitzungen an der Nordwestküste America's'' (2 vols., St. Petersburg, 1839)
** French translation: ''Renseignements statistiques et ethnographiques sur les possessions Russes de la côte Nord-Ouest de l'Amérique'' (Paris, 1839)
** English translation: ''Statistical and Ethnographical Notices on the Russian Possessions in North America'' (London, 1841)
]
List of places named after Wrangel
*Wrangel Island
Wrangel Island ( rus, О́стров Вра́нгеля, r=Ostrov Vrangelya, p=ˈostrəf ˈvrangʲɪlʲə; ckt, Умӄиԓир, translit=Umqiḷir) is an island of the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, Russia. It is the 91st largest island in the w ...
, the arctic
The Arctic ( or ) is a polar regions of Earth, polar region located at the northernmost part of Earth. The Arctic consists of the Arctic Ocean, adjacent seas, and parts of Canada (Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut), Danish Realm (Greenla ...
island north of Chukotka, named by Thomas Long after him. Wrangel had noticed swarm
Swarm behaviour, or swarming, is a collective behaviour exhibited by entities, particularly animals, of similar size which aggregate together, perhaps milling about the same spot or perhaps moving ''en masse'' or migrating in some direction. ...
s of birds flying north, and, questioning the native population, he determined that there must be an undiscovered island in the Arctic Ocean
The Arctic Ocean is the smallest and shallowest of the world's five major oceans. It spans an area of approximately and is known as the coldest of all the oceans. The International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) recognizes it as an ocean, a ...
. He searched for it on the Kolymskaya expedition, but failed to find it.
*Wrangell Island
Wrangell Island (russian: Остров Врангеля) is an island in the Alexander Archipelago in the Alaska Panhandle of southeastern Alaska. It is long and wide. It has a land area of , making it the 29th largest island in the United ...
, an island in the Alexander Archipelago
The Alexander Archipelago (russian: Архипелаг Александра) is a long archipelago (group of islands) in North America lying off the southeastern coast of Alaska. It contains about 1,100 islands, the tops of submerged coastal m ...
, off the coast of Alaska
Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S., ...
**Wrangell, Alaska
The City and Borough of Wrangell ( tli, Ḵaachx̱ana.áakʼw, russian: Врангель) is a borough in Alaska, United States. As of the 2020 census the population was 2,127, down from 2,369 in 2010.
Incorporated as a Unified Home Rule Bor ...
, a city on Wrangell Island and one of the oldest non-native settlements in Alaska
*** Fort Wrangel, a US Army base at Wrangell, originally Fort Stikine
Fort Stikine was a fur trade post and fortification in what is now the Alaska Panhandle, at the site of the present-day of Wrangell, Alaska. Originally built as the Redoubt San Dionisio or Redoubt Saint Dionysius (russian: Форт or , r ''Fort ...
when under British control
**Wrangell Airport
Wrangell Airport is a state-owned public-use airport located one nautical mile (2 km) northeast of the central business district of Wrangell, a city and borough in the U.S. state of Alaska which has no road access to the outside wor ...
, an airport
An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial air transport. Airports usually consists of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surface ...
near Wrangell, Alaska
** Wrangell-Petersburg Census Area a census area containing Wrangell Island.
*Wrangell Narrows
The Wrangell Narrows is a winding, 35-km-long (22 mi) channel between Mitkof Island and Kupreanof Island in the Alexander Archipelago in Southeast Alaska. The Wrangell Narrows is one of the six Listed narrows in Southeast Alaska. There are ...
, a winding channel
Channel, channels, channeling, etc., may refer to:
Geography
* Channel (geography), in physical geography, a landform consisting of the outline (banks) of the path of a narrow body of water.
Australia
* Channel Country, region of outback Austral ...
in the Alexander Archipelago
*Cape Wrangell
Cape Wrangell is considered to be the westernmost point of Alaska and all of the United States by direction of travel, named after the Russian explorer and seaman Ferdinand von Wrangel. It is located on Attu Island, which is situated in the Near ...
of Attu Island
Attu ( ale, Atan, russian: Атту, link=no) is an island in the Near Islands (part of the Aleutian Islands chain). It is the westernmost point of the U.S. state of Alaska. The island became uninhabited in 2010, making it the largest uninhabite ...
, the westernmost point of Alaska (and the United States)
*Mount Wrangell
Mount Wrangell, in Ahtna K’ełt’aeni or K’ełedi when erupting, is a massive shield volcano located in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve in southeastern Alaska, United States. The shield rises over above the Copper River to it ...
, a volcano
A volcano is a rupture in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface.
On Earth, volcanoes are most often found where tectonic plates are ...
in Alaska
**Wrangell Volcanic Field
The Wrangell Volcanic Field is a volcanic field stretching from eastern Alaska in the United States to the southwestern Yukon Territory in Canada. The field includes the four highest volcanoes in the United States, Mount Bona, Mount Blackburn, ...
, named after Mount Wrangell
**Wrangell Mountains
The Wrangell Mountains are a high mountain range of eastern Alaska in the United States. Much of the range is included in Wrangell-Saint Elias National Park and Preserve. The Wrangell Mountains are almost entirely volcanic in origin, and they i ...
, named after Mount Wrangell
** USS Wrangell (AE-12), named after Mount Wrangell
** Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve, named after Wrangell mountains
*Wrangellia, a geologic terrane
In geology, a terrane (; in full, a tectonostratigraphic terrane) is a crust fragment formed on a tectonic plate (or broken off from it) and accreted or " sutured" to crust lying on another plate. The crustal block or fragment preserves its own ...
of Southeast
The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each sepa ...
Alaska
See also
* List of Baltic German explorers
References
External links
Overview of Roela (in German: Ruil)
(the landed estate of the Wrangels) in ''Estonian Manors Portal''
Wrangell's 1839 Comparative Word-List of Alaskan languages
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wrangel, Ferdinand von
1796 births
1870 deaths
People from Pskov
People from Pskovsky Uyezd
Baltic-German people
Barons of the Russian Empire
Russian and Soviet polar explorers
Explorers from the Russian Empire
Estonian explorers
Imperial Russian Navy admirals
Governors of the Russian-American Company
Circumnavigators of the globe
Corresponding members of the Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences
Honorary members of the Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences
Explorers of the Arctic
19th-century explorers
Members of the State Council (Russian Empire)
Chukchi Sea
Demidov Prize laureates
Founding members of the Russian Geographical Society
Ferdinand
Ferdinand is a Germanic name composed of the elements "protection", "peace" (PIE "to love, to make peace") or alternatively "journey, travel", Proto-Germanic , abstract noun from root "to fare, travel" (PIE , "to lead, pass over"), and "co ...
Naval Cadet Corps alumni