Valerian Ivanovich Albanov (russian: Валериа́н Ива́нович Альбанов; 26 May 1881 – 1919) was a Russian
navigator
A navigator is the person on board a ship or aircraft responsible for its navigation.Grierson, MikeAviation History—Demise of the Flight Navigator FrancoFlyers.org website, October 14, 2008. Retrieved August 31, 2014. The navigator's prima ...
, best known for being one of two survivors of the
Brusilov expedition of 1912, which killed 22.
Early life
Albanov was born in 1881 in
Voronezh
Voronezh ( rus, links=no, Воро́неж, p=vɐˈronʲɪʂ}) is a city and the administrative centre of Voronezh Oblast in southwestern Russia straddling the Voronezh River, located from where it flows into the Don River. The city sits on ...
and was raised by his uncle in the city of
Ufa. At the age of seventeen he entered the
Naval College at Saint Petersburg, from which he graduated in 1904.
Brusilov expedition
He served on board a number of ships before signing on as navigator aboard the , under Captain
Georgy Brusilov, for
an intended expedition to traverse the
Northern Sea Route
The Northern Sea Route (NSR) (russian: Се́верный морско́й путь, ''Severnyy morskoy put'', shortened to Севморпуть, ''Sevmorput'') is a shipping route officially defined by Russian legislation as lying east of N ...
– a feat which only once before had been successfully completed, by explorer
Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld.
The expedition was ill-planned and ill-executed by Brusilov, and the ''Svyataya Anna'' became locked in the
sea ice
Sea ice arises as seawater freezes. Because ice is less dense than water, it floats on the ocean's surface (as does fresh water ice, which has an even lower density). Sea ice covers about 7% of the Earth's surface and about 12% of the world's o ...
of the
Kara Sea
The Kara Sea (russian: Ка́рское мо́ре, ''Karskoye more'') is a marginal sea, separated from the Barents Sea to the west by the Kara Strait and Novaya Zemlya, and from the Laptev Sea to the east by the Severnaya Zemlya archipel ...
in October 1912. Supplies were abundant, so officers and crew prepared themselves for wintering, hoping to be freed in the following year's thaw. However, during 1913, the sea remained completely frozen. By early 1914, the ship had drifted with the ice northwest of
Franz Josef Land
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, image_name = Map of Franz Josef Land-en.svg
, image_caption = Map of Franz Josef Land
, image_size =
, map_image = Franz Josef Land location-en.svg
, map_caption = Location of Franz Josef ...
, and did not seem likely to be freed that year either.
Journey across the ice
Albanov, believing that their position was hopeless, requested permission from Captain Brusilov to be relieved from his duties as second-in-command to leave the ship and attempt to return to civilization on foot. Albanov's aim was to reach
Hvidtenland, the northeasternmost island group of Franz Josef Land. He used
Fridtjof Nansen
Fridtjof Wedel-Jarlsberg Nansen (; 10 October 186113 May 1930) was a Norwegian polymath and Nobel Peace Prize laureate. He gained prominence at various points in his life as an explorer, scientist, diplomat, and humanitarian. He led the team t ...
's inaccurate map, full of dotted lines where the archipelago was still unexplored.
Thirteen other crewmen accompanied Albanov when he travelled south-westwards by
ski,
sledge, and
kayak
A kayak is a small, narrow watercraft which is typically propelled by means of a double-bladed paddle. The word kayak originates from the Greenlandic word '' qajaq'' ().
The traditional kayak has a covered deck and one or more cockpits, each s ...
. The progress was difficult because of the cracks in the ice, the numerous
polynia
A polynya () is an area of open water surrounded by sea ice. It is now used as a geographical term for an area of unfrozen seawater within otherwise contiguous pack ice or fast ice. It is a loanword from the Russian полынья (), which re ...
s and the abundance of ridges which made progress slow. After a long and gruesome ordeal, only Albanov and one crewman,
Alexander Konrad
Alexander Eduardovich Konrad (russian: Алекса́ндр Эдуа́рдович Ко́нрад; 1890 – 1940) was a Russian sailor. Along with Valerian Albanov, he was one of two survivors, and the only surviving sailor, of the Brusilov exp ...
, made it to
Cape Flora
Northbrook Island (russian: остров Нортбрук) is an island located in the southern edge of the Franz Josef Archipelago, Russia. Its highest point is 344 m above sea level.
Northbrook Island is one of the most accessible locations i ...
on
Northbrook Island
Northbrook Island (russian: остров Нортбрук) is an island located in the southern edge of the Franz Josef Archipelago, Russia. Its highest point is 344 m above sea level.
Northbrook Island is one of the most accessible locations i ...
, where they knew that
Frederick George Jackson had left provisions and a hut in a previous expedition. Albanov and Konrad were rescued by timely arrival of the ''Svyatoy Foka'', while they were preparing for the winter.
Later life
Albanov was later convinced to write up his memoirs of his adventure, and they were first published in Saint Petersburg in 1917. He returned to the sea, but died only a couple years later.
Accounts of his death vary, with some having him die of typhoid, and some reporting that he was killed in the explosion of a railway wagon carrying munitions in
Achinsk, in the
Governorate of Yeniseysk in
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 ...
.
Legacy
The data about the drift of the ''Svyataya Anna'' on the pack ice of the
Kara Sea
The Kara Sea (russian: Ка́рское мо́ре, ''Karskoye more'') is a marginal sea, separated from the Barents Sea to the west by the Kara Strait and Novaya Zemlya, and from the Laptev Sea to the east by the Severnaya Zemlya archipel ...
supplied by Albanov were carefully studied in 1924, by Soviet oceanographer
Vladimir Wiese. He detected an odd deviation of the path of the ship's drift caused by certain variations of the patterns of sea and ice currents. Wiese deemed that the deviation was caused by the presence of an undiscovered island whose coordinates he was able to calculate with precision thanks to Albanov's data. This island was later discovered and named
Wiese Island.
In 1975, Arctic expert
William Barr
William Pelham Barr (born May 23, 1950) is an American attorney who served as the 77th and 85th United States attorney general in the administrations of Presidents George H. W. Bush and Donald Trump.
Born and raised in New York City, Barr ...
wrote, "The name of Valerian Ivanovich Albanov must be ranked among those of the immortals of polar exploration."
A glacier in
October Revolution Island, in the
Severnaya Zemlya group has been named after Valerian Albanov. A Russian expedition in September 2010, following the route of the crew members left behind, found some remainders of them: a human skeleton, a watch, snowshoes, a knife, a spoon with a sailor's initials, and sunglasses made from empty rum bottles' glass in the shores of
Franz Josef Land
, native_name =
, image_name = Map of Franz Josef Land-en.svg
, image_caption = Map of Franz Josef Land
, image_size =
, map_image = Franz Josef Land location-en.svg
, map_caption = Location of Franz Josef ...
.
References
Footnotes
Bibliography
* Valerian Albanov. ''In the Land of White Death''
*
William Barr
William Pelham Barr (born May 23, 1950) is an American attorney who served as the 77th and 85th United States attorney general in the administrations of Presidents George H. W. Bush and Donald Trump.
Born and raised in New York City, Barr ...
. ''The First Tourist Cruise in the Soviet Arctic
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Albanov, Valerian
1881 births
1919 deaths
Explorers of the Arctic
People from Voronezh
Russian and Soviet polar explorers
Russian navigators