Ferdinand von Wrangel

Baron Ferdinand Friedrich Georg Ludwig von Wrangel (Russian: Фердина́нд Петро́вич Вра́нгель, Ferdinand Petrovich Vrangel; December 29, 1796 (January 9, 1797) – May 25 (June 6), 1870) was a Russian explorer and seaman, Honorable Member of the Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences, a founder of the Russian Geographic Society. In English texts, Wrangel is sometimes spelled Vrangel, a transliteration from Russian, which more closely represents its pronunciation in German, or Wrangell.

Biography

Von Wrangel was born in Pleskau, Estonia,^[1] into a Baltic German noble family of Wrangel. He graduated from the Naval Cadets College in 1815. He took part in Vasily Golovnin's world cruise on the ship Kamchatka in 1817–1819.

He was appointed in 1820 to command the Kolymskaya expedition to explore the Russian polar seas. Sailing from St. Petersburg, he arrived at Nizhnekolymsk on 2 November 1820, and early in 1821 journeyed to Cape Schelagin (Shelagsky?) on sledges drawn by dogs. He sailed afterward up Kolyma River, advancing about 125 miles into the interior, through territory inhabited by the Yakuts. 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.^[1]

He established that north of the Kolyma River and Cape Shelagsky there was an open sea, not dry land, as people thought. Together with Fyodor Matyushkin and P. Kuzmin, Wrangel described the Siberian coastline from the Indigirka River to the Kolyuchinskaya Bay in the Chukchi Sea. (See Northeast Passage.) His expedition made a valuable research in glaciology, geomagnetics, and climatology and also collected data about natural resources and native population of that remote area.

Having been promoted to commander, Wrangel led the Russian world voyage on the ship Krotky in 1825–1827.

He was appointed chief manager of the Russian-American Company in 1839, effectively governor of its settlements in North America (present day Alaska). Prior to his departure for Russia’s American colonies, he got married in 1829 to Elisabeth Teodora Natalia Karolina de Rossillon, daughter of Baron Wilhelm de Rossillon. Von 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.^[2]

He traveled to his post early in 1829, by way of Siberia and Kamchatka. After thoroughly reforming the administration, he introduced the culture 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. Being recalled in 1834, he made his return by way of the Isthmus of Panama and the United States, where he visited several cities.^[1]

Wrangel was promoted rear admiral in 1837, and made director of the ship-timber department in the navy office, which post 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.^[1] Wrangel had been a member of the board of directors of the Russian-American Company from 1840 to 1849.^[3]

In 1854 he re-entered active service and was made chief director of the hydrographical department of the navy.^[1] He was the Minister of the Navy 1855–1857.

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 in the eastern part of Estonia. He had bought the manor in 1840. He died in Dorpat, Livonia.^[1]

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 laengs 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 “Otceschewie do Sjewernym beregam Sibiri, po Ledowitomm More” (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).^[1]

Wrangel also published:^[1]

• Otscherk puti is Sitchi w' S. 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, the arctic island north of Chukotka. He had noticed swarms of birds flying north, and, questioning the native population, he determined that there must be an undiscovered island in the Arctic Ocean. He searched for it on the Kolymskaya expedition, but failed to find it.
• Wrangell Island, an island in the Alexander Archipelago, off the coast of Alaska
  • Wrangell, Alaska, 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 when under British control
  • Wrangell Airport, an airport near Wrangell, Alaska
  • Wrangell-Petersburg Census Area a census area containing Wrangell Island.
• Wrangell Narrows, a winding channel in the Alexander Archipelago
• Cape Wrangell of Attu Island, the westernmost point of Alaska (and the USA)
• Mount Wrangell, a volcano in Alaska
  • Wrangell Volcanic Field, named after Mount Wrangell
  • Wrangell Mountains, named after Mount Wrangell
  • Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve, named after Wrangell mountains
• Wrangellia, a geologic terrane of Southeast Alaska
• Ferdinand von Wrangell`i nim. Roela Põhikool, a basic school in Roela, named after Wrangell

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h}  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: "Wrangell, Ferdinand Petrovitch, Baron von". Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography. 1889. 
2. ^ Alix O’Grady: From the Baltic to Russian America 1829–1836, p. 21–25. Alaska History no. 51, The Limestone Press, Kingston, Ontario & Fairbanks, Alaska.
3. ^ Richard A. Pierce: Russian America: A Biographical Dictionary, Alaska History no. 33, Limestone Press, Kingston, Ont. and Fairbanks, Alaska, 1990, p. 547.

External links

• Overview of Roela (in German: Ruil) manor (the family manor of von Wrangels) in Estonian Manors Portal
• Wrangell's 1839 Comparative Word-List of Alaskan languages