Baron Ferdinand von Wrangel | |
|---|---|
Фердинанд Врангель | |
 Portrait byAleksandr Pershakov [ru] (1892) | |
| 6th Governor ofRussian America | |
| In office 1 June 1830 – 29 October 1835 | |
| Preceded by | Pyotr Yegorovich Chistyakov |
| Succeeded by | Ivan Kupreyanov |
| Minister of the Navy | |
| In office 18 May 1855 – 27 July 1857 | |
| Preceded by | Alexander Menshikov |
| Succeeded by | Nikolay Metlin |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1797-12-29)29 December 1797 Pskov, Russian Empire |
| Died | 25 May 1870(1870-05-25) (aged 72) Dorpat, Russian Empire |
| Spouse | Elisabeth Teodora Natalia Karolina de Rossillon |
| Children | 5 |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance |  Russia |
| Branch/service |  Imperial Russian Navy Imperial Russian Army |
| Years of service | 1815–1864 |
| Rank | Admiral Adjutant General |
| Battles/wars | Crimean War |
Baron[a] Ferdinand Friedrich Georg Ludwig von[b] Wrangel[c] (Russian:Фердинанд Петрович Врангель,romanized: Ferdinand Petrovich Vrangel; 9 January 1797 [O.S. 29 December 1796] – 6 June [O.S. 25 May] 1870) was a Russian statesman, naval officer and explorer ofBaltic German origin. He was also an honorary member of theSaint Petersburg Academy of Sciences and a founder of theRussian Geographic Society. He is best known as the chief manager of theRussian-American Company and the governor of Russian settlements inAlaska.
Wrangel was born inPskov,[1] into theBaltic German nobility of theWrangel family and was a distant nephew of GeneralfeldmarschallFriedrich von Wrangel.
He graduated from theNaval Cadets College in 1815. He participated inVasily Golovnin'sworld cruise on the shipKamchatka in 1817–1819 and belonged to the cohort of Baltic-German navigators who were instrumental in Imperial Russia's maritime explorations.[2]
He was appointed in 1820 to command the Kolymskaya expedition to explore the Russian polar seas. Sailing fromSt. Petersburg, he arrived atNizhnekolymsk on 2 November 1820, and early in 1821 journeyed to Cape Shelagskiy on sledges drawn by dogs. He sailed afterward upKolyma River, advancing about 125 miles into the interior, through territory inhabited by theYakuts. 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 theKolyma River and Cape Shelagsky there was an open sea, not dry land, as people thought. Together withFyodor Matyushkin and P. Kuzmin, Wrangel described theSiberian coastline from theIndigirka River to theKolyuchinskaya Bay in theChukchi Sea. (SeeNortheast Passage.) His expedition made a valuable research inglaciology,geomagnetics, andclimatology 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 shipKrotky in 1825–1827. That voyage spent 8 days at Nuku Hiva, leaving when it was ambushed by local people. It also called at Hawai'i.
He was appointed chief manager of theRussian-American Company in 1829, effectively governor of its settlements inNorth America (present dayAlaska). 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.[3] 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 ofSiberia andKamchatka. 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 ofMexico and the United States, where he visited several cities.[1]
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.[1] Wrangel had been a member of the board of directors of the Russian-American Company from 1840 to 1849.[4]
In 1854 he re-entered active service and was made chief director of the hydrographical department of the navy[1] He was theMinister of the Navy 1855–1857.
Wrangel retired in 1864. He opposed thesale of Alaska to the United States in 1867. Wrangel wrote the bookJourney 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 inRuil (Roela in Estonian) in the eastern part ofEstonia. The manor was bought by him in 1840 and he gave it to his wife as a gift. Wrangel died inDorpat,Livonia.[1] His final resting place is inViru-Jaagupi cemetery.[5]
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 asWrangell'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 titleVoyage 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 titleA Journey on the Northern Coast of Siberia and the Icy Sea (2 vols., London, 1841).[1] The book influencedCharles Darwin's thinking onanimal navigation, leading him to propose that humans and animals possess an innate ability fordead reckoning. Darwin wrote:[6]
With regard to the question of the means by which animals find their way home from a long distance, a striking account, in relation to man, will be found in the English translation of the Expedition to North Siberia, by Von Wrangell. He there describes the wonderful manner in which the natives kept a true course towards a particular spot, whilst passing for a long distance through hummocky ice, with incessant changes of direction, and with no guide in the heavens or on the frozen sea. He states (but I quote only from memory of many years standing) that he, an experienced surveyor, and using a compass, failed to do that which these savages easily effected. Yet no one will suppose that they possessed any special sense which is quite absent in us. We must bear in mind that neither a compass, nor the north star, nor any other such sign, suffices to guide a man to a particular spot through an intricate country, or through hummocky ice, when many deviations from a straight course are inevitable, unless the deviations are allowed for, or a sort of "dead reckoning" is kept.[6]
Wrangel also published:[1]
Wrangel's descendants Peter-Friedrich Krienitz and Hermann von Wrangell, fromGermany visited Ferdinand von Wrangel's last home and grave inRoela first in 1990. After theEstonian Restoration of Independence in 1991, they together created the Fondation von Wrangell on his behalf - a society to assist Estonian and Latvian schools in 1992. They also began to assist Estonian legal professionals to transition to the European legal system by creating Forum Academicum inRoela.
Ferdinand von Wrangel's 200th birthday (29th Dec. 1996 in theold calendar and 1997 January 10 by thenew calendar), was celebrated with scientific conferences, apipe organ concert and exhibitions in theUniversity of Tartu, theEstonian Maritime Museum and inSaint Petersburg. A series of notebooks „FvW in itinere“ was released by the Fondation von Wrangelli inEstonian,Russian andGerman to introduce his scientific legacy. Over the next 10 years his birthday was celebrated inTartu with scientific presentations, coffee andkringel.[5]
Pro Scola opened opportunity forLääne-Virumaa language teachers to learn more aboutGermany and also gave large input extendingRakvere Reaalgümnaasium library with English and German books. Pro Scola ceased its activities in 2005 with final seminaries inRakvere,Tartu and inLatvia.[7]
"Врангель, Фердинанд Петрович" .Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary (in Russian). 1906.| Government offices | ||
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| Preceded by | Governor of Russian Colonies in America 1830–1835 | Succeeded by |
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