Carl Weyprecht's Life and Work
Carl Weyprecht, born on 8th September in Darmstadt, started a career in the Austro-Hungarian Marine where he became a junior marine officer. His ability to organise and his qualities as a leader of men were early apparent and impressed his commanding officers, not least Admiral Tegetthoff who helped advance Weyprecht’s career through the ranks. At the same time as he led the life of a regular, his interest in polar research was raised. In 1865 he read a lecture given by August Petermann, the well-known geographer and he followed that up with a request to Petermann for a place in the planned polar expedtion which was to explore the possibility of a free north-east passage north of Siberia ending in the Behring Strait. He rounded his application off with detailed plans for the entire duration of such a polar expedition, details on the equipment, the need for sledges, tents, dogs: he even discussed the problems of climate, of ice and of scorbut. Petermann, very impressed, accepted the young man and now Weyprecht sought in the first place the agreement of his father for this scientific enterprise. These plans were, however, fairly soon thwarted by the war between Prussia and Austria, as a consequence of which the Austrian marine did not give their permission for Weyprechts’s participation in the first two German polar excursions of 1868 and 1869/70. Instead, in 1868 the Lieutenant Carl Wepyrecht lay seriously ill in the hospital in Havana, Notwithstanding these drawbacks he continued to further his interests and his scientific education in astronomy, meteorology and polar science. But in 1871, after a first reconnoitring excursion, Weyprecht gave a lecture on the aims and reasons of the planned big excursion in Frankfurt/Main. The three-mast motorboat “Tegetthoff” was modified according to Weyprecht’s instructions into a sea- and ice-worthy-research ship in Bremerhaven. Even an emergency camp was envisaged and the entire undertaking was financed through a committee of private sponsors: 200.000 Gulden were collected. 14.7.1872: the “Tegetthoff” leaves Tromso where they took the only Norse man on board ship. Carl Weyprecht had deliberately hired his crew from Southerners (all regions between Bohemia and Dalmatia were represented. He particularly appreciated the Southerners for their positive and cheerful attitude to life and to his undertaking. Within one month they had their first encounter with the ice which promptly began to disable the “Tegetthoff”. September/October 1872 until Feburary 1873: The sun does not rise, and the ship continues to drift, first towards North East, then North West. Mid-April 1873: No effort by the crew is spared in order to free the ship – but to no avail. 31st August 1873: Aa break in the everlasting fog reveals a rocky, almost Alpine landscape in the distance. On 31st August 1873 Carl Weyprecht writes that an unknown land mass was discovered by them, evidently of serious dimensions “.... and we named this KAISER FRANZ JOSEFS LAND and called a prominent high point CAPE TEGETTHOFF. In September and October 1873 we were drifting along this coastline.” November 1873 brought renewed polar night and a firmly frozen, immobile “Tegetthoff”. February 1874: Once more there is light and Julius Payer, the commander on land, organises expedtions into this “Kaiser Franz Josefs Land” as far north as he can and gives every hill and cape the names of towns and landscapes back home. March 1874: The motor engineer Krisch dies of tubercolosis and is buried on Franz Josefs Land. A message in a bottle, left by Carl Weyprecht in 1874 reporting in details the discovery of Kaiser Franz Josefs Land is found 104 years later by the Russian explorer Wladimir Serow and sent from Moscow to Vienna in 1980 where it is kept in the “Akadmie der Wissenschaften”. 20.05.1874: The return journey begins, the ship is left behind in the ice, five boats are loaded onto sledges, all instruments that had been used, all notes of Weyprecht, Payer and the officers are packed – but private possessions, foodstuffs, ammunition and the dogs are left behind. The march across the ice for some 6 weeks has not brought them further than 37 kilometers to the south of their ship. Carl Weyprecht achieves – with difficulty – their renewed march south .... Only in mid-August do they reach the sea. “The sound and fury of the surf was like the most wonderful music to our ears” says Weyprecht in his small diary which he manages to keep in his pocket. The boats could now carry them further. With great satisfaction they watch the ice vanish slowly into the distance. They row along Novaja Semlja and sight Russian fishing boats. In Vardo, Norway, the expediton finally disembarks and now they are overcome by the receptions they experience in every city and finally in Vienna. Carl Weyprecht returns to his work with the scientific measurements he had brought back with him. His further idea of an International Polar Year, the systematic exploration of the polar world, has by now been taken up internationally: 14 polar stations are installed by eleven nations by 1882/3 and the “Deutsche Gesellschaft für Polarforschung” bestow the Weyprecht medal on deserving scientists in Carl Weypecht’s honour.

Carl Weyprecht's Life and Work

Carl Weyprecht, born on 8th September in Darmstadt, started a career in the Austro-Hungarian Marine where he became a junior marine officer. His ability to organise and his qualities as a leader of men were early apparent and impressed his commanding officers, not least Admiral Tegetthoff who helped advance Weyprecht’s career through the ranks.

At the same time as he led the life of a regular, his interest in polar research was raised. In 1865 he read a lecture given by August Petermann, the well-known geographer and he followed that up with a request to Petermann for a place in the planned polar expedtion which was to explore the possibility of a free north-east passage north of Siberia ending in the Behring Strait. He rounded his application off with detailed plans for the entire duration of such a polar expedition, details on the equipment, the need for sledges, tents, dogs: he even discussed the problems of climate, of ice and of scorbut. Petermann, very impressed, accepted the young man and now Weyprecht sought in the first place the agreement of his father for this scientific enterprise. These plans were, however, fairly soon thwarted by the war between Prussia and Austria, as a consequence of which the Austrian marine did not give their permission for Weyprechts’s participation in the first two German polar excursions of 1868 and 1869/70.

Instead, in 1868 the Lieutenant Carl Wepyrecht lay seriously ill in the hospital in Havana,
Notwithstanding these drawbacks he continued to further his interests and his scientific education in astronomy, meteorology and polar science. But in 1871, after a first reconnoitring excursion, Weyprecht gave a lecture on the aims and reasons of the planned big excursion in Frankfurt/Main.

The three-mast motorboat “Tegetthoff” was modified according to Weyprecht’s instructions into a sea- and ice-worthy-research ship in Bremerhaven. Even an emergency camp was envisaged and the entire undertaking was financed through a committee of private sponsors: 200.000 Gulden were collected.

14.7.1872: the “Tegetthoff” leaves Tromso where they took the only Norse man on board ship. Carl Weyprecht had deliberately hired his crew from Southerners (all regions between Bohemia and Dalmatia were represented. He particularly appreciated the Southerners for their positive and cheerful attitude to life and to his undertaking.

Within one month they had their first encounter with the ice which promptly began to disable the “Tegetthoff”.

September/October 1872 until Feburary 1873:

The sun does not rise, and the ship continues to drift, first towards North East, then North West.

Mid-April 1873:

No effort by the crew is spared in order to free the ship – but to no avail.

31st August 1873:

Aa break in the everlasting fog reveals a rocky, almost Alpine landscape in the distance.

On 31st August 1873
Carl Weyprecht writes that an unknown land mass was discovered by them, evidently of serious dimensions “.... and we named this KAISER FRANZ JOSEFS LAND and called a prominent high point CAPE TEGETTHOFF. In September and October 1873 we were drifting along this coastline.”
November 1873 brought renewed polar night and a firmly frozen, immobile “Tegetthoff”.

February 1874:

Once more there is light and Julius Payer, the commander on land, organises expedtions into this “Kaiser Franz Josefs Land” as far north as he can and gives every hill and cape the names of towns and landscapes back home.

March 1874:

The motor engineer Krisch dies of tubercolosis and is buried on Franz Josefs Land.
A message in a bottle, left by Carl Weyprecht in 1874 reporting in details the discovery of Kaiser Franz Josefs Land is found 104 years later by the Russian explorer Wladimir Serow and sent from Moscow to Vienna in 1980 where it is kept in the “Akadmie der Wissenschaften”.

20.05.1874:

The return journey begins, the ship is left behind in the ice, five boats are loaded onto sledges, all instruments that had been used, all notes of Weyprecht, Payer and the officers are packed – but private possessions, foodstuffs, ammunition and the dogs are left behind. The march across the ice for some 6 weeks has not brought them further than 37 kilometers to the south of their ship. Carl Weyprecht achieves – with difficulty – their renewed march south .... Only in mid-August do they reach the sea. “The sound and fury of the surf was like the most wonderful music to our ears” says Weyprecht in his small diary which he manages to keep in his pocket.
The boats could now carry them further. With great satisfaction they watch the ice vanish slowly into the distance. They row along Novaja Semlja and sight Russian fishing boats.

In Vardo, Norway, the expediton finally disembarks and now they are overcome by the receptions they experience in every city and finally in Vienna.

Carl Weyprecht returns to his work with the scientific measurements he had brought back with him.
His further idea of an International Polar Year, the systematic exploration of the polar world, has by now been taken up internationally: 14 polar stations are installed by eleven nations by 1882/3 and the “Deutsche Gesellschaft für Polarforschung” bestow the Weyprecht medal on deserving scientists in Carl Weypecht’s honour.