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Carl Weyprecht (1832-1881)
Es liegen zur Zeit keine aktuellen Termine vor.
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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:
A 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.
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© 2006-2009 Carl Weyprecht Ausstellung
Letzte Änderung: 13.09.2009
Webmaster: Dr. Dieter Heimer | |
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Termine und Veranstaltungen.
