Ferdinand von Wrangel
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Baron Ferdinand von Wrangel, in Russian: Ferdinand Petrovich Vrangel' (Фердинанд Петрович Врангель), (December 29, 1796 (January 9, 1797), Pskov, Russia — May 25 (June 6), 1870, Dorpat (now Tartu, Estonia)) was a Russian admiral, explorer, Honorable Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences in St.Petersburg (1855), one of the founders 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.
Ferdinand von Wrangel was born 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. Wrangel led the Kolymskaya expedition in search of northern lands. 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. 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.
After noticing swarms of birds flying north and questioning native population, he determined that there must be an undiscovered island in the Arctic Ocean and started in 1820 a four year long expedition to search for it. Even though it was unsuccessful the island was later named Wrangel Island to honour him and his endeavor.
Wrangel led the Russian world cruise on the ship "Krotky" in 1825-1827. He held a post of the chief administrator of the Russian settlements in North America in 1829-1835. Wrangel was the president of the Russian-American Company in 1840-1849. He also was the Minister of the Navy in 1855-1857.
Wrangel retired in 1864. He was opposed to selling Alaska to the United States. Wrangel wrote a book "Journey along the northern coastline of Siberia and the Arctic Ocean" and a few other books about the people of the northwestern America.
Places named after Wrangel
- Wrangel Island, the arctic island north of Chukotka he failed to discover
- Wrangell Island, a pacific 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
- * 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 Belt, named after Mount Wrangell
- * Wrangell Mountains, named after Mount Wrangell
- * Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve, named after Wrangell mountains
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