Austrian explorer (1838?1881)
Karl Weyprecht
, also spelt
Carl Weyprecht
, (8 September 1838 – 2 March 1881
[
inconsistent
]
) was an
Austro-Hungarian
explorer. He was an officer (
k.u.k.
Linienschiffsleutnant
) in the
Austro-Hungarian Navy
. He is most famous as an Arctic explorer, and an advocate of international cooperation for scientific polar exploration. Although he did not live to see it occur, he is associated with the organisation of the first
International Polar Year
.
In 1852, he studied at
Gymnasium
in
Darmstadt
, but later switched to Hohere Gewerbeschule Darmstadt, now the
Technische Universitat Darmstadt
.
[1]
[2]
In 1856, he joined the Austro-Hungarian Navy (
Kriegsmarine
) as a provisional sea cadet. He served in the
Austro-Sardinian War
. From 1860 to 1862, he served on the frigate
Radetzky
under the command of Admiral
Tegetthoff
. From 1863 to 1865, he was instructional officer on the training ship
Hussar.
On 23 July 1865, he became known to the German geographer
August Petermann
at a meeting of the "Geographic Society" in
Frankfurt
.
He served in the 20 July 1866 sea
battle at Lissa
, aboard the ironclad
Drache
.
He met
Julius von Payer
in 1870, and made a preliminary expedition with Payer to
Novaya Zemlya
in 1871.
On 18 February 1872, Weyprecht gained citizenship in
Austria-Hungary
.
He co-led, with Julius von Payer, the 1872-1874
Austro-Hungarian North Pole Expedition
which discovered the archipelago
Franz Josef Land
in the Arctic Ocean. The expedition's ship
Admiral Tegetthoff
was abandoned in the pack ice. The expedition then moved on sledges to go further north, then to open water, where they used boats to reach the Black Cape of
Novaya Zemlya
and would eventually contact a Russian schooner, "Nikolaj", under Captain Feodor Voronin, and get to
Vardø
, Norway, where they took the
mail boat
south and eventually returned to Vienna. He was awarded the 1875
Royal Geographical Society
's
Founder's Medal
.
[3]
On 18 September 1875, he addressed the 48th Meeting of German Scientists and Physicians in Graz, Austria. He reported the "basic principles of Arctic research" and suggested that fixed Arctic observation stations should be established.
[4]
According to Weyprecht, it was important to organize a network of Arctic stations taking regular measurements of weather and ice conditions with identical devices and at preestablished intervals.
[5]
In 1879, he presented these ideas, along with
George Neumayer
's to the 2nd International Congress of Meteorologists in Rome.
Karl Weyprecht died of
tuberculosis
in 1881.
Commemorations
[
edit
]
Bibliography
[
edit
]
- Karl Weyprecht,
Die Metamorphosen des Polareises. Osterr.-Ung. Arktische Expedition 1872-1874
(The Metamorphosis of Polar Ice. The Austro-Hungarian Polar Expedition of 1872?1874)
- Julius von Payer
New Lands within the Arctic Circle
(1876)
- Andreas Poschek
:
Geheimnis Nordpol. Die Osterreichisch-Ungarische Nordpolexpedition 1872-1874.
Wien: 1999 (
download as PDF
)
- Ursula Rack
Sozialhistorische Studie zur Polarforschung anhand von deutschen und osterreich-ungarischen Polarexpeditionen zwischen 1868-1939
(Vienna 2009).
References
[
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]
External links
[
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]
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