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Franz josef archipelago11/7/2023 ![]() Karl Weyprecht – commander of the ship (from Michelstadt, Hesse).The crew came from all over Austria-Hungary, especially from the Adriatic coast, the primary recruiting area for the Austro-Hungarian Navy. Additionally, Count Wilczek personally chartered the sailing boat Isbjørn again, for laying an emergency depot. It was a three-masted barkentine of 220 tons, 38.34 m long, with a 100 horsepower (75 kW) steam engine. It was built for this expedition by Teklenborg & Beurmann in Bremerhaven. The main ship was the Tegetthoff, named for the Austrian Admiral Wilhelm von Tegetthoff, under whom Weyprecht served. Further important patrons included Count Ödön Zichy (1811–1894), banker Ludwig von Ladenburg (1873–1877), Archduke Rainer of Austria, and Baron Maximilian von Sterneck. From government ministries and the Academy of Sciences the expedition received ƒ10,340 and ƒ10,000 from the crown. The main sponsor was Count Johann Nepomuk Wilczek who donated ƒ30,000. The total costs of 222,600 florins were covered mostly by private donations, many from Austro-Hungarian nobles. It was also hoped that the exploration of this area might discover land that could be used as a base for reaching the North Pole by sea. The plan was to travel from Norway to the north coast of Novaya Zemlya and from there via the New Siberian Islands to America, all in 2.5 years. The expedition's purpose was to explore the Arctic Ocean to the North of Russia and ideally to find the Northeast Passage. It was also decided that a steam vessel would be essential. ![]() Īfter being dissatisfied with the Norwegians on the reconnaissance voyage with Isbjørn, Weyprecht decided to use an Austro-Hungarian crew for the main expedition. These observed favourable ice conditions justified sending the main expedition into the same direction the following year. Here they did find open water and managed to push far into the Barents Sea. To salvage the otherwise disappointing expedition, Weyprecht and Payer first conducted some exploration of the islands to the south, before sailing eastwards. They found heavy sea ice however and were not able to advance from the coast of Nordaustlandet. Isbjørn sailed to the east coast of Svalbard, in hopes of reaching Gillis Land. They chartered the Norwegian schooner Isbjørn and hired captain Johan Kjeldsen and a Norwegian crew in Tromsø. Sailing boat Isbjörn anchored in front of a glacier in Spitsbergen, 1872. Petermann then advocated for probing the area between Svalbard and Novaya Zemlya which he assumed would be less obstructed by ice due to the influence of the Gulf Stream. Petermann had previously been involved in the German North Pole expeditions of 1868–1870 that had failed to find navigable paths on the east coast of Greenland. The Austro-Hungarian North Pole expedition was largely an initiative of geographer August Petermann who was a proponent of a navigable northern Arctic Sea. The expedition discovered and partially explored Franz Josef Land. The Austro-Hungarian North Pole expedition was an Arctic expedition to find the North-East Passage that ran from 1872 to 1874 under the leadership of Julius Payer and Karl Weyprecht. ![]() 1872-74 Arctic expedition to find the North-East Passage Location of the Franz Josef Archipelago
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