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The retreat from Zemlya Frantsa-Iosifa [Franz Josef Land]: the diary of Lieutenant Carl Weyprecht of the Austro-Hungarian north pole expedition, 20 May–3 September 1874

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 March 2010

William Barr
William Barr*
Affiliation:
Arctic Institute of North America, University of Calgary, 2500 University Drive NW, Calgary AB T2N 1N4, Canada ([email protected])
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Abstract

Having spent 21 months on board their icebound ship, Tegetthoff, adrift in the pack ice to the north of Novaya Zemlya, and having explored a substantial part of Zemlya Frantsa-Iosifa [Franz Josef Land], to which the ice-drift had carried their ship, on 20 May 1874 the members of the Austro-Hungarian North Pole expedition abandoned it and started south by sledge and boat. Progress was painfully slow, and for weeks involved repeatedly alternating between man hauling across floes and rowing or sailing across leads and polynyas. The expedition finally reached open water on 15 August and started rowing and sailing south along the west coast of Novaya Zemlya. They encountered two Russian fishing boats at Mys Britvin [Cape Britvin], just south of Matochkin Shar on 24 August, and the Austrians persuaded one of their captains to take them to Vardø in Northern Norway. They arrived there on 3 September and caught the mail steamer south to Hamburg. Apart from the engineer, Otto Krisch, who died of tuberculosis and scurvy and was buried on Ostrov Vilcheka [Wilczek Island], the remaining 24 members of the expedition returned home safely. The diary of one of the co-leaders of the expedition, Lieutenant Carl Weyprecht, covering the period of the retreat, is published here in English for the first time.

Type
Research Article
Information
Polar Record , Volume 47 , Issue 2 , April 2011 , pp. 97 - 125
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

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