Admiral Tegetthoff

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shipstamps
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Admiral Tegetthoff

Post by shipstamps » Mon Jan 26, 2009 5:17 pm


This stamp of Austria commemorates the centenary of the discovery of Franz Josef Land by Austria's pioneer polar expedition, under the leadership of Capt. Karl Weyprecht in the Admiral Tegetthoff, a wooden barque of 923 tons gross, 893 net, built in 1871. Length 164 ft. 9 in.: beam 34 ft. 3 in.; draft 22 ft. 8 in.
SG1666 Sea Breezes 1/74

aukepalmhof
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Re: Admiral Tegetthoff

Post by aukepalmhof » Wed May 13, 2009 9:29 pm

Built as a wooden auxiliary 3 mast barquentine in 1871 by Tecklenborg & Beurman at Bremerhaven for the Austro-Hungarian Government.
Launched under the name TEGETTHOFF, (sometimes she is referred to as the ADMIRAL TEGETTHOFF), named after the nineteenth-century Austrian Admiral Wilhelm von Tegetthoff.
She was sheathed in iron.
Tonnage 220 gross. Length 38.34 metres.
Powered by a steam engine of 100 hp. speed 6-7 knots.

As late as the second half of the nineteenth century, there was still a vestigial belief that north of the Arctic ice lay an ice-free ‘Polar Sea’. In 1872 the Austrian Government dispatched the TEGETTHOFF to investigate this, as well as looking for a North-West passage and also explore the seas and land north west of Novaya Zemlya.
She sailed on 13 June 1872 from Bremerhaven, with a crew of 24 on board, under the command of Karl Weyprecht for the Austro-Hungarian North Pole expedition for the Arctic. Julius Payer led the land based and scientific elements of the expedition.
She sailed first to Tromso were she completed her equipment and topped up her stores for at least three years, before heading north. There were also 8 dogs on board for pulling the sleds.
From 30 July until 3 August she became icebound for the first time.
She met the vessel ISBJÖRN on 12 August, and both vessels sailed togrther. (The ISBJÖRN was the supply vessel for the expedition to set up food supply depots so far as possible in the Arctic.)
13 August in a position 76 18N and 61 17E the TEGETTHOFF moored on the ice edge.
15 August made a food depot at the coast of Barents Island, the depot was not used when the expedition retreated in 1874.
20 August the ISBJÖRN parted from the TEGETTHOFF.
The TEGETTHOFF again ice locked in a position 76 22N and 62 03E north of Novaya Zemlya. She drifted first with the pack-ice to the east then to the west during the rest of the year and the beginning of the next year.
30 August 1873 she sights land in a position 79 43E 59 33E, but it is impossible to make a landing. Payer names the island Kaiser Franz-Joseph Land, after the emperor of Austria.
31 October, the ship is frozen in at a position 79 51N and 58 56E three miles from the newly discovered land.
On 2 Nov. 1873 they took possession of the island, by placing a document under a pile of stones on shore.
The TEGETTHOFF stays frozen in that winter, and early next year the first sled voyage on the island took part between 10 and 16 March 1874.
On 16 March the engineer Otto Krish died and was buried at Wilczek Island.
Between 16 March and 22 April the second sled voyage takes place to explore the island, and on 12 April Payer and his men reached the northernmost point of the expedition at Cape Fligely at 82 05N. Payer raises the Austrian flag and leaves a document behind.
From 29 April until 03 May the expedition made another voyage of exploration on the island.
20 May they abandon the TEGETTHOFF, which is firmly in the grip of the ice. The expedition members together with three boats on sledges begin on the homeward journey in the direction of Novaya Zemlya.
14 August the open sea is reached, and on 15 August the boats are launched into the water in a position 77 40N 61E. On 16 August Novaya Zemlya issighted, and the expedition lands south of Black Cape on the island on 18 August, near a depot set up already in 1872.
23 August a boat is sighted in Dunen Bay that brings them to the Russian schooner and whaler NIKOLAJ under command of Capt. Feodor Voronin.
The schooner takes the expedition to Vardo, North Norway where she arrives on 3 September.
The expedition embarked then on the mailboat FINMARKEN for the journey south along the coast of Norway.
On 25 Sept. 1874 the expedition arrived at Vienna, Austria.
Nothing, yet, has ever been found of the TEGETTHOFF.

Sources: http://www.arctic.at/castaway/history/history.html. Log Book. Ships of the World by Lincoln P. Paine.

2013 Russian issues for the 140th Anniversary of the discovery of Franz Josef Land by the TEGETTHOFF which was used in that expedition, she is depicted on the left of the envelope. The ship depicted on the postmark is the POLARIS.
2007 Romanian postcard
2008 Romanian postcard
1973 Austria FDC
Yugoslavia 1983 envelope discovery of Franz Josef Land
Austria 2022 0.85/2.10 Euro sgMS? Scott? viewtopic.php?t=18145
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2013 TEGETHOFF.jpg
2007 tegetthoff.jpg
2008 tegetthoff.jpg
1973 tegetthoff fdc.jpg
1983 Franz Josef Land.jpg
2022 150th anniversary of the austro-hungarian north pole expedition. (2).jpg
2022 150th anniversary of the austro-hungarian north pole expedition. (2).jpg (105.31 KiB) Viewed 213 times
Last edited by Anonymous on Wed May 13, 2009 9:29 pm, edited 3 times in total.
Reason: Additional information

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