Ferdinand Friedrich Georg Ludwig Freiherr von Wrangel was a Baltic German explorer and seaman in the Imperial Russian Navy, Honorable Member of the Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences, a founder of the Russian Geographic Society. He is best known as chief manager of the Russian-American Company, in fact, governor of the Russian settlements in present-day Alaska.
Background
Ethnicity:
He came from an ancient family of Baltic Germans. His grandfather was from Denmark.
Ferdinand Friedrich Georg Ludwig Freiherr von Wrangel was born on December 29, 1796, in Pskov (now Pskov, Pskov region, Russian Federation). He was born into a ruined noble family. Son of artillery major Peter Berendtovich (Peter Ludwig) Wrangel (1760-1807) and his wife Dorothea-Marguerite-Barbara von Freimann (1768-1806). His grandfather, a native of Denmark, was a Chamberlain at the court of Peter III, and under Catherine II fell into disgrace and fled abroad.
Education
After the death of his parents, Ferdinand von Wrangel was raised in the Naval cadet corps in Saint Petersburg from 1810 to 1815.
Career
Ferdinand von Wrangel took part in a round-the-world tour sailing on the sloop Kamchatka (1817-1819). In 1820-1824 he led an expedition to discover lands lying opposite the Northern coast of Siberia and also for the final solution of the issue, whether Asia and America are connected. Later, an island named after Ferdinand von Wrangel was discovered in the place indicated by Wrangel and F. F. Matyushkin. From 1825, he made a new round-the-world trip, described by him in the essay Daily notes on the voyage of the military transport Meek in 1825, 1826, and 1827, under the command of Lieutenant commander Wrangel 1st (1828). Posthumously published Meteorological observations made during the circumnavigation of the transport Meek (1882).
In 1829, when Ferdinand von Wrangel was appointed chief ruler of Russian America, with his wife and the baby went to the city of Sitka (New Archangelsk, on the island near Alaska), stayed there until 1835. His return in his book, he described the route from Sithi to Saint Petersburg (1836). Wrangel's main work is a Journey along the Northern shores of Siberia and the Arctic sea, made in 1820, 1821, 1822, 1823, and 1824 by an expedition under the command of Lieutenant Ferdinand Von Wrangel's fleet (1841).
In 1844-1845, Ferdinand von Wrangel participated in the creation of the Russian geographical society. In 1855-1857 he headed the Maritime Ministry, from 1857 he was a member of the State Council, and from 1864 he retired.
I.A. Goncharov wrote: "the name of Wrangel, a writer, and traveler, is vividly preserved in the memory of Siberians, and his book will certainly be found in Siberia among all educated people."
Connections
In March 1829, before leaving for America, Ferdinand von Wrangel wanted to get married and was looking for a mate. In revel, from the window of the stagecoach office, he saw a family walking, among others a girl who attracted his attention. It was the Baroness Rossillon. Ferdinand von Wrangel asked to introduce him, they were soon married, and two weeks later he left with his young wife for America. On the way to Irkutsk, they had a daughter, Maria Luisa.