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Cinderella Time:
Franz Joseph Land
By Christer Brunström, AIJP
The Arctic and Antarctic regions have always attracted
scientists and explorers. Getting to these distant lands
used to be extremely difficult and once there the inclement
climate provided further difficulties.
Numerous explorers have attempted to be the very first
ones to reach the North and South Poles. Some even lost
their lives when they succumbed to the cold weather.
One of the lesser known expeditions to the Arctic area
started in 1872. Sailing on the schooner Admiral Tegetthoff,
the expedition had been privately financed by interested
people in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The idea was probably to discover a northern sea passage to Asia.
The schooner had been built in Bremerhaven, Germany
and it was launched in 1871. It was a sailing ship but the
schooner had also been equipped with a steam engine. The
crew comprised some 20 seamen with Karl Weyprecht as
the captain. Eight sledge dogs also boarded the ship. The
leader of the expedition was Julius Payer. The voyage to the
Arctic started in 1872.
Once in the Arctic Ocean it became pretty clear that the
schooner was far from suitable for the icy conditions. The
Admiral Tegetthoff got stuck in the pack ice and the currents carried it in a north-easterly direction. On 30 August
1873 the ship stranded on an unknown island. Payer and
Weyprecht soon realized that they would have to spend the
winter on the island.
The expedition had reached an archipelago in the Arctic
Ocean. It was given the name of Franz
Joseph Land in honour of the AustroHungarian emperor.
The Austrian Postal Office marked
the centenary of the discovery of the
archipelago with a commemorative
stamp issued on 30 August 1973.
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The design features the schooner wrecked on the cliffs of
one of the islands.
The following year Julius Payer accompanied by a few
men explored the northern part of Franz Joseph Land.
The archipelago comprises some 60 islands. There are
numerous high mountains with the highest peak reaching 5,180 feet. Access to the islands is very difficult as the
coastlines are marked by rocks and cliffs. Glaciers cover
large parts of the islands.
As the expedition was not backed by the government
the islands could not be claimed for the Austro-Hungarian
Empire. Since 1926 they are part of Russia.
In 1874 the expedition leaders realized that it would be
impossible to spend another winter on Franz Joseph Land
for lack of supplies and it was decided to start walking on
the pack ice towards the south. After a heroic three-month
trek the exhausted men were finally discovered by Russian
fishermen. Via Norway and Germany they were finally able
to return to Austria.
In Vienna people greeted them as heroes. Numerous
Austrians wanted to celebrate the exploits
of Weyprecht and Payer. Fairly soon a set
of four commemorative labels inscribed
FRANZ JOSEPH LAND went on sale. Two
of the labels depict the
Emperor. One has a denomination of 25 Silb.
Kr. and the other one
has the rather cryptic
inscription “Er.M.d.N.P.E. 1874” which
is short for “Erinnerungsmarke der Nordpolexpedition 1874” (or commemorative
stamp
of the 1874 North Pole
expedition in English).
The two remaining
stamps were triangular
in size and reminiscent of
the classic Cape of Good
Issue 44 - August 1, 2014 - StampNewsOnline.net
Hope triangulars. The
yellow stamp includes
the words “Cap Wien”
and the green one “Cap
Pest”. Obviously the promoter of the set wanted
to pay homage both to
Austria and Hungary.
The four stamps were in no way an official issue. They
were produced by Vienna stamp dealer Sigismund Friedl
who obviously wanted to profit from the return of the famous Arctic explorers. Today the four stamps are far from
common.
Recently I was able
to acquire an additional
1874 label honouring the
return of Weyprecht and
Payer. It was produced by
the Grillparzer Verein, a
patriotic society founded
by Ludwig Germonik in
1874. Possibly other varieties exist of this rather scarce
commemorative label.
Julius Payer claimed that the expedition had discovered
a hitherto unknown archipelago in the Arctic Ocean but
not everyone believed him which of course caused him a
lot of sadness.
However, at a later stage his discovery was acknowledged
officially and he was invited to join the ranks of Austrian
nobility. That is why dictionaries today give his name as
Julius von Payer.
Issue 44 - August 1, 2014 - StampNewsOnline.net
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