Origin of the name Galapagos Islands. Origin of the name Mascarene Islands

At the end of the sixties of the nineteenth century, the famous Russian meteorologist A.I. Voeikov raised the question of organizing a large expedition to explore the Russian polar seas.

This idea was warmly supported by the famous geographer and revolutionary, anarchist theorist Prince P.A. Kropotkin. Various considerations, but mainly observations of the ice of the Barents Sea, led Kropotkin to the conclusion that “ between Spitsbergen and Novaya Zemlya there is an as yet undiscovered land that extends north beyond Spitsbergen and holds the ice behind it... He indicated the possible existence of such an archipelago in his excellent but little-known report on currents in Arctic Ocean Russian naval officer Baron Schilling" In 1870, Kropotkin drew up a project for the expedition. However, the tsarist government refused funds, and the expedition did not take place.

Cover of the illustrated magazine "Illustriertes Wiener Extrablatt" (September 25, 1874) with portraits of Julius von Payer (left) and Karl Weypracht (right)

Soon after this, a plan arose abroad for a large expedition to explore the area northeast of Novaya Zemlya - at that time this area was White spot on the map. This plan was proposed by Austrian navy lieutenants Julius Payer and Karl Weyprecht. They managed to convince several wealthy individuals of the importance of the proposed research. The necessary money was collected, and on June 13, 1872, the wooden steam ship Tegetthof, specially built for this expedition, left the German port of Bremerhaven and headed for the Barents Sea.

Steamship "Tegetthoff", lost in ice (1872)

That year in the Barents Sea, as we have already noted, was very icy. The Tegetthof did not even manage to reach the northern tip of Novaya Zemlya, since at the end of August the ship was covered in ice off the western coast of this island, somewhat north of the small Barents Islands.

When the Tegetthof was compressed by ice near Novaya Zemlya, no one thought that the ice had captivated the ship forever.

All members of the expedition believed that in a few days, or at most weeks, the ice would break up and the ship would be able to move again. " If only we knew that evening when the ice converged around the Tegetthof, - writes Payer, - that from now on our ship is cursed to limply follow the whims of the ice, that it will never be a real ship again, we could fall into despair».

In the fall, the Tegetthof washed out into the open sea along with the ice. Has arrived polar night with its storms and blizzards. The ice pressed against the ship with terrible force, threatening to crush it like a nutshell. Everything was prepared in case the ship had to be abandoned. Almost every day, when the rumble of ice and the cracking of the ship announced the beginning of the compression, the expedition members rushed to the cabins, hastily dressed and ran out onto the deck, ready to jump onto the ice every minute. " Those were scary moments, says Payer, when I had to get dressed, feeling the walls of the ship tremble, while the ice cracked and creaked outside. You run out onto the deck with a knapsack in your hand, ready to abandon ship and start wandering - where, none of us knew. And all around the ice floes continued to pile up one on top of the other, climbing onto the deck. Nothing was left alone».

Julius von Payer (1842-1915), polar explorer, officer, artist and writer

Karl Weyprecht (1838-1881), Marine officer and polar explorer

For one hundred and thirty days the ship was under constant threat of being crushed by ice and sinking. By spring, when the ice floes around the Tegetthof froze into large fields, a calmer time began. By this time, winds and currents had carried the ship far from the place where it was captured by ice: it was located 250 kilometers north of Novaya Zemlya, in waters that had not yet been visited by man.

Summer has come, but the position of Tegetthof has not changed. As before, the ship was in the strong grip of ice, and around it the white desert stretched to the very horizon. Hopes of freeing the ship from the ice collapsed, and the sailors were already getting used to the idea of ​​a second forced winter in floating ice. There was enough food for now, since the expedition, leaving Bremerhaven, prudently captured it for two and a half to three years.

But then, completely unexpectedly, on August 30, 1873, it happened an important event in the monotonous life of a ship frozen in ice. " Around noon, says Payer, we stood with our elbows on the side of the ship and looked aimlessly into the fog, which began to break here and there. Suddenly, in the northwest, the fog cleared completely, and we saw the outlines of rocks. And a few minutes later, a panorama of a mountainous country, sparkling with its glaciers, unfolded before our eyes in all its splendor. At first, we stood as if paralyzed and did not believe in the reality of the picture opening before us. Then, realizing our happiness, we burst into stormy cries: “Earth, earth!!!”».

Kropotkin's assumption about the existence of land in the north of the Barents Sea was brilliantly justified. The Austrians called it Franz Josef Land.

“Austro-Hungarian Arctic Expedition” - this engraving from an illustrated magazine untruthfully shows the realities, since there were only three dogs

Soon after the expedition first saw this archipelago, the Tegetthof began to be blown south by the northern winds. The Austrians managed to enter the newly discovered land only on November 1. The first to be visited was a small island in the southeast of Franz Josef Land, named Wilczek Island - in honor of the person who financed the expedition. At this time, the polar night had already arrived again. " When we stepped onto land, we did not notice that it consisted only of snow, bare rocks and frozen stones and that, in fact, a more sad and hopeless corner on earth could hardly exist than this island. It seemed like a real paradise to us" This is how Payer describes his first impression of Wilczek Island.

Darkness prevented immediate exploration of the open land. We had to wait for the end of the long, one hundred and twenty-five day polar night. Life on the ship flowed monotonously again.

Scurvy, which also occurred during the first winter, intensified. In early March, driver Krish died from this disease. In the spring the diseases stopped. This was mainly due to a successful hunt for polar bears, of which 67 were killed.

Cape Tegetgoff on Gallya Island

As soon as the sun rose, the Austrians began to prepare for sleigh journeys to explore Franz Josef Land. The first excursion was undertaken in mid-March. Payer visited Cape Tegetthof and climbed the Sonclar glacier on Hall Island. The weather was light, but very cold, and at the top of the glacier the Celsius thermometer showed 50° below zero. This is the most low temperature, still noted on Franz Josef Land. Travelers, not well equipped for such cold, suffered greatly from the cold while spending the night in a tent.

At the end of March, Payer, accompanied by six other expedition members, set out on a large sleigh expedition. The Austrians had only three dogs, and therefore people had to drag the sleigh. During this expedition, Payer managed to reach the extreme northern tip of Franz Josef Land, which he named Cape Fligeli. Payer, however, did not know that this cape was the northernmost point of the archipelago discovered by the Austrians; it seemed to him that there was another land further to the north; he even gave this land the name Petermann Land. Subsequently, other expeditions found that no land north of Cape Fligeli existed. Obviously, Payer mistook a ridge of hummocks for land. Such an error is quite possible, and cases where polar explorers mistook piles of hummocks for land are far from isolated. The non-existent Petermann Land was placed on geographical maps for a long time until Payer’s mistake was finally proven. The Italian Cagni passed through the place where Payer marked his Peterman Land in 1900, and in 1914 by the navigator Albanov. There was no land there; all around, an ice-covered sea stretched to the horizon.

Map of Franz Josef Land by Julius Payer

For a whole month, Payer wandered around Franz Josef Land, collecting rock samples, studying the structure of the islands and the glaciers covering them, and getting acquainted with the animal life of the archipelago. Much of Franz Josef Land was photographed by Payer and put on the map. But his map is very wrong. Oddly enough, Payer, traveling through Franz Josef Land, did not notice that it consists of many islands. There are only about seventy-five of them, not counting the very small ones. It seemed to Payer that Franz Josef Land was two large land masses separated by a strait, to which he gave the name Austrian. This is how Payer depicted Franz Josef Land on his map. Apparently, the Austrian explorer mistook the straits that separated the islands for valleys filled with glaciers. Payer traveled through Franz Josef Land in the spring, when all the straits were still covered with unbroken ice, and, therefore, such a mistake, especially with frequent fogs, was quite possible.

There were some adventures. While crossing the glacier of Rudolf Island, a sleigh with dogs and musher Tsaninovich fell into a glacial crevasse to a depth of 12 meters. Such cracks, which form in glaciers as a result of their movement, are completely masked by snow in Franz Josef Land in the spring. The position of Tsaninovich, who had fallen into a crack, was unenviable, since Payer did not have a rope long enough with him to help the fallen man get out. I had to go to get the rope to the camp, which was quite far from the place of adventure. Only four and a half hours later, Payer, having grabbed another companion in the camp, approached the crack. He bent over the yawning abyss and listened: not a sound was heard there. Only when he shouted several times into the crack was the faint yelp of a dog heard. Having tied himself with a rope, the end of which Payer held in his hand, his companion began to descend into the crack and soon disappeared into the darkness. Fortunately, Tsaninovich was alive. It turned out that he did not reach the end of the crack, stopping at its narrowing formed by a small protrusion of ice. With great difficulty they pulled out the almost frozen Tsaninovich, and after him the dogs, who began to roll in the snow with joy.

Meanwhile, May had already arrived, and “Tegetthof” still stood motionless, bound by ice. The travelers finally abandoned hopes of freeing the ship. There was only one way to get out of the ice trap - to try to get to Novaya Zemlya by boat. There one could meet Russian industrialists who would assist the expedition.

Preparations were hastily made for the long and risky journey. Four boats were repaired, which at the beginning of the journey had to be dragged on sleighs across the ice. The question of what equipment and food should be taken with us was discussed for a long time. After all, everything had to be carried on one’s own shoulders, and therefore one had to limit oneself to only the most necessary things. On the other hand, the duration of the transition could not be determined in advance; therefore, it was necessary to stock up on food for for a long time. It consisted mainly of pemmican, sausage and peas and canned meat. Despite the austerity, in the end the cargo was quite large: two and a half thousand kilograms of food and two thousand kilograms of equipment, not counting boats and sleighs. With this load twenty three brave sailor and set off, sending a final “goodbye” to the gloomy rocks of Franz Josef Land and the ship standing next to them. It was May 20, 1874.

Floating trip sea ​​ice- one of the most difficult. The unevenness of the ice, the soft melted snow in which the legs got stuck above the knee, and the occasional spaces of open water between the ice - all this made it possible to move forward very slowly. Straining all their strength, the travelers dragged heavily loaded boats across the ice. Day after day passed in this exhausting work, but there was little success. The travelers soon realized that all their work was in vain, since the southern winds carried the ice back at the same speed with which the Austrians were moving south. As a result, in a whole month they managed to cover only 1.25 miles out of the 250 miles ahead. The masts of the abandoned ship were still clearly visible behind. It was especially depressing that during this month of fruitless work, a third of all food was eaten.

At the end of June, ice breaks began to appear that travelers could cross by boat. Hopes arose again, but alas! - as quickly as they came, they disappeared just as quickly.

At the beginning of July, the ice converged again, and the travelers found themselves amidst the chaos of ice floes piled one on top of the other. There was no water to be seen anywhere. " If a worsening of our situation was even conceivable, - writes Payer, - then it happened now, at the beginning of July" And yet, with unshakable persistence, step by step, the Austrians, among the labyrinth of hummocks, made their way to the south - to where the open sea was supposed to be, and with it salvation.

Julius von Payer "Never back!" (Military History Museum, Vienna, 1892)

But then the southern winds blew again and began to drive the ice north. The result was that in mid-July the unlucky travelers were only 15 kilometers away from the ship abandoned two months ago. " We clearly saw the cliffs of Vilcek Island. There was something mocking in these rocks, bathed in white light polar day. It seemed that after all this long and incredibly tiring struggle with the ice, there was only one outcome left for us: a return to the ship and the third polar night. Well, if we fail to find the ship, then the icy sea is destined to become our grave... It was fortunate for us then that the earth was a ball and that we therefore could not see how long a journey across the ice we still had ahead of us before we reached to the open sea. If we were able to survey this icy desert, we would despair" This is how Payer recalls those dark days of the expedition.

Finally, in the second half of July the situation improved. The ice began to break up from time to time, and travelers were able to move along canals and ice holes in a boat. But these differences appeared only for a short time. Every now and then the ice would shrink, and then we had to pull out the boats and patiently wait for a new opening to appear. The average daily passage at this time was still 4 nautical miles.

Oberleutnant Julius von Payer (on the chest there are two awards: “3rd class of the Order of the Iron Crown” and “3rd class of the Cross of Military Merit with Military Distinction”)

Route of the Austro-Hungarian northern polar expedition of 1872-1874.

August 15 was a joyful day for the expedition - the day of liberation from the ice. The holes became wider and wider.
A swell appeared. Finally, the edge of the ice appeared, and beyond it - the boundless expanse of the open sea. " At the sight of the rough sea, - wrote Payer, - it seemed to us that we had emerged from a dark, cold tomb to a new life. But, despite all the insane joy that gripped us at the thought of our liberation, we still could not think without pain that we would now forever have to say goodbye to the frozen polar kingdom, to the kingdom of ice that sparkled behind us in all its dazzling beauty .»

These last words Payer's are very characteristic. The polar countries powerfully attract a person who has once visited them, even if this stay was associated with severe hardships.

Having entered the open sea, the travelers headed for Novaya Zemlya. The weather was not very windy, and almost the entire journey had to be done by oars. On the night of August 17-18, we landed at Cape Cherny on Novaya Zemlya. This was the first land that the travelers set foot on after three months of wandering on sea ice.

On August 23, the expedition reached Cape Britvina on the southern island of Novaya Zemlya. By that time there was only ten days' worth of food left. But deliverance was already close. Suddenly, the travelers saw two Russian fishing schooners anchored in Pukhovaya Bay. One of them, the schooner “Nikolai,” was commanded by the industrialist F. Voronin, who tells the following about the rescue of the Austrians: “ That year I was late in the trades and only at the end of August I left Malye Karmakul for Arkhangelsk. As soon as we went out to sea, we saw four boats under the shore, on which there were a lot of people and from which they gave us signals. Approaching the boats, we saw that they were foreigners who had been wrecked. Having settled on the ship, they warmed up and came to life" The Austrian expedition was transported to Varde on the schooner Nikolai.

Commemorative coin issued by the Austrian National Bank

Austrian commemorative Postage Stamp denomination 2.50 shillings, issued to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the polar expedition

In 1930, Norwegian geologist Gunnar Horn published a book about Franz Josef Land, in which he claims that the archipelago was discovered not by the Austrians, but by Norwegian industrialists Rennbeck and Aidiervi in ​​1865. Horn bases his statement solely on the stories of Norwegian industrialists, for almost all the old ship's logs stored in Northern Norway were burned in a fire several years before the publication of Horn's book. Horn's attempt to attribute the discovery of Franz Josef Land to the Norwegians is based on such flimsy data that it cannot be taken seriously.

It should be noted that a contemporary of the two Norwegian industrialists mentioned above, who allegedly discovered Franz Josef Land, the famous Norwegian scientist H. Mon, was extremely interested in all the voyages of Norwegian hunters in Arctic waters and the discoveries they made. Mon studied these voyages from the original ship's logs (later burned) and wrote several very valuable and important articles about them for the history of geography, but he did not say a word about the discovery of Franz Josef Land. If there really was a rumor among Norwegian industrialists about Rennbeck's discovery of Franz Josef Land, then it could not help but reach Mohn, and he would undoubtedly have verified this rumor using documentary data, that is, ship logs. Horn's statement clearly has no basis and cannot even serve as an object of historical speculation, such as the voyage of the Dutch whaler Rowle around 1675, who may have been to Franz Josef Land.

THE WATER FALLS FROM THE TOP OF AUYANTEPUY, MEANING "THE DEVIL'S MOUNTAIN". The Angel may not be as picturesque as Victoria and Niagara Falls, but it is the highest in the world - the Angel's water flow travels almost a kilometer to reach the ground. It is 20 times higher than Niagara Falls! The height of the fall is so great that before reaching the ground, the water is sprayed into tiny particles and turns into fog, which is visible several kilometers from the waterfall.

The falling water stream rushes into the Kerep River. Access to the waterfall is difficult due to the lack of roads and dense tropical forest. Get to unique monument nature is only possible by air or river.

The natives of Venezuela have known about Salto Angel since time immemorial, but it was discovered to the civilized world only in 1910 by the Spanish explorer Ernesto Sanchez La Cruz. The secondary, already official discovery of the waterfall took place in 1935, when the American pilot and gold prospector James Crawford Angel, flying over this area, landed on the top of a lonely mountain in search of gold. His Flamingo monoplane became stuck in a swampy jungle and he spotted a spectacular waterfall stretching down thousands of feet. The gold miner was not too lucky - he had to get to civilization 11 miles, and the plane remained chained to the mountain, a rusting monument to his discovery. Soon the whole world learned about the waterfall, which became known as Angel Falls, in honor of the pilot who discovered it.

Jimmy Angel's plane remained in the jungle for 33 years until it was recovered by helicopter. It is currently housed in the Aviation Museum in Maracay.

The official height of the falls was determined by a National Geographic Society expedition in 1949. Today Angel Falls is considered the main attraction of Venezuela.

On December 20, 2009, on his weekly show, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez renamed Angel Falls Kerepakupai-meru, in accordance with one of its local names. The name Churun-meru was initially proposed, but the president's daughter noticed that one of the smallest waterfalls in this area had this name, so Chavez suggested a different name. The president explained this decision by saying that the waterfall was the property of Venezuela and part of its national wealth long before James Angel came along, and the waterfall should not bear his name. However, it was not renamed on world maps.

Lost in the middle of the ocean, pieces of land called Tristan da Cunha are unique in their kind and are the most remote inhabited archipelago on our planet - the nearest land - St. Helena Island - is more than 2 thousand kilometers away. The archipelago is part of the British overseas territory of St. Helena, and its capital has a very romantic name - Edinburgh of the Seven Seas.

THE FIRST MENTION OF THE ARCHIPELAGO, WHICH IS LOCATED ALMOST in the center of the Atlantic, dates back to 1506, when the Portuguese navigator Tristão da Cunha sailed past its shores. This group of small islands of volcanic origin, distinguished rocky shores and mountainous terrain, the pioneer named it after himself.

The first human foot set foot on the land of the archipelago only 261 years after that significant event- French sailors decided to explore the area. The first local settler was the American Jonathan Lambert. Having settled on one of the Tristan da Cunha islands in 1810, the Massachusetts native died two years later.

The main island of the archipelago was formed about a million years ago. The highest point of the islands is also located here: a volcano called Queen Mary Peak (2055 meters). No more than 300 people live permanently on the island. Despite the warm climate, there are no butterflies, reptiles or mammals on the islands. But here lives the smallest flightless bird in the world - the Tristan rail.

Main activity local residents- fishing. The ocean provides them with almost everything necessary for life. The rest is delivered by passing ships. It is worth noting that from the archipelago to Africa 2816 km, to South America 3360 km, and to St. Helena Island 2161 km. The islands are not connected by regular passenger flights to the mainland. However, it can be reached by fishing and scientific vessels.

It is noteworthy that the islands are very popular in world literature; it was here, on the Tristan da Cunha archipelago, that the heroes of Jules Verne’s novel “The Children of Captain Grant” “visited” during their trip around the world along the 37th parallel. In addition, one of the eruptions of Queen Mary Peak, which occurred in 1961, and its consequences are described in Hervé Bazin's novel The Fortunate of the Island of Despair.

This eruption was the second major one in the history of the archipelago. The first known one occurred in 1906. Both times, the island's residents were evacuated to South Africa and the UK, but when the violence of nature subsided, they returned home again.

Pitcairn Island became famous after numerous film adaptations of the tragic story of the British ship "Bounty", on board of which a mutiny broke out. After his “success,” the instigators on a captured ship with minimal supplies of food and weapons roamed the ocean in search of refuge.

In January 1790G ., after a four-month voyage, rebels reached the coast of Pitcairn, where they created a settlement far from British justice by sinking the ship. The island's population consisted of the rebel leader Fletcher Christian, eight other rebels (10 died while seeking refuge) and 18 Tahitians.

The capital of the island, Adamstown, eventually grew into a tidy little town populated by Christians, mostly Seventh-day Adventists, when the captain of the American ship Topaz, Mayhew Folger, rediscovered Pitcairn, exploring these waters in order to solve the then 19-year-old mystery of the disappearance of the Bounty. . The anchor of the Bounty, discovered by an expedition of the National Geographic Society, now flaunts on a pedestal near the walls of the courthouse, and a little lower are installed the guns from the Bounty raised from the bottom of the sea.

The island cannot boast of beaches. It is not safe to swim at a great distance from the shore - the currents around the island are quite strong and unpredictable.

Church service on Saturdays is the most revered event on the island. The islanders celebrate it with all the required ceremonies. Every year on January 23, the date of the landing of the Bounty crew on the island is celebrated. To celebrate the event, a burning model ship is towed across Bounty Bay, simulating a shipwreck. And then a noisy celebration is held with traditional folklore performances, food for all those gathered and a small fireworks display. Currently, an agreement has been reached between the New Zealand Tourism Consortium and the Pitcairn authorities to build a tourist resort on the island.

The Franz Josef Land archipelago is the closest to the North Pole in the Eastern Hemisphere and is considered Russian territory. It was discovered in 1873. The existence of these islands east of Spitsbergen was predicted by Lomonosov.

THE ARCHIPELAGO WAS DISCOVERED COMPLETELY BY ACCIDENT: The Austro-Hungarian expedition led by Karl Weyprecht and Julius Payer on the sailing-steam schooner Admiral Tegetgoff, which set off on a journey to open the northeastern passage, was covered in ice northwest of Novaya Zemlya. Austrian travelers gave the newly discovered land the name of the Austro-Hungarian Emperor Franz Joseph I.

Today it is one of the rare uninhabited corners on earth. The Franz Josef Land archipelago includes 192 islands, 83% of which is covered eternal ice. A couple of decades ago, numerous Russian polar stations operated on the archipelago. Now they are abandoned, except for one on the island. Hayes, and the entire archipelago is completely in power wildlife. Polar bears come right up to the side of the icebreaker, stand on their hind legs and carefully study people. Here you can observe numerous colonies of walruses, meet arctic foxes, beluga whales and whales, as well as many Arctic birds.

The main mineral resources of the archipelago are brown coals, phosphorites and associated associated components - titanium, vanadium, yttrium, scandium, rare earth metals, thorium.

There is no permanent population on the archipelago. There is not a single municipality or settlement. The temporary population consists of scientists at research stations, FSB border guards and military personnel of the air defense unit carrying out missile defense Russia from the northern direction.

Most of the islands are covered with glaciers; in places free from them there are many lakes, covered with ice most of the year. The flora is quite sparse, dominated by mosses and lichens. There are also polar poppy, saxifrage, grains, and polar willow.

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Origin of the name of the island of Greenland

Greenland is the largest island on earth, owned by Denmark. Its area is 2.17 million km2, about 85% of the surface is covered with glacier. The island was discovered at the end of the 10th century by the Viking Eirik Turvaldson, nicknamed Red and

Origin of the name of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago

Archipelago Tierra del Fuego(area about 72 thousand km2) owes its name to the first round-the-world expedition of Ferdinand Magellan. When the Spanish ships entered the narrow strait, now named after the leader of the expedition, in October 1520, on the ground,

Origin of the name of the island of Sri Lanka (Ceylon)

Sri Lanka (Ceylon) is a large island off the southern coast of India. Its area is 65.6 thousand km2. Travelers called the island “an emerald suspended from Hindustan”, “a paradise island”, “the first refuge of Adam and Eve on earth” after the exile

Origin of the name of the island of Kalimantan (Borneo)

The largest island of the Indonesian archipelago - Kalimantan or Borneo - is the third largest island in the world. The name is explained as “mango country”. Since 1521, Europeans have called it Borneo, after the Sultanate of Brunei in the north.

Origin of the name Shetland

The Shetland Islands (modern Shetland Islands, area about 1400 km2) lie north of Orcad; they were discovered by the Romans in the 1st century AD. e., then mastered by Irish monks (VI century AD), and by the beginning

Origin of the name Balearic Islands

The Balearic Islands are an archipelago in the Western Mediterranean that includes the islands of Mallorca, Minorca, Ibiza and Formentera. The ancient Greeks explained this toponym with the word balla - “throw, throw spears, drive out.” This was facilitated by the fact that their opponents

Origin of the name of the island of Tasmania and the New Zealand archipelago

In the southwestern part of the Pacific Ocean, not far from Australia, there is the large island of Tasmania (area 68.4 thousand km2) and the archipelago New Zealand(area 268.7 thousand km2). The honor of their discovery belongs to the Dutchman Abel Tasman. November 24, 1642

Origin of the name Wrangel Island

Wrangel Island is an island in the East Siberian and Chukchi seas, area 7.3 thousand km2. Bears the name of the famous traveler Ferdinand Petrovich Wrangel (1796-1870) - a navigator who circumnavigated three times Earth, Arctic explorer, geographer, admiral, corresponding member and honorary

Origin of the name of the island of Cuba

It is not difficult to notice that the discoverer of America, like many other navigators of the 15th-16th centuries, preferred to name the newly discovered lands in honor of Catholic saints and holidays. However, not all Columbus names “took root” on the map of the West Indies. Some islands were

Origin of the name Hawaiian Islands

The Hawaiian Islands (from Hawaiian, Hawai"i - “Place of the Gods”; sometimes this toponym is translated as “island, land”) have an area of ​​16.7 thousand km2. The archipelago - the birthplace of orchids - consists of 24 islands bordered by coral reefs. For the first time He,

Origin of the name Falkland Islands

The Falkland Islands, accidentally discovered in 1592 by the English corsair John Davis, were named in 1594 by another English corsair, Richard Hawkins, “The Land of the Maiden” - in honor of the Virgin Queen Elizabeth I. In 1598, the Dutch corsair

Origin of the name Maldives (Maldives)

The Maldives (Maldives) is an archipelago of more than 2,000 coral islands stretching from north to south in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the island of Sri Lanka. Many explanations have been put forward for the origin of the name: Malayadiba - “Malay island” (from one of

Origin of the name Indonesian (Malay) archipelago

And now let's get acquainted with the islands of the Indonesian (or Malay) archipelago - the only, unique island world on the planet. The toponym “Indonesia” began to be used in literature from the middle of the 19th century (from India and the Greek nesos - “island”, i.e.

Origin of the name Hebrides

The Hebrides (The Hebrides, area 7555 km2) were discovered by Pytheas. The Britons called them “either Hems, or Haemodes, or Hembrodes” (there is no reliable etymology). To the northeast of the Hebrides, Pytheas saw several dozen Orcads -

Origin of the name Elba Island

Elba is an island located between Italy and Corsica (area 223 km2). The ancient Greeks called it Athalia - “bright, brilliant”. However, the modern name most likely comes from the Etruscan Elba - “iron” (in ancient times the island was

Origin of the name of the island of New Caledonia

New Caledonia is an island in Southern Melanesia, the fourth largest in Oceania (with an area of ​​16,372 km2). The island was discovered in 1774 by James Cook and named "New Caledonia" due to the similarity of its mountainous landscape to

Origin of the name New Siberian Islands

The New Siberian Islands are an archipelago in the Laptev Sea and the East Siberian Sea, with an area of ​​38.4 thousand km2. The discovery of this archipelago began in 1690 with the “boyar’s son” Maxim Mukhoplev, who discovered the “Krestovy Island” (now Stolbovoy) - the westernmost

Origin of the name of the island of Trinidad

In 1498, during the third journey, on the day Catholic holiday Holy Trinity, the Spaniards discovered an island named by Columbus Trinidad (in Spanish Trinidad - “Trinity”). Later, another large island was discovered to the west of Trinidad, which

Origin of the name Gilbert Archipelago

The Gilbert Islands archipelago (area 264 km2) consists of 16 coral atolls. The official date of discovery of the islands is considered to be 1765, when one of the atolls of the archipelago was visited by the English captain John Byron, the grandfather of the famous poet. And to his

Origin of the name of the island of Gotland

The Swedish island of Gotland (Swedish Gotland - “The land is ready”). It owes its name to the ancient Germanic tribe of Goths (or Getae), which lived in the first centuries of our era in southern Sweden. The area of ​​Gotland is 2.9 thousand km2. This is the most

Origin of the name South Georgia Island

The island of South Georgia, lying northeast of the South Shetland Islands, was discovered in 1756 by the captain of a Spanish merchant ship, and explored in January 1775 by James Cook. Having taken possession of this gloomy sub-Antarctic island, he

Origin of the name of the Bahrain archipelago

Bahrain is an archipelago in the Persian Gulf, consisting of more than 30 islands (area 622 km2). The name is based on the Arabic word bahr - “sea, big river”. Bahrain literally means "two seas". Obviously, the meaning of the name is: or

Origin of the name Philippine Archipelago

The Philippine archipelago has over 7 thousand islands (territory - 300.7 thousand km2), of which eleven are large. The first Europeans to visit the Philippines were, obviously, the Portuguese, however, formally the honor of discovering the archipelago is attributed to the Spanish round-the-world expedition

Origin of the name of the island of Great Britain

The island of Great Britain is located east of Ireland. It is the largest island in Europe. Its area is 230 thousand km2. The name of the island is associated with the name of the Celtic tribe of Britons, who inhabited the southwestern part of the island in ancient times.

Origin of the name of the island of Corsica

Corsica is the fourth largest island Mediterranean Sea(area 8.7 thousand km2). The name is associated with the Phoenician word trochee - “wooded”; according to another version, the island got its name from the Corsi tribe that lived on it. Corsica

Origin of the name of the New Hebrides archipelago

The New Hebrides (area 14.7 thousand km2) is an archipelago of volcanic origin, stretching for almost 1 thousand km between 167° and 170° west. d. Explored in 1774 by James Cook and named “New Hebrides” by him

Origin of the name of the Severnaya Zemlya archipelago

Severnaya Zemlya is an archipelago with an area of ​​37.6 thousand km2. Just as Nikolai Schilling predicted the existence of Franz Josef Land, the famous naturalist and revolutionary anarchist Prince Peter Alekseevich Kropotkin predicted the existence of an archipelago north of the Taimyr Peninsula. In "Notes

Origin of the name Virgin Islands

North of Santa Cruz, Columbus's flotilla discovered an archipelago that he called the Islands of the Eleven Thousand Virgins. These islands dotted the sea in a long line, reminiscent of the procession of the “Eleven Thousand Virgins.” According to legend, maidens who made a pilgrimage from Cornwall to

Origin of the name Marshall Islands

The discovery of the Marshall Islands (Marshall Islands, area 181 km2) is associated with the voyages of the Spanish captains Toryview Alonso Salazar (in 1526) and Alvaro Saavedra (in 1528 and 1529). They received their current name after

Origin of the name of the island of Rügen

The island of Rügen (German: Rugen, area 926 km2), lying in the southern part of the Baltic Sea, was inhabited by the Rügen Slavs in the 2nd-3rd centuries, and many scientists explain its name as originating from Slavic languages. According to one version, the original

Origin of the name South Shetland Islands

The South Shetland Islands were discovered by the English captain William Smith. This brave “sea warrior” was sailing on the brig “William” from Montevideo (Uruguay) to Valparaiso (Chile) and at Cape Horn he was caught in a storm that threw him south.

Origin of the name of the island of Taiwan

The island of Taiwan (area 36 thousand km2) is located at a distance of 130−150 km from mainland China. Most of it is covered with mountains; the west coast is dominated by a plain that turns into mountain terraces. These terraces gave their name

Origin of the name Island of Ireland

Ireland is the third largest island in Europe (after Great Britain and Iceland), its area is 84 thousand km2. The name comes from the Irish Eire (Old Irish Eirinn - "western"). Another version is that the island is named after the inhabitant

Origin of the name of the island of Sardinia

Sardinia is the second largest island in the Mediterranean Sea (area 24 thousand km2). The name is associated with the Iberian tribe of Sardis (XIV century BC); according to another version, it came from the Carthaginian sarado - “foot” (due to

Origin of the name Solomon Islands

The Solomon Islands (Solomon Islands, area - over 35 thousand km2) are located in Melanesia, including the islands of Buka, Bougainville, Choiseul, New Georgia, Santa Isabel, Guadalcanal, Malaita, San Cristobal, etc. This archipelago was discovered in 1568 year by the Spanish expedition

Origin of the name of the Novaya Zemlya archipelago

Novaya Zemlya is an archipelago with an area of ​​82.6 thousand km2 in the zone arctic desert. It was discovered by Russian Pomors in the 11th or 12th centuries, and by the beginning of the 16th century it was already an object of Russian fishing activity. Pomors, apparently

Origin of the name Santa Cruz Island

On Thursday, November 14, 1493, during Columbus's expedition to the West Indies, the admiral dropped anchor off the island, which he gave the name Santa Cruz (Holy Cross). He ordered his men to land on shore and try

Origin of the name Caroline Islands

The Caroline Islands (area 1195 km2) were discovered in 1525 by Portuguese navigators Diogo de Rocha and Gomes de Siqueira, and in 1528 and 1529 they were explored by the Spanish navigator Alvaro Saavedra, who named them Islas

Origin of the name of the island of Bornholm

The island of Bornholm (Danish Bornholm) in the 9th-13th centuries was called Burgunaland (“Land of the Burgundians”), Burgundarholm (“Island of the Burgundians”) and was considered the ancestral home of the Germanic tribes of the Burgundians. In the 15th century, the name was reinterpreted due to its sound similarity to born - “river, stream”

Origin of the name South Sandwich Islands

The South Sandwich Islands were discovered in 1775 by the famous English explorer James Cook. He named them Sandwich Land in honor of Lord Admiral John Montagu, Earl of Sandwich (1712-1792), who headed the British Admiralty at the time.

Origin of the name Seychelles

Seychelles is an archipelago consisting of 85 large and small islands. Discovered by the Portuguese in 1505 and named the Seven Sisters. In the 16th-18th centuries they served as a haven for pirates and corsairs, including La

Origin of the name Japanese Islands

Located south of Sakhalin Japanese islands: Hokkaido, Honshu, Kyushu, Shikoku and many others. Their total area is 372 thousand km2. The largest of them is Honshu; translated from Japanese hon means “chief, main”, shu

Origin of the name of the island of Newfoundland

The island of Newfoundland is a hilly Canadian island covered coniferous forests(area about 111 thousand km2) owes its discovery and name to the Genoese sailor Giovanni Cabota. Around 1494 he settled in England, where he began to be called

Origin of the name of the island of Sicily

Sicily is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea (area 25.7 thousand km2). It is named after the ancient Italian tribe of Siculi, ousted from Italy and resettled around the 11th century. BC e. to Sicily. Ancient Greek scientist

Origin of the name of the island of Fiji

The Fiji Islands are located at the junction of Polynesia and Melanesia, with an area of ​​more than 18 thousand km2. The largest islands of the archipelago - Viti Levu and Vanua Levu - were discovered in 1643 by Abel Tasman. In the Aboriginal language the name

Origin of the name of the Franz Josef Land archipelago

Franz Josef Land is an archipelago with an area of ​​16.1 thousand km2, discovered in 1873 by the Austro-Hungarian polar expedition. The existence of the archipelago was predicted by the Russian naval sailor Nikolai Gustavovich Schilling in 1865. Having studied the nature of ice movement in the Northern

Origin of the name of the island of Montserrat

The island of Montserrat, located 12 leagues northwest of Guadeloupe, was named by Columbus after the mountain in the vicinity of Barcelona, ​​on which a monastery famous among Catholics is located. This happened during Columbus's expedition to the islands

Origin of the name Mariana Islands

The Mariana Islands (area 1018 km2) were discovered in 1521 by Magellan, who named them Islas de los Ladrones - “Islands of Thieves”, “Robber Islands”. Modern name associated with the activities of the Catholic missionary - Jesuit Diego Luis

Origin of the name of the island of Zealand

After wandering the cold North Atlantic, you can pass through the Skagerrak, Kattegat and Oresund straits into the Baltic Sea. Here it is not difficult to find the Danish islands of Zealand and. Bornholm, the German island of Rügen, the Swedish island of Gotland. Zealand Island is the largest

Origin of the names of the islands of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha

The islands of Ascension and Saint Helena lie in the middle of the Atlantic. They were discovered by the Portuguese expedition of Joao da Nova Castel, who was sent to India with a flotilla of 4 ships for spices. The flotilla left Lisbon in March 1501

Origin of the name of the island of Zanzibar

From the Comoros Islands in a northwest direction is the island of Zanzibar. In the Middle Ages, the largest slave trading center in the Indian Ocean basin was located here, from where African slaves were exported to the countries of the East. The word “Zanzibar” itself is of Arab-Iranian origin.

Origin of the name of Sakhalin Island

The origin of the name of Sakhalin Island (area 76.4 thousand km2) is equally mysterious. In the scientific literature, the prevailing opinion is that the name comes from the hydronym Sakhalyanula - “black river” (this is the Manchu name of the Amur River, opposite the mouth of which is located

Origin of the name Bermuda

The Bermuda Islands are small coral islands discovered around 1503 by the Spanish navigator Juan Bermudez, who called them the Devil's Islands. In 1519, the islands were named after the discoverer. IN early XVII century, the ship of an English corsair crashed there

Origin of the name of the island of Malta

Malta is an island in the center of the Mediterranean Sea, lies south of Sicily, and has an area of ​​246 km2. Some researchers associate the name “Malta” with the Phoenician word malat, meaning “port” or “shelter” (from storms and pirates). Phoenicians,

Origin of the name of the Tonga archipelago

The Tonga (Friendship) archipelago is located in Western Polynesia and consists of 160 islands with a total area of ​​699 km2. The first European navigator to see these islands was the Dutchman Abel Tasman (1643). James Cook visited here in 1773 and named the archipelago

Origin of the name of the Spitsbergen archipelago

Spitsbergen is an archipelago in the Arctic Ocean, area 62 thousand km2. In Norway it is called Svalbard (Svalbard - “Cold Land”). The Scandinavians gave this name to some land they discovered in the North, which the polar navigator

OPENING

Paradox. These oceanic islands were discovered by a sea expedition of the Austrians, a landlocked nation. Moreover, on a ship named after the Austrian admiral. In those days, however, Austria controlled a completely different territory in Europe than it does now.

This land was discovered in 1873 Austrian expedition led by lieutenants Julius Payer And Karl Weiprecht. Accidentally.

The purpose of the expedition was to discover the Northeast Passage from Atlantic Ocean in Quiet. Purpose built wooden steam ship "Admiral Tegethof" left German Bremerhaven on June 13, 1872. On August 21, off the western coast of Novaya Zemlya, the ship froze into ice and began to drift with it to the northwest. A year later, on August 30, 1873, the ice brought the Admiral to the shores predicted by Lomonosov, Schilling and Kropotkin, Z.F.I. - NAME, .

Quote. Around noon we stood with our elbows on the side of the ship, looking aimlessly into the fog, which began to break here and there. Suddenly, in the northwest, the fog cleared completely, and we saw the outlines of rocks. And a few minutes later, a panorama of a mountainous country, sparkling with its glaciers, unfolded before our eyes in all its splendor. At first, we stood as if paralyzed and did not believe in the reality of the picture opening before us. Then, realizing our happiness, we burst into stormy cries: “Earth, earth!” It was given to us by the whim of the ice floe that captivated us... An accident brought us here.

Y. Payer

In honor of their monarch, the Austrians named the discovered land Kaiser Franz Josef Land. Discovered, but not yet touched by foot.

Only two months later, when the ship, drifting with ice, froze into the coastal fast ice, the expedition members were able to land on shore without big island in the southeast of the archipelago. The island was named after the count Vilchek, who subsidized the expedition (he later became president of the Austrian Geographical Society).

Then - the polar night, scurvy began, and the hunt for polar bears. With the appearance of the sun - exploration of the archipelago.

In May 1874, the expedition left the Tegethof, which remained captive in the ice, and on a sleigh through the ice, overcoming polynyas on boats, reached Novaya Zemlya in 96 days. There they were lucky enough to meet an artel of Pomors led by Voronin. Taking the victims on board his schooner "Nikolai", he took them to the Norwegian port of Vardo. From there, the Austrians, on the 812th day from the start of the expedition, returned to their homeland.

For the Austrian expedition, as for many explorers striving for the poles in those years, such travel was largely an extreme sport for the rich. How alien and incomprehensible those exploits were to the people was shown with humor by the Czech Jaroslav Hasek, once also a subject of Franz Joseph.

Quote

I remember they said that Austria had colonies, Schweik said, somewhere in the north. Some kind of Land of Emperor Franz Joseph.

Give it up, guys,” one of the guards intervened. - Nowadays it is dangerous to talk about some Land of Emperor Franz Joseph. The best thing is don't name names.

“And look at the map,” the volunteer interrupted him. - In fact, there is the Land of our most merciful monarch, Emperor Franz Joseph. According to statistics, there is only ice there, which is transported on icebreakers belonging to Prague refrigerators. Our ice industry has earned high praise and respect abroad, since it is a very profitable enterprise, although dangerous. The greatest danger when exporting ice from Franz Josef Land is crossing the Arctic Circle. Can you imagine this?

The guard muttered something incomprehensible, and the head of the convoy, a corporal, came closer and began to listen to the volunteer’s explanations. He continued with a thoughtful look:

This single Austrian colony can supply ice to all of Europe and is a major economic factor. Of course, colonization is progressing slowly, since the colonists partly do not want to go there at all, and partly they freeze there. However, with improvement climatic conditions, in which the Ministries of Commerce and Foreign Affairs are very interested, there is hope that the vast glacial areas will be properly utilized. After the construction of several hotels, masses of tourists will be attracted there. It is, of course, necessary for convenience to lay out tourist paths and paths between the ice floes and paint tourist signs on the glaciers. The only difficulty remains the Eskimos, who are slowing down the work of our local authorities...

The corporal listened with interest. He was a long-term soldier, a former farm laborer, a tough and narrow-minded man who tried to pick up everything he had no idea about. His ideal was to rise to the rank of sergeant major.

“...the scoundrel Eskimos don’t want to learn German,” continued the volunteer, “although the Ministry of Education, Mr. Corporal, not stopping at the expense and human sacrifice, built schools for them.” Then five architects-builders froze and...

The masons were saved,” Schweik interrupted him. - They warmed up by smoking pipes.

“Not all,” the volunteer objected, “misfortune happened to two.” They forgot that they had to take a drag, their pipes went out, and they had to bury the poor fellows in ice. But the school was eventually built. It was built from ice bricks with reinforced concrete. It turns out very durable! Then the Eskimos lit fires around the entire school from the wreckage of ice-covered merchant ships and carried out their plan. The ice on which the school stood melted, and the entire school fell into the sea, along with the principal and a government representative who was to be present at the school's dedication the next day. At this terrible moment, all that could be heard was how a government representative, already up to his neck in water, shouted: “Gott strafe England!” Now they will probably send troops there to restore order among the Eskimos. Of course, it is difficult to fight with them. Most of all, their trained polar bears will harm our troops.

“This was still not enough,” the corporal remarked thoughtfully...

Yaroslav Hasek.
The adventures of the good soldier Schweik during the World War

A group of islands led by a very large one is also named after him. This is Wilczek Land in the east of W.F.I.

Fyodor Ivanovich Voronin is the grandfather of the famous Soviet captain of the icebreaker fleet Vladimir Ivanovich Voronin, fur trader, tradesman of Sumsky Posad (now in Karelia, east of Belomorsk).

Franz Josef Land is known to many from the songs of Yuri Vizbor, who traveled all over north sea from Murmansk to Chukotka and further across the Far East!
And it’s worth it, because Franz Josef Land (abbreviated as ZFI) breaks many Russian and world records: it is the northernmost point of the Russian island land, the closest land to the North Pole, the northernmost border post of the Russian Federation, the northernmost post office and the northernmost airfield in world, the northernmost theater of operations in Patriotic War, the most extreme of our islands!
And this list can go on for a long time!
And, of course, the northernmost Orthodox Cross - to our heroes, explorers and travelers who, without sparing their bellies, expanded the borders of our boundless Motherland!

Geography: island point: Cape Fligeli on Rudolf Island in the Franz Josef Land archipelago is located all the way to the north - 81° 49" N, the distance from Cape Fligeli to the North Pole is only 900 km.

Rudolf Island is the northernmost of the Franz Josef Land islands. Cape Fligeli on the island is the northernmost point of land, belonging to Russian Federation, at the same time the northernmost point of Europe. The island administratively belongs to the Arkhangelsk region. Area 297 km?. Almost completely covered by a glacier.

The island, like the entire Franz Josef Archipelago, was discovered in 1873 by the Austro-Hungarian expedition of explorer J. Payer, and was named after Rudolf, Crown Prince of Austria. In 1936, the base of the first Soviet air expedition to the North Pole was established on the island. From there, in May 1937, four heavy four-engine ANT-6 aircraft brought the Papaninites to the top of the world.

The military played a leading role in the development of many remote territories of our country. In some places in the Far North and Far East, garrisons are still the main type of settlements. True, in post-Soviet times the number of such garrisons and the population in them sharply decreased. However, our geography textbooks still do not write anything about “military” development, even in cases where it has long been no longer a secret. This is a little surprising, since for many both old-developed areas and newly developed regions, parts of various law enforcement agencies perform the functions of city-forming enterprises.

Franz Josef Land was discovered at the end of the 19th century. an Austro-Hungarian expedition that set off in 1872 in search of the Northeast Passage, and perhaps to reach the North Pole and in 1873, pressed by ice to the shores of a hitherto unknown land, named after the then Emperor of Austria-Hungary *. Z.F.I., as it is usually called in the North, has an area of ​​approximately 16 thousand km2 and consists of 191 islands.

The first permanent settlement on Novaya Zemlya appeared in 1877. It is called Malye Karmakuly. In 1896, a hydrometeorological station was created in Malye Karmakuly, which exists to this day and is the oldest polar station in Russia.

Straits
The Arkhangelsk Strait passes between the Polar Pilots Peninsula and the Armitage Peninsula. South of the Arkhangelsk Strait is the Cambridge Strait, washing southern part islands.

Bays and bays of Alexandra Land

Omelaya Bay
St. John's Bay
Topographers Bay (between Cape Melekhov and the western coast of the Polar Pilots Peninsula)
Dezhnev Bay
Northern Bay
Ostrovnaya Bay
Weyprecht Bay
Nordenskiöld Bay

Capes of Alexandra Land
Transfer from extreme western point clockwise:
Cape Mary Harmsworth
Cape Nimrod
Cape Strelka
Cape Nagursky
Cape Zamanchiviy
Cape Thomas
Cape Melekhova
Cape Dvoinoy
Cape Babushkina
Cape Ledyanoy
Cape Abrosimov
Cape Finger
Cape Ludlova
Cape Lofley

mid-polar summer in the Polar Region

LAND OF VILČEK
Wilczek Land is an island in the Arctic Ocean, the second largest island in the Franz Josef Land archipelago. Named after Hans Wilczek, who financed the Austrian expedition of Karl Weyprecht and Julius Payer that discovered the island in 1873.
Located in the eastern part of the archipelago. Separated from the western group of islands by the Austrian Strait, from the Graham Bell Island lying northeast by the Morgan Strait. The surface of the island is a plateau with relative heights of 400-600 m and is almost completely covered by a glacier. The area of ​​the island is about 2000 km², the highest point is 606 m.

Nearby small islands
9 km south of Perseus Bay lies the island of Klagenfurt, named after the Austrian city of Klagenfurt.
Just off the east coast are the Gorbunov Islands, named after the Russian naturalist Grigory Petrovich Gorbunov.
Four small islands lie 1.5 km to the southeast:
Wood
Dawes
McCulta
Tillo
Climate
The climate is harsh, arctic. On average, only 18 days with temperatures above 0 °C are recorded per year. Average annual temperature air is −12 °C, the maximum recorded temperature is +12 °C, the minimum is −42 °C. The average annual precipitation is 280 mm.

GRAHAM BELL ISLAND
Graham-Bell is the most east island in the Franz Josef Land archipelago, in northern Europe. Part of the polar possessions of Russia is part of the Arkhangelsk region. Area - 1.7 thousand km².
It was discovered in 1899 during a sleigh ride by American meteorologist Evelyn Baldwin, named after Alexander Graham Bell.
The highest point is 509 meters, the Vetreny glacier dome.
The largest lake on the island is Small, the second largest is Severnoye.
The northernmost point of the island is Cape Aerosemki, the easternmost point is Cape Semerykh (Cape Peschany). The easternmost point of the island and the entire archipelago is Cape Olney, to the north of which Cape Kolzat is located; extreme southern point- Cape Leiter.
In the west there is a large bay - Matusevich Bay. In the east there is a small Ilistaya Bay with many small sandy islands.
The nearest islands are Pearl Island and Trekhluchevoy. In the west, Graham Bell is separated from the island of Wilczek Land by the Morgan Strait.

Cape Trieste, Champ Island

JOURNEY TO THE LAND OF FRANZ JOSEPH
The Franz Josef Land archipelago is not only the most remote Northern part Russia, but also, perhaps, one of the most unexplored tourist spots in the world. No, the specialists there undoubtedly worked and tried to figure out a lot of things, but for tourists this region of our country is still “Terra incognita”.
Indeed, firstly, the opportunity to visit these islands for domestic and foreign travel enthusiasts appeared literally a couple of decades ago. Secondly, you can get there either by air, for example, by helicopter, or by sea-ocean, from Murmansk, but this is far, or from Arkhangelsk - this, of course, is closer, but in both cases, tourist trips to the Polar Region region do not happen often . Thirdly, it is possible to visit them for a very limited time, about three months a year.

But there is also a fourth thing. A trip there in any acceptable way costs decent money, in other words, well, you need a lot of money, so inquisitive foreigners from different regions of the Earth, for whom such amounts are not critical, visited the archipelago significantly more than Russians, although our compatriots also went there began to get there, and the further, the more.

Miracles on the FJL are found on literally every island, but among all of them there is one very amazing piece of land. And its name is also unusual - Champ, so short, but very sonorous. It turned out that it was named after William Champ, who in 1905, as the personal secretary of the American millionaire Ziegler, went as the head of a rescue operation to search for the missing polar expedition, financed by the same Ziegler.

So, the Arctic island named Champa is one of the most unique places on Earth - it is all strewn with strange, perfectly round stones, called “spherulites”, and they range from small, pocket-sized ones, to giants with a diameter of more than two meters and a weight of many tons The nature of their origin has not yet been explained by science. We were told all this at one of the briefings, and they even showed us photographs. Very impressive photos, I must say. Imagine how we longed to go there!

It was to this unusual island that our ship rushed. And everything would have been fine, but the closer we got to the island, the denser the fog became, and the less likely it was for us to land. The main danger in such weather was bears, because the animals could approach completely silently, the fog was not a hindrance for them, and it was very difficult to organize 100% security for tourists. And examining the island in such fog is a very dubious pleasure.
It was decided that “50 Years of Victory” would stand for a while near the island of Champa, and we would all wait, suddenly the gods would be merciful and the fog would clear.
After making such a decision, tourists, in order to distract them from sad thoughts, were invited to the lecture hall for another unusual and amazing event - a Charity Auction, the northernmost of all that have ever been held in the world, all proceeds from it should go to polar bear conservation fund.

We were still a little bored, but then everyone was invited to come for dinner, and we went to the restaurant. A big surprise awaited us there - a Russian dinner, all the waitresses were dressed in Russian National costumes, on the buffet table, along with the usual salads and appetizers, lay traditional Russian products - jars of black caviar, bottles of a wide variety of vodka, which was not there: Stolichnaya, and Tsarskaya, and Five Lakes, and so on, and so forth. . There was only a Bad one, but that doesn’t happen in jokes either.
Everything was fine, there was only one problem - both the cans and bottles, as they were closed, remained closed until the end of dinner. Maybe they were dummies? We still don't understand.

After dinner, we were assured that if the fog cleared at night, and this was expected around two in the morning, then they would lift us up and we would go on an excursion on the Zodiacs; there would be no darkness, because the polar day overboard does not stop even at night .
We were sleeping soundly, but then the loudspeaker sounded:
— We invite everyone to an excursion to Champ Island.
While this message was being duplicated in other languages, we managed to get dressed, and only at the door did we pay attention to the TV screen. What we saw amazed us; it turned out that it really was 2 am.
“They give it to me,” it burst out from us at the same time.
On the upper deck we stood in a long line, it turned out that almost all the foreigners had already gathered, and the Chinese were standing first, apparently they were all sleeping without undressing, otherwise how could they get ready so quickly.

Boarding began, “Zodiac” after “Zodiac” was filled with tourists, but did not leave, but gathered nearby in a flock, we moved closer and closer to the ramp, the sixth boat was filled, and they all immediately disappeared into the fog. Yes, yes, it was precisely in the fog, which did not decrease at all, that it seemed to thicken even more.
“Maybe it’s just here, around the ship, that there’s such a fog, but the shore is clear?” — someone’s voice sounded behind him.
We looked at each other, such a simple thought did not occur to us. Well, this is probably really true, I thought, otherwise, why are they dragging us there in the middle of the night?
The boats left, we were told that we would have to wait at least an hour for their return. This means that they will reach the shore, disembark there, walk around a bit and get back into the Zodiacs to return on board, and only after that we will sail. Some of the tourists left, deciding that waiting in the middle of the night was not justified, but we were so curious, we so wanted to see these round stones, and, to hide one, secretly put it in our pocket, that we stayed, and we were right. This is what ultimately happened.

We stood leaning on the railing, anxiously waiting for the boats to return. Our eyes were directed into the foggy distance towards the stern of the ship, we were not bothered by extraneous sounds, nothing distracted us, we were, how would it be more correct to say, probably fixated on the very process of waiting. Imagine yourself, they wake you up in the middle of the night and say: you need to stand and wait for an hour. What would you do if you agreed to stand and wait for an hour at 2 am?

About another half hour passed, active movement began on the yachts, apparently they received the “Okay” and began to prepare the rubber boats for launching, but then our “Zodiacs” emerged from the fog, and we turned our attention to them. Tourists were climbing up the ladder, mostly they were silent and somehow sad and sad. One of the Russians who made it to the first approach explained to us that there was no less fog there, there was nothing to see, they didn’t see any living creatures except birds, in general, it wasn’t worth swimming.

But we considered it unreasonable to refuse the trip, after having already waited so long, and even at such a time, and settled on the sides of the boat, which was driven by Dmitry. There was only one more boat next to us; there were no more passengers. A few minutes later, the icebreaker disappeared into the fog, the second boat stayed nearby, but sometimes it also began to dissolve in space and then its contours could hardly be seen through the oncoming waves of dense fog. We moved on a whim, the Zodiacs were not equipped with any navigation devices, but we were not supposed to pass by a rather large island, and from the icebreaker we could correct our route via radio, because they saw us perfectly well, or rather not us, of course , but the point that corresponded to our location on the locator screen.

The fog cleared a little, and it became clearer and further away. In front of us appeared the shore of the island, covered with a glacier sliding into the sea; one of the icebergs, which had recently broken off from this glacier, was floating very close by. The iceberg housed many birds, which chose it as a mobile recreation center. Some of the birds swam on the water.
Dmitry pointed the boat towards the iceberg so that we could get a good look at the birds. And then two fast and agile figures appeared between the shore and the boat in the sea - they were young walruses. The animals, not paying any attention to us, dived, disappearing for a long time under water.
Walruses in Once again dived and disappeared under water for a long time. Dmitry started the engine and began to move in the direction where the walruses had recently been.
- We won't scare them? - someone asked.
- Yes, no, on the contrary. They are curious and will come closer to the noise.
That's how it all happened. The walruses surfaced next to our boat and swam nearby for a while, as if posing so that we could get a good look at them. Interesting fact: according to evolutionary theory, a walrus is a bear that has gone under water. We tried to find similarities between a bear and a walrus, sometimes it worked, but more often the walrus looked like anyone, but not a bear.

journey through the FJL - icebreaker Captain Dranitsyn

GALL ISLAND
At this time we were walking at cruising speed towards Gallya Island, one of the southernmost islands of the archipelago. It was there that we planned our final helicopter landing on the mesa of Cape Tegethoff. Table Mountain is the scientific name for all peaks with a truncated, flat top. There are an innumerable number of such mountains in the world; their formation is explained by weathering sedimentary rocks, from which they are composed. We saw a lot of them at FFI. But it seemed to me that the tops of the mountains there were simply licked off by a glacier or pressed down so that a flat surface was formed.

The sea was calm, the fog was swirling somewhere in the distance, visibility was very acceptable, so for a very long time we, those who were on the navigation bridge, saw a huge iceberg lying alone on the surface of the sea.
The captain immediately appeared and ordered to slow down and approach this handsome man. And there was something to see. Lump blue ice lay motionless on the sea surface, it seemed that it was just lying at the very top, stretching out in length for a good hundred or so meters and rising up to the height of a ten-story building, such a hill appeared in front of us.
Behind the iceberg we could already see the islands we were aiming for, but there was no time for them. We saw a real iceberg for the first time and were eager to examine it from all sides. The reason for the sinking of the Titanic became clear; if it ran into such an obstacle at full speed, nothing would survive, not a single ship, perhaps even one like our icebreaker.
The icebreaker came almost close to the ice mountain, and then lightly poked its nose into the edge of this wall, and immediately pieces and pieces fell from it, the wall turned out to be weak.
There was mass photography taking place against the backdrop of this miracle of nature. People took the most bizarre poses just to catch the angle they liked. We didn’t lag behind everyone either.
We stood high above the water level and looked down, so we clearly saw that the mountain was going straight under the water. It was impossible to determine how far, or rather, deep, it continues under water, but it is obvious that the experts are right, and most of the ice is down there, under water, but I don’t know about 90%, it seems to me that this figure is somewhat exaggerated.
The nuclear-powered ship slowly walked around the ice mountain, it was obvious that nature knew its business well, the ice was all eaten away by the mild sun, fog and rain. It was clear that this piece of ice would not float in the ocean for long; it would soon come to an end, and the volume of sea water would not be replenished much.
We swam around the iceberg and saw its reverse side, it seemed to be the creation of human hands, such a smooth, slightly inclined, upward surface appeared before us, well, just like the take-off deck of an aircraft carrier, and immediately the handsome “Admiral Kuznetsov” appeared before our eyes.
That's it, the iceberg was left far behind, and we continued on our way to Gallya Island. In front of us lay a seemingly endless strip of islands covered with snow and ice; perhaps this is exactly what the Austrian sailors, the discoverers of these islands, saw.
The ship dropped anchor near the famous Cape Tegethoff. Well, since I wrote that the cape is famous, I need to explain why. The fact is that the history of the development of the Franz Josef Land archipelago began from this cape. After all, it was to the area of ​​Hallya Island, or, to be more precise, to this very cape on August 30, 1873 that the ice brought the schooner “Admiral Tegethoff” of the Austrian expedition - the discoverers of the Polar Region. In memory of their landing, a monument to the schooner was erected on the cape.

We looked from the deck of the nuclear-powered ship at the sharp kekurs sticking straight out of depths of the sea, which the famous Russian polar explorer Viktor Boyarsky figuratively called “Dragon Fangs”, and indeed they really resemble something similar, however, we were not able to see the dragons themselves, but their fangs could only be like this and no other, and the place, it would seem, is right - it was created for them.

The long wait began for our turn for the helicopter tour. To be fair, the management changed the order of flights, and this time tourists from the very last group were supposed to fly first. The procedure was structured as follows. First of all, the guards flew to the mountain; you can expect anything from the bears. By the way, the first tourists noticed a polar bear below, but, most likely, he was greatly frightened by the helicopter roar, and he chose to hide; we never saw him. Together with the guards, Ian and his friend flew there, who led all the landing and landing operations.

The empty helicopter returned to the ship, the Chinese comrades loaded into it, and the carousel began to spin - the helicopter was swinging back and forth, carrying the next group from the icebreaker, then picking up the previous one from the island, and so on until the very end, when it made its last flight, taking Yan and security. We were now almost at the end, but the queue, no matter how slowly it crawled - after all, a two-way flight with two take-offs and landings and a change of tourists took about 10-12 minutes - still got to us, and we sat down in The helicopter, this time next to the pilot to get a better look at everything, went to the island.

So, jumping from rock to rock, we moved from the landing site, perhaps the only truly flat place suitable for a helicopter, to the edge of the peak, from where we could take decent photographs of the cape, the sea and the ship, and then back to the landing site .
From above, of course, the view of the cape is very good; two rock outcrops, 25 and 60 meters high, are clearly visible. There is a border at the cape - they go to the south, and to the north lies Surovaya Bay, which is already part of the Arctic waters, like this. It must be said that this border is not clearly demarcated.
Slowly moving along the mountain, we tried to find at least some signs of life, but around there were only stones, stones, ice and snow, but no, in one place there was a tiny island of greenery that pleased us with its love of life.

It’s all over, the helicopter has come for us, it’s time to go down to the ship, but first we need to examine the island from above.
Down from the top of the table mountain of Gallya Island stretch beautiful rocks, named in memory of the outstanding Soviet geologist Academician Alexander Nikolaevich Zavarnitsky, Zavarnitsky Rocks, stretching 15 kilometers deep into the island, reaching a maximum height of 500 meters.
Well, the helicopter’s rotor froze, everyone returned on board, and we can move on. We were surprised to hear the announcement that the icebreaker was turning around and we would go back to Champ Island. We really liked this solution, maybe we will still be able to get to the island with the stone balls.
Moving on, we cast our last glance at the “dragon’s fangs”; from this point they could be mistaken for a kind of gate blocking the path to Gallya Island and the cape itself with two remnants decorating it.

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SOURCE OF INFORMATION AND PHOTO:
Team Nomads
Savatyugin L.M., Dorozhkina M.V. Archipelago of Franz Josef Land: history, names and names. - St. Petersburg: AAII, 2012. - 484 p. — ISBN 978-5-98364-054-2
Sergey V. Popov, Vladilen A. Troitsky Franz Josef Land Archipelago // Toponymy of the seas of the Soviet Arctic / Ed. L. A. Borisova. - Leningrad: Geographical Society of the USSR, 1972. - P. 85-128. — 316 p. — 1000 copies.
Franz Josef Land: Collection of articles / USSR, Scientific and technical. ex. VSNKh No. 352. - M.: State Technical Publishing House, 1930. - (Proceedings of the Institute for the Study of the North; issue 47).
Mikhail N. Ivanychuk 14 months on the land of Franz Joseph. Impressions of a winterer. - Kharkov: Ukrainian robotnik, 1934. - 122, p.
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Martynov V. | Novaya Zemlya is a military land | Newspaper "Geography" No. 09/2009
Island of Captain Kuchiev | Ship side April 2, 2008 | Publishing house "Northern Week"
Kryukov V.D., Zatsepin E.N., Sergeev M.B. Historical sketch of the Polar Marine Geological Exploration Expedition. "Exploration and protection of subsoil" No. 8 2012
The northernmost branch of the Russian Post.
Two million barrels await Putin's partners in the Arctic - Science - GZT.RU
Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron: In 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional ones). - St. Petersburg: 1890—1907.
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photo by V. Balyakin, O. Parshina, A. Zolotina, S. Anisimov