Alger island

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Alger island
Map of the Franz Josef Land
Map of the Franz Josef Land
Waters Arctic Ocean
Archipelago Franz Josef Land
Geographical location 80 ° 23 ′  N , 56 ° 2 ′  E Coordinates: 80 ° 23 ′  N , 56 ° 2 ′  E
Alger Island (Franz Josef Land)
Alger island
length 10.5 km
width 4.5 km
surface 45 km²
Highest elevation 429  m
Residents uninhabited

The Alger Island ( Russian Алджер , Aldscher ) is an uninhabited island in the south of the Franz Josef Land archipelago in the Arctic Ocean . It is located north of McClintock Island at the southeastern exit of Markham Sound and at the northern end of the Aberdare Canal. Matilda Island is in front of it to the southwest. With an area of ​​45 km², it is one of the smaller islands in the archipelago. The middle and north-western part of the island are glaciated, while a sandy-loamy area extends over the flat south-eastern part. In the extreme southeast of the island are the remains of Camp Ziegler, the former base camp of the Baldwin-Ziegler polar expedition , which is now a tourist attraction.

history

The discovery of the island is attributed to the Wellman Expedition from 1898 to 1899. Walter Wellman also gave the island its name, probably after Russell Alexander Alger , the incumbent US Secretary of War, and maybe after the writer Horatio Alger .

The Alger Island is best known for the role it played during the two North Pole expeditions financed by the American entrepreneur William Ziegler (1843–1905) in the first decade of the 20th century. Evelyn Baldwin , the leader of the Baldwin-Ziegler Expedition, set up his base camp Camp Ziegler in the south-east of the island in 1901 after the attempt to advance further north with his ship America had failed. A second camp was set up on the western tip of Alder Island, directly across from Matilda Island. Although the Baldwin-Ziegler Expedition was the best-equipped polar expedition of its time, it failed without even attempting to reach its real destination - the geographic North Pole . The second expedition financed by Ziegler, which was undertaken from 1904 to 1906 under the direction of Anthony Fiala (1869–1950), could not conquer the pole either. Part of the team occasionally used the Baldwin-built Camp Ziegler again.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Andreas Umbreit: Alger (Aldzher) Insel, Camp Ziegler on the Franz-Joseph-Land Info website , accessed on June 7, 2012
  2. ^ William James Mills: Exploring Polar Frontiers - A Historical Encyclopedia , ABC-CLIO, 2003, ISBN 1-57607-422-6 , p. 10

Web links