Eduard Orel

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Eduard Orel

Eduard von Orel (born August 5, 1841 in Neutitschein , † February 5, 1892 in Miramar ) was an Austrian naval officer, explorer and polar navigator .

Career

Orel was born in Moravia as the son of the magistrate chancellery Johann Martin Orel (* 1801) and his wife Anna, née Löffler, (* 1804). After attending secondary school, Orel went to the Polytechnic Institute. At the age of twenty he embarked on a career as a naval officer . Because of his age, he did not attend the Naval Academy in Rijeka , which took students between the ages of 14 and 16. Orel used the direct entry provided for older candidates with high school diploma at the Trieste Maritime District Command on April 28, 1861. As early as May 1st, he was embarked as a Sea Eleve 1st class on the Goelette Aretusa , which together with the frigate Venus for training purposes in the Bay of Muggia was. On July 1, Orel came to the Brigg Hussar , a sailing training ship of the Austrian Navy. On October 5, 1861, he received the rank of midshipman .

After further training on the liner Kaiser , he was deployed in the Adriatic from the end of 1861 to August 1862 on the corvette Dandolo , which crossed the Montenegrin and Albanian coast, using the port of Cattaro (Kotor) as a base. After further stations on various ships and in the Naval School of Pola , Orel was assigned to the Lake Garda flotilla, which was based in Peschiera on Lake Garda . Orders to Mantua took him on the pirogue Conchiglia or the sailing gunboat X in the port of Curtatone on Lake Superiore in the course of the Mincio . The sailing gunboat X was commanded by midshipman Gustav Brosch . As Brosch was a few months older than Orel, he was in command. A friendship developed between the two, which proved itself in later ventures.

At the end of 1865, the naval command brought Orel back to sea. On March 3, 1866, Orel came to the Goelette Saida, whom he knew from his training days, and on May 18, 1866, to the tank frigate Prinz Eugen , one of the most powerful and modern warships in Austria. The war against Italy began on June 28, during which Eduard Orel took part in the naval battle of Lissa on July 20 , in which the two most important Italian ships, the armored cruiser Palestro and the flagship Re d`Italia sank. The Prinz Eugen, under the command of the ship's captain Alfred Barry, suffered 21 hits and was able to fire 234 bullets against the enemy. Orel later received the war medal for his behavior in battle . On July 26th he was promoted to ensign of the ships of the line.

In the Gulf of Mexico

On October 26th, Orel left the port of Trieste on the paddle steamer Elisabeth for Mexico . Under the command of the ship's captain Gustav von Gröller, the Elisabeth in Veracruz was supposed to take Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian , currently reigning Emperor Maximilian of Mexico , on board, whose position had become untenable after the withdrawal of the French troops. On the Elisabeth Orel met the ship's ensign Carl Weyprecht . This encounter played a crucial role in the young officer's future life. The Elisabeth reached on 24 December 1866 Sacrificio near Veracruz.

The imperial possessions were brought on board, however the emperor decided to stay ashore to assemble his own army. The Elisabeth remained in the harbor, where Eduard Orel since February 1867 was responsible for guarding the cargo.

On May 15, Emperor Maximilian was arrested by the revolutionaries under Benito Juárez and shot with his closest confidante on June 14, whereupon Elisabeth sailed for New Orleans . From there, Vice-Admiral Wilhelm von Tegetthoff negotiated with Juarez on instructions from Emperor Franz Josef about the handing over of Maximilian's body. Because of the climate in the Gulf of Mexico, the team suffered from tropical diseases such as typhus , yellow fever and malaria , but also from scurvy . As a result, Elisabeth had to go to Havana in Cuba, where the seriously ill were transferred to hospitals. Among them was Carl Weyprecht, who suffered from malaria.

Finally an agreement was reached between Juarez and Tegetthoff. Maximilian's body was transferred to the Novara . The Elisabeth left the Gulf of Mexico on November 28, 1867. The return journey went via Bermuda, Lisbon, Gibraltar and Messina. Trieste was reached on January 9, 1868, and on January 16, Orel witnessed the disembarkation of Maximilian's body.

The opening of the Suez Canal

After a few months of recovery, Orel took over tasks at the Hydrographic Institute in Pola on May 19, 1868. This made him one of the few naval officers who could implement hydrographic research for the needs of the Navy.

At the end of 1869 the Suez Canal was inaugurated, which also became important for Austria-Hungary's trade with the Middle and Far East. Emperor Franz Joseph attended the inauguration, accompanied by Empress Elisabeth , Vice-Admiral Wilhelm von Tegetthoff and numerous members of the court. In addition to the imperial paddle steam yacht Greif , the corvette Helgoland , the gunboat Hum and the paddle steamer Gargano , the Elisabeth was also part of the imperial fleet, on which Orel had served as a pilot officer since October 12, 1869. Vice-Admiral Tegetthoff was on board, and on October 17th the journey across the sea to the Levant began . The journey with various stops led via Corfu , Constantinople, the Black Sea with a stay in Varna, Athens and Beirut to Jaffa, from where the emperor and his entourage visited the holy city of Jerusalem . The ships then got caught in a severe storm on the night of November 13-14. As a result of this experience, Emperor Franz Joseph is said to have refrained from major sea voyages and only undertook brief inspection visits on his ships and short cruises with land views.

On November 16, 1869, the Austrian ships arrived in Port Said , from where they entered the Suez Canal on November 21 and passed it through to Ismailia and Suez. The return trip via Corfu ended on December 4th with the arrival in Trieste .

The Austro-Hungarian North Polar Expedition 1872–1874

After returning from the Levant, Orel resumed his work at the Hydrographic Institute in Pola. One interruption was another embarkation on the Goelette "Saida" in the Levant in December 1870. Carl Weyprecht , Orel's colleague on the Mexican adventure, had meanwhile recovered from mala fever. Having advanced to lieutenant of the line, he was now occupied with surveying the east coast of the Adriatic, with the task of hydrographic observations. It is conceivable that Orel and Weyprecht had to deal with each other again for official reasons. During these months, Weyprecht, together with the alpinist and first lieutenant of the Kaiserjäger, Julius von Payer , planned an Austro-Hungarian polar expedition, the financing of which was largely the responsibility of Count Hans Wilczek from Vienna . In the summer of 1871, Weyprecht and Julius von Payer undertook the first reconnaissance trip to the Barents Sea . In the winter of 1872 they were able to order an expedition ship for a polar expedition from the Tecklenborg shipyard in Bremerhaven . Count Hans Wilczek and his polar committee guaranteed the financial means. The ship was named "Admiral Tegetthoff" in memory of Vice Admiral Tegetthoff, who had died of pneumonia the year before.

It was generally expected that Carl Weyprecht would fall back on sailors from the Nordic countries when selecting the crew. He did not do this because he was of the opinion that the sailors of the Austrian navy, especially those from Istria and Dalmatia, were more flexible and more resilient in enduring the ice and the rigors of the Arctic. They also had something that the northerners lacked: a cheerful disposition. Among the officers he selected those of the Austrian Navy who were able to independently carry out scientific observations and the entire Arctic research program, so that the expedition could do without civilian scientists. Therefore, while the sailors were being examined by his friend Heinrich von Littrow in Fiume, Weyprecht turned to the ensign of the liner Eduard Orel, whose human and scientific qualities he had already got to know on the joint trip to Mexico. Orel, through his work at the Hydrographic Institute in Pola, was very well suited to studying the ocean currents in arctic waters, the measurement of which was one of the main tasks of the expedition. Another officer in Weyprecht's election was the liner ensign Gustav Brosch , who is already known as Orel's commanding officer on Lake Superiore in Mantua . He, too, was already an officer of reputation: Brosch had studied the entire length of the Danube in hydrographic studies.

On the Austro-Hungarian north polar expedition , which set out in 1872 , Gustav Brosch became first officer and Eduard Orel second officer, responsible for the control and navigation of the ship. After the ship was occupied by the ice, Orel was responsible for sounding and deep-sea temperature measurements. Together with Brosch he kept the diary of the meteorological observations.

In general, Eduard Orel was a skilled hunter. His skills in the art of baking were particularly valued, as he made apple strudel, pear strudel and Linz cakes that were highly praised on the occasion of festivals and memorial days. Orel experienced the moment of his greatest fame in the spring of 1874, when Julius von Payer chose him to take with him on the second land expedition. It was the most complex and demanding journey across Franz-Joseph-Land as far north as possible. In the end, Eduard Orel was one of three people - the others were Julius Payer and Antonio Zaninovich - who on April 12, 1874, after a murderous march of more than three hundred kilometers, entered the northernmost point ever reached by humans, Cape Fligely at 81 ° 50 ′ North (Payer believed at the time: 82 ° 5 'north). The expedition returned happily to Europe, which Orel meticulously described in the following diary. The polar drivers arrived in Hamburg on September 22nd, 1874 , where a big festival was held in their honor. Further festivities awaited them in Vienna, which they reached by train on September 25, 1875.

Emperor Franz Joseph decorated Weyprecht and Payer with the Leopold Order in advance on September 20, 1874. On October 1st, the medal was awarded to the other participants in the expedition. Eduard Orel was awarded the Order of the Iron Crown, Third Class, one of the highest honors in the monarchy. This order brought its bearer the highest level of prestige, especially since he had the opportunity to apply for hereditary knighthood. Finally, on October 6th, Emperor Franz Joseph personally received the officers of the famous expedition. The mission was officially dissolved on September 30th, so that the participants could go to their homeland. Orel drove to Trieste on the evening of October 12th . There a splendid banquet was held in the “Monte Verde” restaurant in honor of Weyprecht and the sailors of the coastal area. Orel hardly had time to recover from this and the trip. The next day he took the paddle steamer “Triest” to Pola, where more than 200 comrade officers were waiting for him again for a banquet in the Casino della Marina. In memory of the memorable expedition, Weyprecht gave Orel a rectangular piece of wood with the dates 22/5 - 24/8 1874 and the incised inscription: “A piece of the barque with which I returned over the ice sea floes” and his signature. Orel kept this wood as the most precious of all souvenirs.

Manager of Miramar Castle

After the festivities, on January 20, 1875, Eduard Orel was assigned to the lake district command in the Villa Necker in Trieste. He had the task of cataloging, interpreting and evaluating the many thousands of data obtained on the expedition together with ship lieutenant Carl Weyprecht and ship lieutenant Gustav Brosch. First he moved into temporary accommodation near the Hotel "Daniel", the traditional meeting place for naval officers in Trieste. Then he was able to rent an apartment in Via Belpoggio 1, just a few steps away from the Villa Necker and with a view of the sea.

After the work was largely finished in 1876, Orel had the opportunity to embark again. This prospect was not very tempting for him, in fact rather disappointing. In general, he had started his career as an officer relatively late in years. With the polar expedition and its evaluation, he had lost another four years of service. Now he was 34 years old and still had the low rank of liner ensign. A woman had also come into his life whom he intended to marry. It was Augustine Brown of Opava , Opava today, in Bohemia . At the instigation of Carl Weyprecht and Count Wilczek, he was released for the reserve on July 31, 1876. On August 1st, he became an employee of the administration of the imperial property on the instructions of Emperor Franz Joseph. His office was, so his descendants said, near the Upper Belvedere in Vienna.

The wedding with Augustine Braun took place on October 17, 1876. One year later, on November 1st, 1877, Orel was appointed administrator of Miramar Castle, the wonderful residential palace of Archduke Ferdinand Max north of Trieste . The administrator's apartment was a wonderful little house in the upper part of the castle park, which is still there today. In addition to Marimar Castle, he was also responsible for the administration of the island of Lacroma near Ragusa , also a former property of Archduke Ferdinand Max. Through this activity, his life turned back to the Adriatic Sea. The proximity to this body of water was and remained the determining part in his life. Orel had the pleasure of finding his expedition cook Johann Orasch among the staff of the Miramar Castle. He had already entered the service of the castle in September 1874 with the duties of a cook, as archival documents of the city of Trieste show.

A few days after starting work in Miramar, exactly on November 5, 1877, Augustine Orel gave birth to a son who was also named Eduard after his father. In addition to his administrative duties, leading the numerous staff and visiting the imperial city, Orel found the time to devote himself to another passion, painting. Numerous oil paintings were created, which mostly revolved around a single theme, the polar expedition of 1872/1874. To his chagrin, his wife's health quickly came to an end. Only a shadow of herself, she died on June 5, 1879. Perhaps to alleviate the pain of this loss, Emperor Franz Joseph, the ennoblement Eduard Orel which was possible with the awarding of the Order of the Iron Crown third class on request. The coat of arms assigned to him shows in the lower part a polar bear rising out of the sea with raised paws, between the pole star, and in the upper part a black eagle. The now so-called Eduard von Orel received an honorary promotion to lieutenant of the line by the emperor on November 12th, because his previous rank no longer corresponded to the dignity of an administrator of Miramar Castle and a nobleman. On the same day he was retired from the Navy with the new rank and decommissioned. He was left with his job as administrator of the Miramar Castle.

On May 26, 1881 he was standing in front of the altar again, this time with Clara Louise Pauline Schau (Vienna November 26, 1856 - Graz November 12, 1845), a Viennese Protestant confession. His second wife bore him three children, Walter on November 27, 1882, Liesel on November 20, 1884, she died after two years of cholera , and finally Friedrich on August 28, 1887. In the winter of 1892 Orel fell ill with breast and lungs, which developed into pneumonia. He died of this on February 5, 1892, only in the fiftieth year of his life. On the evening of February 7th, the coffin, accompanied by liveried, torch-bearing servants, was carried on a catafalk from Miramar Castle to the small cemetery of Barcola for burial . Alongside numerous friends and employees, the highest civil and military dignitaries of the city of Trieste accompanied him on his trip, headed by Councilor Krekich Edler von Treuland and Rear Admiral Heinrich von Buchta. On the outskirts of Barcola the funeral procession of no less than 4,000 people was expected, including delegations from numerous scientific societies and the army, a company of the 97th Infantry Regiment "Freiherr von Waldstätten", which was stationed in the Trieste area, and a brass band of the 87th Regiment who took up position at the entrance to the cemetery. After everyone had taken their positions, a volley from the 97th regiment rang out and the music of "I had a comrade" concluded this salute in honor of this hero of the Austro-Hungarian polar expedition.

literature

• Triester Zeitung, February 6th and 8th, 1892, evening edition
• Franz Allmer, Eduard Ritter von Orel, the inventor of the stereo autograph on his 100th birthday , In: Mitteilungen der Geodätischen Instituts der Universität Graz, Episode 30, Graz 1977
• Peter Broucek :  Eduard Orel. In: Austrian Biographical Lexicon 1815–1950 (ÖBL). Volume 7, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 1978, ISBN 3-7001-0187-2 , p. 243.
• Enrico Mazzoli and Frank Berger: Eduard Ritter von Orel (1841-1892) and the Austro-Hungarian North Polar Expedition , Trieste 2010, ISBN 978-88-96940-38-9