Fridolf Höök

Fridolf Höök

Fridolf Fabian Kirillovich Höök ( Russian Фридольф Фабиан Кириллович Гек * December 30, 1836 ^{. Jul} / 11. January  1837 ^greg. In Ekenäs , Grand Duchy of Finland , † July 4 ^{. Jul} / 17th July  1904 ^{. Greg} in Vladivostok ) was a Swedish - Russian captain , whaler and explorer of the Far East .

Life

Höök came from an impoverished aristocratic family . At the age of 11 he fled his parents' house and became a cabin boy on the brig Olga. In 1855 he passed the entrance examination at the shipping school in Åbo and in 1856 the helmsman's examination . In 1857 he was hired as a harpooner on the whaler Graf Berg of the Finnish- Russian whaling company . Höök sailed the Pacific for a few years and then graduated from Åbo Shipping School with a master's degree in 1863.

1869 drove the brig Emperor Alexander II. Under Hööks command in the Nakhodka -Bay the east of the Peter the Great Gulf in the south of Primorye and sat Finnish immigrants ashore. Höök then organized whaling in the Primorye region. In 1870 he settled on the island of Askold and became a friend of the local gold mine operator and naturalist Michał Jankowski . Höök built a farm and brought bread, vegetables and milk to Vladivostok for sale with his own little schooner . During a trip in June 1879, Chinese Hónghúzi raided the farm, killed Höök's wife and farm workers, and looted the farm. The seven-year-old son was missing.

Whaling schooner Siberia

After the search for the son was unsuccessful, Höök and his friend Jankowski settled in 1879 on the Sidimi peninsula (now Jankowski peninsula) in the west of Peter the Great Bay. Höök took over the command of the whaling schooner Siberia offered to him by Otto Wassiljewitsch Lindholm . 1884 married Höök a Ussuri - Cossack woman with two daughters.

In May 1885 Höök drove with the Siberia full of trade goods to the Chukchi Peninsula to do business. He was accompanied by staff captain Alexander Alexejewitsch Ressin to familiarize himself with the north-eastern areas, the local population and the organization of trade. Höök himself carried out careful hydrographic surveys using an octant . He described the numerous bays on the peninsula up to Cape Serdze-Kamen. He drove into the Arctic Ocean , but before reaching Wrangel Island he had to turn back because of the ice. In October 1885, Höök returned to Vladivostok with a detailed description of the coast, a collection of objects from the Yupik culture and a net profit of 6,000 rubles . In 1887 he became a member of the Society for Research into the Amur Region in Vladivostok , whose museum he regularly supplied with exhibits on ethnology and marine biology .

After the Siberia , Höök led the command on the schooner Nadezhda of the retired captain 2nd rank AJ Dydymow and explored the coast of Korea . In 1893 Höök entered the civil service. He led the state schooner Storosch with a crew of 15 and initially went out to protect the fur seal colonies . He monitored the customs border from the coast of Korea to the north of the Primorye region and carried out hydrographic work.

Höök shot himself due to a mental disorder . Höök's great-grandson built a museum for Höök and the Brinner and Jankowski families on the Sidimi peninsula .

After Höök were named Schkiper-Gek Street in Vladivostok, the coast guard ship Schkiper Gek that Gek Bay in the Amur Bay , the Gek Bay of Kamchatka region , the Cape Gek the Gulf of Anadyr and Cape Gek the Tatar Strait .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Штормовая судьба шкипера Гека (accessed May 26, 2018).
2. ↑ ^{a b c d} Гек Фридольф Кириллович (биография) (accessed May 26, 2018).
3. ↑ Александровская Л. В .: Карл Шульц - фотолетописец Владивостока конца XIX века . Приморский государственный объединённый музей имени В. К. Арсеньева, Vladivostok 2013, ISBN 978-5-9902947-2-1 .
4. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} Хисамутдинов А. А .: Terra incognita, или Хроника русских путешествий по Приморью и Дальнему Востоку . Издательство Дальневосточного университета, Vladivostok 1989, p. 234–239 ( narod.ru [accessed May 27, 2018]).