Heinrich Klutschak

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Heinrich Klutschak

Heinrich (Henry) Wenzel Klutschak (born May 3, 1848 in Prague , † March 26, 1890 in New York City ) was an Austrian adventurer , author , draftsman and polar explorer .

Early years

Heinrich Klutschak was born in Prague in 1848 as the son of the journalist Franz Klutschak (1814–1886), editor-in-chief and later publisher of the German newspaper Bohemia . During his studies at the German Technical University in his hometown, he became familiar with land surveying and cartography . After attending the artillery school, Klutschak was assigned to the 1st Artillery Regiment of the Austro-Hungarian Army . He was discharged from military service in 1871 and emigrated to the United States of America . He signed on to a whaler with which he sailed to Repulse Bay in western Hudson Bay , where he first met Canadian Inuit . For some time he worked as a translator on transatlantic steamers.

Trip to South Georgia

Klutschak's Map of South Georgia

In 1877, Klutschak embarked as a passenger on the schooner Flying Fish , which went to seal hunts in the South Atlantic . The ship reached the island of South Georgia on September 22nd. Until February 28 of the following year, Klutschak had the opportunity to get to know the country better. Since the ship completely circled the island, it was possible for him to make a map of South Georgia, which he later published together with a report in the Deutsche Rundschau für Geographie und Statistik . South Georgia was regularly visited by seal hunters in the 19th century, but since its rediscovery by James Cook in 1775 it had not been entered by any naturalist. So Klutschak's observations were of great interest to science. In addition to the geographical conditions, he devoted himself particularly to the description of the animal world. He found different species of seals and a rich bird life. He also reported on rats that had already been introduced at this time . He was critical of the seal hunt (“absurd slaughter”) and was certain that it would lead to the complete extermination of the animals. He correctly attributed the climatic differences he observed between the south-west and north-east coast to the shielding effect of the mountain range in the interior of the island. Klutschak left the ship in Recife in early April 1878 .

Participation in Schwatka's expedition to find John Franklin

The 1879 expedition after the ice had broken up (based on a drawing by Heinrich Klutschak)
Crossing the Simpson Strait in kayaks (based on a drawing by Heinrich Klutschak)

In 1876 rumors circulated by whalers that documents from the missing John Franklin were in an artificial pile of stones on King William Island . The editor of the New York Herald , James Gordon Bennett then decided to equip a privately funded land expedition to look for these documents. He was supported by Charles P. Daly (1816–1899), President of the American Geographical Society , and several companies. The head of the expedition, Lieutenant Frederick Schwatka , was assigned the Herald's journalist William H. Gilder (1838–1900) as his deputy. Klutschak took part in the expedition as a draftsman and cartographer. - as a translator - Other participants Frank F. Melms (1849-1926), a former whalers and were Joe Ebierbing (actually Ipiirviq . 1836-ca 1881), an Inuk, which in the 1860s Charles Francis Hall on his had supported two expeditions.

The expedition left New York on June 17, 1878 on board the schooner Eothen and was set down north of Chesterfield Inlet on the west coast of Hudson Bay in early August . Here the men lived for eight months among the Aivilingmiut and adopted their way of life, including eating habits as well as hunting and travel techniques. On April 1, 1879, accompanied by 13 Inuit, they set out on dog sleds overland towards King William Island. In June they reached Simpson Strait , where base camp was set up. Klutschak, Schwatka, Gilder, Melms the hunter Tulugaq and his family began to carefully search the coasts of the Adelaide Peninsula and King William Islands for traces of the Franklin expedition . Ebierbing and the rest of the Inuit stayed in the camp to hunt and fish. In August, the search team split into two groups, one in charge of Klutschak and the other of Schwatka. The expedition returned to Hudson Bay from November 1879 to March 1880, where they boarded the whaler George and Mary in August .

The expedition was the first in the history of polar exploration to make full use of Inuit techniques. In 11.5 months, a dog sled covered 5240 km. There were no serious injuries or illnesses, and the fresh meat diet saved participants from scurvy . Franklin's as yet unknown papers were not found, but numerous relics of his crew and the two ships HMS Terror and the HMS Erebus . Klutschak and his companions found the remains of 15 to 30 men from the Franklin expedition and buried them. Klutschak's special contribution was the discovery of the skeletons in Starvation Cove , which Schwatka had previously overlooked because of the deep snow.

Heinrich Klutschak described his travel experiences in 1881 in his book As Eskimo among the Eskimos , which he illustrated himself with numerous pictures and three maps. His report differs from those of Schwatka and Gilder mainly in that it does not focus on the search for Franklin's papers, but on the description of the Inuit life. It is an early ethnographic work of great value and was an important source for Franz Boas ' famous book The central Eskimo from 1888. Klutschak's book was initially only published in German, an English translation did not appear until 1993 under the title Overland to Starvation Cove: with the Inuit in search of Franklin 1878-1880 .

In the early 1880s, Klutschak also published some smaller papers on topics of geography and polar exploration. He also provided the illustrations for a multi-part report on Schwatka's expedition in the Illustrated London News . He toured Austria and Germany with a lecture about his experiences, which the Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph I also attended.

Late years

Klutschak had dedicated his book to the patron of Austro-Hungarian polar research, Count Johann Nepomuk Wilczek , probably in the hope of being taken into account in later expeditions, but this did not happen in Europe or America. The expedition to Jan Mayen , which Wilczek financed as the Austrian contribution to the First International Polar Year 1882/83 , however, was advised by Klutschak regarding her clothing and sledges.

Back in the US, Klutschak was unable to find employment that matched his experience and artistic skills. He kept himself afloat doing odd jobs, mostly for the whaling company Morrison & Brown. He worked as a private secretary and delivery boy. Increasingly he suffered from tuberculosis . Friends managed to get him a place in a home for destitute seafarers on Staten Island . Before he could move there, he died on March 26, 1890 at the age of only 41 in his apartment in New York.

Honors

The following names of geographical objects remind of Heinrich Klutschak :

Works

literature

  • Verena Traeger: Klutschak, Henry Wenzel . In: Mark Nuttall (Ed.): Encyclopedia of the Arctic . tape 1-3 . Routledge, New York and London 2005, ISBN 0-203-99785-9 , pp. 1099–1101 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  • Robert Headland: The Island of South Georgia . Cambridge University Press, 1984, ISBN 0-521-25274-1 , pp. 46–48 ( limited preview in Google Book search).

Web links

Commons : Heinrich Klutschak  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Klutschak Franz. In: Austrian Biographical Lexicon 1815-1950 (ÖBL). Volume 3, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 1965, p. 426.
  2. ^ A b Beau Riffenburgh: Review of Overland to Starvation Cove: with the Inuit in search of Franklin 1878-1880 . Heinrich Klutschak. Edited and translated by Willam Barr. 1993. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. In: Polar Record 30, No. 173, 1994, p. 149, doi: 10.1017 / S003224740002146X (English).
  3. ^ The Austrian arctic observation station on Jan Mayen: (1882–1883) , Gerold & Co., Vienna 1882, p. 19f.
  4. ↑ Klutschak Point in the Geographic Names Information System of the United States Geological Survey (English)
  5. ↑ Klutschak Peninsula on geographic.org (English)
personal data
SURNAME Klutschak, Heinrich
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Klutschak, Heinrich Wenzel (full name); Klutschak, Henry W. (name in US)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian adventurer, author, draftsman and polar explorer
DATE OF BIRTH May 3, 1848
PLACE OF BIRTH Prague
DATE OF DEATH March 26, 1890
Place of death New York City