Wrangel Island

I’ve got a big world map in my office at home, and I often find myself staring at it. It’s not the large continents that capture my imagination. It’s the tiny islands, obscure countries and remote settlements.

Sometimes I’ll use the internet to see what information exists regarding these places. Sometimes you get almost nothing, but other times you hit the jackpot.

For example, take Wrangel Island.

1,740 sq mi (4,507 sq km), in the Arctic Ocean, between the East Siberian Sea and the Chukchi Sea, off NE Russia. It is separated from the mainland by Long Strait. Generally barren, frozen, and rocky, it has an arctic station and a permanent settlement.

The island is a breeding ground for polar bears, polar foxes, seals, and lemmings. During the summer it is visited by numerous varieties of birds. The island was sought by Russian Baron Ferdinand von Wrangel during his arctic expedition of 1820; he had heard of it from Siberian natives, but he did not succeed in finding it. It was finally discovered by Thomas Long, captain of an American whaling ship, who named it for Wrangel. Later George W. De Long, an American explorer, discovered that it was a small island and not a part of the mainland, as at first believed. In 1911 a group of Russians made a landing on the island, and in 1921 Vilhjalmur Stefansson, the Canadian explorer, sent a small party to Wrangel with a view to claiming it for Great Britain. In 1926 the Soviet government established the first permanent colony there, ousting the few of Stefansson’s Eskimo settlers who had remained. The Soviet freighter Chelyuskin, trying to discover (1933) whether an ordinary cargo ship could navigate the Northeast Passage, was crushed in the ice off Wrangel Island. The party was marooned on the island but was later rescued.

There have been other shipwrecks close by – like the Karluk - and folks forced to spend an extended period of time there usually found it rough going.

The rest of the shipwrecked party had spent an uncomfortable winter on
Wrangel, barely surviving on pemmican and limited game. Before they were finally rescued in the fall of 1914, three additional men had died. Geologist George Malloch and his assistant Bjarne Mamen died of nephritis, likely due to a starvation diet based on faulty pemmican. Seaman Breddy died of a gunshot wound, probably self-inflicted, but there is some suggestion of manslaughter, as Breddy had been accused of stealing food from the others.

Elements of the wreck and rescue are evocative of Shackleton.

During WWII, German SS POW’s were imprisoned at the gulag there. Thousands died, and there are persistant rumors of “experiments” and “torture” that were visited on the inmates.

There are other stories as well, of heroism and research: The Heroine of Wrangel Island. A search for woolly mammoths. Polar Bear research.

Finally, check out some images of the island here and here. Satellite images can be found here.

Adventure excursions to the island are available today for just under 10 grand, but I think I’ll continue to “enjoy” Wrangel from the warm comfort of my own home.