Austria 20 Euro Silver Coin 2005 Admiral Tegetthoff Ship and The Polar Expedition
The third silver coin in the “Austrian on the High Seas” series continues to celebrate Austrian successes on global seas, this time reaching into the far north.
The obverse shows the ship the Admiral Tegetthoff steaming into Arctic waters surrounded by the frozen landscape. The country of issue REPUBLIK ÖSTERREICH, “Republic of Austria” as well as the year of issue 2005 and the name of the expedition ship EXPEDITIONSSCHIFF ADMIRAL TEGETTHOFF are also located on this side of the coin.
The reverse side shows the expedition leaders, Julius von Payer and Karl Weyprecht, in their Arctic clothing with the frozen ship caught in the ice behind them.
Mint: Münze Österreich AG
Value: 20 Euro; Alloy: Ag 900 (Silver); Quantity: 50,000; Quality: Frosted Proof;
Issued: 8 June 2005; Diameter: 34 mm (1.34 in); Weight: 20 g (0.71 oz; 0.64 ozt); Issue value: €35.50
The Austro-Hungarian polar expedition of 1872 was a very heroic one. The leaders of this expedition, which aimed at sailing the north-east passage around Russia to the Bering Straits and the Pacific, were the naval officer, Karl Weyprecht, and the infantry officer, Julius von Payer, who in 1870 had taken part in the second German polar expedition.
The expedition ship was a three mast schooner with an auxiliary steam engine to make her independent of the weather. She was constructed in the northern German port of Bremerhaven especially for the expedition, and was named the Admiral Tegetthoff after the great Austrian seaman who had died the year before. They set sail on 13th June, 1872, but after reaching Arctic waters the ship became hopelessly trapped in ice drifts. No efforts of the crew could free the Tegetthoff from the frozen mass and they drifted with the ice helplessly for just over a year.
On 30th August, 1873, land was sighted to the north-west. Jubilant with renewed hope, they named their discovery “Franz Joseph Land” after the Emperor of Austria. But they had to wait until the 2nd November before they could set foot on land, because they were too distant and the ice was not safe for crossing. Only when they were three nautical miles away, did the drift ice freeze together with the land.
They spent the next few months exploring what turned out to be an island group covered in ice and snow. The cold and weather conditions were often appalling. It was obvious that they would never get the Tegetthoff free again, so on 20th May, 1874, they struck out on foot for the open sea to the south, dragging three lifeboats with them. It was a slow and physically harrowing journey, but by mid-August they had reached their goal and they put out to sea where they were picked up by two Russian fishing vessels a few days later. They had been out in the open for 96 days since abandoning the Tegetthoff.
Back in Vienna they were celebrated as heroes, and were rewarded with both Austrian and foreign medals and distinctions. They had succeeded in writing a stirring chapter of Austrian and world history.