Ferdinand von Wrangel Baron Ferdinand Friedrich Georg Ludwig von Wrangel ( , " Ferdinand Petrovich Vrangel " ; – ) was a Baltic German explorer and seaman in Russian service , Honorable Member of the Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences , a founder of the Russian Geographic Society . He is best known as chief manager of the Russian - American Company , in fact governor of the Russian settlements in present day Alaska . In English texts , " Wrangel " is sometimes spelled " Vrangel " , a transliteration from Russian , which more closely represents its pronunciation in German , or " Wrangell " . Biography . Von Wrangel was born in Pskov , into a Baltic German noble family of Wrangel . He graduated from the Naval Cadets College in 1815 . He took part in Vasily Golovnin ' s world cruise on the ship " Kamchatka " in 1817 – 1819 . Kolymskaya expedition . He was appointed in 1820 to command the Kolymskaya expedition to explore the Russian polar seas . Sailing from St . Petersburg , he arrived at Nizhnekolymsk on 2 November 1820 , and early in 1821 journeyed to Cape Schelagin ( Shelagsky ? ) on sledges drawn by dogs . He sailed afterward up Kolyma River , advancing about 125 miles into the interior , through territory inhabited by the Yakuts . On 10 March 1822 , he resumed his journey northward , and traveled 46 days on the ice , reaching 72° 2 ' north latitude . He left Nizhnekolymsk on 1 November 1823 , and returned to St . Petersburg on 15 August 1824 . He established that north of the Kolyma River and Cape Shelagsky there was an open sea , not dry land , as people thought . Together with Fyodor Matyushkin and P . Kuzmin , Wrangel described the Siberian coastline from the Indigirka River to the Kolyuchinskaya Bay in the Chukchi Sea . ( See Northeast Passage . ) His expedition made a valuable research in glaciology , geomagnetic s , and climatology and also collected data about natural resources and native population of that remote area . " Krotky " world voyage . Having been promoted to commander , Wrangel led the Russian world voyage on the ship " Krotky " in 1825 – 1827 . Governor of Russian Alaska . He was appointed chief manager of the Russian - American Company in 1829 , effectively governor of its settlements in North America ( present day Alaska ) . Von Wrangel was the first of a series of bachelor appointees to the office of governor who had to find a wife before assuming the duties in America , the Russian American Company rules having been changed in 1829 . Prior to his departure for Russia ’ s American colonies , he was married to Elisabeth Teodora Natalia Karolina de Rossillon , daughter of Baron Wilhelm de Rossillon . He traveled to his post early in 1829 , by way of Siberia and Kamchatka . After thoroughly reforming the administration , he introduced the cultivation of the potato , opened and regulated the working of several mines , and urged upon the home government the organization of a fur company . He promoted investment , and sent out missionaries . He began a survey of the country , opened roads , built bridges and government buildings . He made geographical and ethnographical observations , which he embodied in a memoir to the navy department . Recalled in 1834 , he returned by way of the Isthmus of Panama and the United States , where he visited several cities . Admiral . Wrangel was promoted rear admiral in 1837 , and made director of the ship - timber department in the navy office , which post he held for twelve years . He became vice - admiral in 1847 , but resigned in 1849 , and temporarily severed his connection with the navy to assume the presidency of the newly reorganized Russian - American Company . Wrangel had been a member of the board of directors of the Russian - American Company from 1840 to 1849 . In 1854 he re - entered active service and was made chief director of the hydrographical department of the navy . He was the Minister of the Navy 1855 – 1857 . Retirement and death . Wrangel retired in 1864 . He opposed the sale of Alaska to the United States in 1867 . Wrangel wrote the book " Journey along the northern coastline of Siberia and the Arctic Ocean " and other books about the peoples of northwestern America . He lived in his last years in Roela in the eastern part of Estonia . He had bought the manor in 1840 . He died in Tartu , Livonia . Writings . An account of the physical observations during his first journey was published in German ( Berlin , 1827 ) , and also in German extracts from Wrangel ' s journals , " Reise laengs der Nordküste von Sibirien und auf dem Eismeere in den Jahren 1820 - 1824 " ( 2 vols . , Berlin , 1839 ) , which was translated into English as " Wrangell ' s Expedition to the Polar Sea " ( 2 vols . , London , 1840 ) . The complete report of the expedition appeared as “ Otceschewie do Sjewernym beregam Sibiri , po Ledowitomm More ” ( 2 vols . , St . Petersburg , 1841 ) , and was translated into French with notes by Prince Galitzin , under the title " Voyage sur les côtes septentrionales de la Sibérie et de la mer glaciale " ( 2 vols . , 1841 ) . From the French version of the complete report an English one was made under the title " A Journey on the Northern Coast of Siberia and the Icy Sea " ( 2 vols . , London , 1841 ) . The book influenced Charles Darwin ' s thinking on animal navigation , leading him to propose that humans and animals possess an innate ability for dead reckoning . Darwin wrote : Wrangel also published :