Expedition Darwin & Tierra del Fuego
May 2008 - June 2010
The Year 2009 will be the 200th birthday anniversary of Charles Darwin and the 150th anniversary of the publication of his monumental work The Origin of Species. This book put to the test all previous theories about the development of life on Earth.
Darwin's first observations towards the development of his theory were made in Tierra del Fuego, and not as many people believe in the Galapagos Islands. In 1833 Charles Darwin, as a young man of 23 was a member of the British Expedition on the HMS Beagle. The expedition, which left Plymouth on December 27th 1831, and returned to England on October 2nd 1836, was under the command of the young but experienced 28 year old captain Robert FitzRoy.
One of the primary tasks of the expedition was to survey the southern tip of South America. The hundreds of small islands and channels of Tierra del Fuego were not well known to sailors of that time. Even the relatively well known Cape Horn was not well charted. This lack of knowledge together with the stormy weather which is often present here, made the area very dangerous to ships rounding this tip of South America. The survey work could not be done without smaller boats which were on board the HMS Beagle. It was too dangerous to sail into small unknown channels with a large sailing ship of 30 meters without an engine as auxiliary propulsion. One of the types of boats that were used during the survey was the open whaleboat. These light, fast and easy to maneuver boats were originally built for whale hunting. With time, due to their excellent capabilities in difficult situations they came to be used as lifeboats on bigger ships up until the beginning of the 20th century.
Another chapter of the expedition was the story of four native Fuegians which Captain FitzRoy had captured during his first expedition. The main reason for capturing these young people was FitzRoy's hope that having hostages would help him find a whaleboat which had been stolen by the Fuegians. There was no success with the boat but since the natives were on board it prompted the idea to civilize these natives of Tierra del Fuego. FitzRoy decided to bring the captives back to England with the hope of teaching them the Catholic faith, the English language and good civilized manners. After receiving this education they would be brought back to Tierra del Fuego to form the core of the Christian mission. The four Fuegians named: Fuegia Basket, York Minster, Jemmy Button and Boat Memory arrived with FitzRoy in England in 1830. In 1833 all (except Boat Memory who died in England of small pox) were back on board HMS Beagle on the way back to their home - Tierra del Fuego.
Charles Darwin's and captain FitzRoy's adventures have inspired us to organize the "Darwin & Tierra del Fuego Expedition". The goal of the expedition is to repeat FitzRoy's survey of this region in a replica of the 19th century open whaleboat. The boat's name is FUEGIA. Christening took place in Potsdam/Germany on April 12th 2008. The godfather of FUEGIA is a well known German explorer - Arved Fuchs. Expedition leader of the "Darwin and Tierra del Fuego Expedition" is captain Henryk Wolski who together with Arved Fuchs sailed around the North Pole and in the footprints of Sir Ernest Shackleton. For Arved 2009 is also the 25th anniversary of his rounding Cape Horn with a friend paddling in two kayaks.
Attempting to round Cape Horn in the open whaleboat will be an additional challenge for our expedition. It will also pay tribute to the sailors, whose lives were saved using these whaleboats to reach safety when their ships were wrecked in the Tierra del Fuego area.
Henryk Wolski - Expedition Leader
Biography:
Henryk Wolski, was born in 1951, and studied at the Technical University of Poznan / Poland. After gaining his degree as an engineer he worked for some years in a company making engines for ships.
Having been an enthusiastic sailor since boyhood, Henryk gained his master's license for ocean-going yachts during his studies at the university. After leaving the marine engineering company he worked as a sailing instructor and skipper for "High Sea Yacht School North Sea" in Bremen.
In 1989, Henryk founded his own company called "Henryk's Sailing". The company particularly promotes concept sailing: He undertakes sailing trips mostly under historical mottos like "Following the tracks of Odysseus" to give just one example. He also organizes moderate adventurous sailing trips in different parts of the world.
In 1994, Henryk organized his own expedition called "Following the Tracks of the Vikings". He successfully navigated the rivers across the European continent from Riga to Odessa. After this historic voyage he had a replica Viking ship built for future expeditions.
Another facet of Henryk's life are his expeditions. He was a member of Arved Fuchs's ICESAIL expedition team. This expedition's aim had been to sail around the north pole via the northwest as well as the northeast passage. The expedition lasted four years. In 1993, the northwest passage was completed. The northeast passage was successfully completed in 2002 .
In 2000, he was one of the four members of Arved Fuchs's expedition following the tracks of the most famous expedition of Sir Ernest Shackleton using a replica of Shackleton's lifeboat "James Caird". They sailed from the Antarctic continent via Elephant Island 900 nautical miles to South Georgia. Following the landing, the four men crossed the island, and by doing so, retraced Shackleton's historic voyage. About the expedition Henryk published the book "Fortitudine Vincimus - durch Ausdauer zum Sieg".
In summer 2003, Henryk's personal circling of the north pole came to an end by sailing from Norway to Greenland on the yacht "Zjawa IV". By that, the sixth person in history has navigated the seas around the north pole completely. Later that same year, he also made a trip around notorious Cape Horn - again on the yacht "Zjawa IV".
In 2006, he finished his project „Following the Tracks of the Vikings" by sailing from Gdansk at the coast of the Baltic Sea to Odessa at the Black Sea. With his ship "Welet" he sailed more than 2.000 km on the rivers Vistula, San, and Dnjestr. So, he retraced the last of the four known trading routes of the Vikings.
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Henryk has been sailing on a lot of different ships in different areas of the world. In total, he has around 120.000 nautical miles to his credit, which is equal to circling the equator five times.
Since 2000, Henryk has been working regularly as expedition leader and lecturer on cruise ships in both the Antarctic and the Arctic, the Amazon, and other areas of the world.
contact:
henryk@best.net.pl
www.henryk.best.net.pl
www.welet.best.net.pl
The Expedition "Darwin & Tierra del Fuego" is practicable thanks to:
