Arctic Diary of Josef Pospíšil 1872-1874

The paper treats of the up-to-now unknown diary of Josef Pospíšil who was one of the five countrymen from Moravia and Bohemia participating in the arctic expedition of Weyprecht and Payer on board the "Tegetthoff" in 1872-1874. Arctic Austro-Hungarian expedition became known through its involuntary being drifted to the northern part of the Barents Sea. After 435 days, on August 30, 1873, its members discovered by chance the up-to-that-time unknown group of islands which they called the Land of Francis Joseph. The progress of the expedition was described by Payer in his book "Die österreichisch-ungarische Nordpol-Expedition in den Jahren 1872-1874, nebst einer Skizze der zweiten deutschen Nordpol-Expedition 1869-1870 und der Polar-Expedition von 1871" (Wien 1876). More details regarding the spirits, morals and mutual relations between individual members of the expedition may be lerned, however, from diaries by individual members of the crew. Meanwhile other participants have published at least fragments of their diaries, the diary of Josef Pospíšil has remained unknown till the author of this paper obtained it from the descendants of the Pospíšil family. It is a thin notebook, 98 x 162 mm in size, comprising 55 pages, and written in broken German. Josef Pospíšil descended from a Czech family, being the son of the tailor Antonín Pospíšil. He was born on June 29, 1850 in Přerov, Moravia in the house No 436 in the present Blahoslav Street. He became a machine locksmith and metal-turner. On board the ship he worked as a stoker. He died in Melk, Austria, on Dec. 19, 1906. The discovered notes of Josef Pospíšil represent not only a further proof of the participation of Czech explorers in important geographical expeditions in the 19th century, but also bring evidence on the desperate struggle for life of a group of polar explorers cut by polar ice for more than two years from the other world, the more interesting that it is described from the point of view of a subordinate member of the crew, and not of the captain.