Reineke, Mikhail Frantsevich

Reinecke come from the Livonian branch of an old Saxon family . They appeared in Stargard ( Pomerania ), now - Stargard-Szczecinski - in the XV century . The first documented representative of the genus - Asmus Reineke - is referred to as a homeowner and burgher in 1540 and 1567 . The third son, Asmus David (1580-1622) graduated from the Stettinsky Gymnasium of St. Mary, University of Koenigsberg and worked in Riga at the school of the Dome Cathedral , reaching a member of the college board. He is the ancestor of all Reinecke in Livonia .

The third son of David Reinecke and Margareta von Mullen - Francis (1601-1665) also graduated from Koenigsberg University, was a mentor to Prince Jacob Courland, and then worked in Wenden as a judge, president of the county court and the burgher community. The sons of Francis and Helena Kippe laid the foundation for the branches of the clan in Russia. Their eldest son David is a direct ancestor of Mikhail Frantsevich Reinecke.

Grandfather Mikhail Frantsevich was the Vyborg burgomaster of justice, and later moved to Riga as an adviser to the court of the court.

Parents of Mikhail Frantsevich are court adviser Franz Frantsevich Reinecke (01/27/1746 - 02/07/1821) and Marfa Vasilyevna, nee Lipovtsova (d. 23.10.1830), daughter of an artillery captain ^[1] .

Mikhail Frantsevich received his initial education in the house of his parents, and from 1812 to 1814 he studied in a private boarding school in Ulrich, in St. Petersburg. In 1814, Reinecke entered the Naval Cadet Corps and in June 1815 passed the midshipman exam. Two and a half years later, on January 20, 1818 he graduated from the cadet corps and was promoted to non-commissioned officer, and on February 9 - to the midshipmen of the fleet.

In Kronstadt, Mikhail Frantsevich was credited to the third naval crew under the command of captain-commander E.P. Getzen , whose crew adjutant he became. In March 1823, Reinecke was promoted to lieutenant, and in 1824 he sailed across the White Sea on the Ketty brig under the command of D. A. Demidov ^[2] with the aim of measuring the bottom to determine the shallows. This expedition did not achieve the desired results, but became for Mikhail Frantsevich the first school of practical hydrography.

In February 1826, Reinecke was already appointed head of the expedition bound for the shores of Lapland . In the summer of the same year, his expedition described the shores of the Kola Bay , the Tuloma River and western Lapland. For these works, Mikhail Frantsevich was awarded the Order of St. Anna of the 3rd degree.

In the same 1826, the Lapominka brig and two small schooners “ No. 1 ” and “ No. 2 ” ^[3] , specially designed for work in the White Sea, were built in Arkhangelsk , and on March 4, 1827, at the proposal of I. F. Kruzenshtern Mikhail Frantsevich was appointed head of the White Sea expedition. For the next six years, Reinecke spent every summer swimming, conducting hydrographic surveys, which ended in the fall of 1832 . For these labors, he was awarded a surplus salary and promoted to the rank of captain-lieutenant . The six-year work of the expedition resulted in a work that appeared in 1833-1834: “Atlas of the White Sea and the Lapland coast”, the text of which was published in two volumes, in 1843 and 1850, under the heading: “Hydrographic description of the northern coast of Russia, compiled by cap. -lite. M. Reinecke. " For these works, Mikhail Frantsevich was awarded the Full Demidov Prize by the Imperial Academy of Sciences.

Based on fifteen years of painstaking observations, Mikhail Frantsevich determined the average sea level and put a mark on the granite of the Kronstadt Blue Bridge across the Wired Channel. The accuracy of determining the sea level at Reinecke was so high that over time the Kronstadt footstock has become a benchmark and since then it has been the starting point of reference for the leveling network of the whole country. From zero Kronstadt footstock counts the heights and depths throughout Russia, in the seas washing it, as well as in air and space. All geographic maps, and even orbits of spacecraft, are “tied” to it by this mark. Long-term later measurements confirmed the accuracy of the footstock; no adjustment was required.

Three lighthouses were built according to the Reineck project: on Cape Tersky Orlov and on the islands of Morzhovce and ижižgine.

In 1833 - 1852, Mikhail Frantsevich was engaged in hydrographic surveys in the waters of the Baltic Sea .

In 1840, Reinecke was awarded the rank of captain of I rank .

Since 1835, Mikhail Frantsevich adopted on his expedition a new method of measurement, invented by one of the officers subordinate to him - Lieutenant Alexander Karlovich Sidensner .

On December 6, 1849, Reinecke was promoted to major general .

In 1853 , on the advice of doctors, Reinecke went to the Crimea . Met his friend Admiral P.S. Nakhimov on his return to Sevastopol after the Sinop victory .

In June 1855, Mikhail Frantsevich said goodbye to Pavel Stepanovich (this was the last meeting of admirals who had been friends since the Naval Cadet Corps, soon P. Nakhimov was mortally wounded in the Malakhov Kurgan of Sevastopol) and returned to Petersburg, where he was appointed a member of the Marine Scientific Committee, and also promoted to rear admirals . Two months later, on August 30, 1855, he was promoted to vice admiral and appointed director of the Hydrographic Department ^[4] , inspector of the Naval Navigators Corps, and chairman of the Naval Scientific Committee.

In December 1857, Mikhail Frantsevich was dismissed from the post of inspector of the navigational corps, and in May 1858 he went abroad to restore health. Reinecke spent the summer on the waters in Schwalbach , in September he arrived in Heidelberg , and in April 1859 went to Wiesbaden . On the evening of April 16, he arrived in Frankfurt , where he died the next day at 3 p.m.

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• Krasheninnikov S.P. Vice-Admiral M.F. Reinecke: Biographical sketch // Mor. Sat .. - 1869. - No. 5 .
• Kichigin M. White Sea Expeditions of M. Reinecke, 1827 and 1828–1834 // Mor. fleet. - 1995. - No. 9/10 .
• Wagner B. Outstanding figures of the Navy // Mor. fleet. - 2002. - No. 1 .
• Reineke M.F. // Russian Biographical Dictionary. - 1910. - T. Pritvice-Reis . - S. 551–554 .
• Karelia: encyclopedia: in 3 tons / hl. ed. A.F. Titov. T. 3: P - Ya. - Petrozavodsk: Publishing House PetroPress, 2011. P. 17 - 384 pp., Ill., Maps. ISBN 978-5-8430-0127-8 (vol. 3)
• Yakovchenko S.K. The Returned Name - Admiral Mikhail Frantsevich Reineke // Military Crimea: Military History Journal. - 2012. - T. special issue , No. 4 . - S. 38-40 .
• Yakovchenko S. K. Reineke - not only Fox. - S., 2012 .-- 291 p.

• Profile of Mikhail Frantsevich Reineke on the official website of the RAS