Fyodor Matisen

Fyodor Andreyevich Matisen
Фёдор Андреевич Матисен
Fyodor Matisen in Royal Navy uniform
Born(1872-06-01)1 June 1872
Saint Petersburg
Died19 December 1921(1921-12-19) (aged 49)
Irkutsk
Allegiance Russian Empire
Service / branch Imperial Russian Navy
Years of service1897–1917
RankCommander
CommandsRussian polar expedition of 1900–1902
Awards Order of St. Vladimir
Other workFyodor Matisen
Fyodor Matisen was the first to make a thorough geographical survey of the Nordenskiöld Archipelago.
The mouths of the Lena River, another complex area surveyed by Matisen. (Photo: Landsat 2000)

Fyodor Andreyevich Matisen (or Mathiesen) (Russian: Фёдор Андреевич Матисен) (1 June (O.S. 20 May) 1872, Saint Petersburg – 19 December 1921, Irkutsk) was an officer of the Russian Imperial Navy, hydrographer, and explorer.

Matisen explored and mapped wide areas of the coast of the Kara Sea and the Laptev Sea in the Russian Arctic. He was a friend of Alexander Kolchak and a member of the Russian Geographical Society and the Russian Academy of Sciences. After having been senior officer and second-in-command, Matisen became the captain of Polar ship Zarya during the last part of the Russian polar expedition of 1900–02 led by Baron Eduard von Toll.