Ferdinand Friedrich Georg Ludwig Freiherr von Wrangel (Russian: ???????´?? ?????´??? ???´?????, tr.
Ferdinand Petrovich Vrangel'; 9 January 1797 [O.S.
29 December 1796] – 6 June [O.S.
25 May] 1870) was a Baltic German explorer and seaman in the Imperial Russian Navy, 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.