Challenger expedition
The Challenger expedition of 1872–1876 was a scientific programme that made many discoveries to lay the foundation of oceanography. The expedition was named after the naval vessel that undertook the trip, HMS Challenger.
The expedition, initiated by
Under the scientific supervision of Thomson himself, the ship traveled approximately 68,890 nautical miles (79,280 miles; 127,580 kilometres) surveying and exploring.[4] The result was the Report of the Scientific Results of the Exploring Voyage of H.M.S. Challenger during the years 1873–76 which, among many other discoveries, catalogued over 4,000 previously unknown species. John Murray, who supervised the publication, described the report as "the greatest advance in the knowledge of our planet since the celebrated discoveries of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries". The report is available online as the Report of the Voyage of HMS Challenger. Challenger sailed close to Antarctica, but not within sight of it.[5][1] However, it was the first scientific expedition to take pictures of icebergs.[1]
Preparations
To enable it to probe the depths, 15 of Challenger's 17 guns were removed and its spars reduced to make more space available. Laboratories, extra cabins and a special dredging platform were installed.[6] Challenger used mainly sail power during the expedition; the steam engine was used only for dragging the dredge, station-keeping while taking soundings, and entering and leaving ports.[6] It was loaded with specimen jars, filled with alcohol for preservation of samples, microscopes and chemical apparatus, trawls and dredges, thermometers, barometers, water sampling bottles, sounding leads, devices to collect sediment from the sea bed and great lengths of rope with which to suspend the equipment into the ocean depths.[7]
Because of the novelty of the expedition, some of the equipment was invented or specially modified for the occasion. It carried 181 miles (291 km) of Italian hemp rope for sounding.[8]
Expedition
On its landmark journey circumnavigating the globe,[2] 492 deep sea soundings, 133 bottom dredges, 151 open water trawls and 263 serial water temperature observations were taken.[9][1] About 4,700 new species of marine life were discovered.
The scientific work was conducted by
The original ship's complement included 21 officers and around 216 crew members.[6] By the end of the voyage, this had been reduced to 144 due to deaths, desertions, personnel being left ashore due to illness, and planned departures.[6]
Challenger reached Hong Kong in December 1874, at which point Nares and Aldrich left the ship to take part in the British Arctic Expedition. The new captain was Frank Tourle Thomson.[3] The second-in-command, and the most senior officer present throughout the entire expedition, was Commander John Maclear. Willemoes-Suhm died and was buried at sea on the voyage to Tahiti. Lords Campbell and Balfour left the ship in Valparaiso, Chile, after being promoted.[3]
The first leg of the expedition took the ship from
After leaving the Cape Verde Islands in August 1873, the expedition initially sailed south-east and then headed west to reach
December 1873 to February 1874 was spent sailing on a roughly south-eastern track from the Cape of Good Hope to the parallel of
When the voyage resumed in June 1874, the route went east from Sydney to
The route from Wellington to Tonga went along the east coast of New Zealand's North Island, and then north and east into the open Pacific, passing by the
Over the following three months, from September to November 1874, the expedition visited several islands and island groups while sailing from Cape York to China and
From Ternate, the route went north-westward towards the Philippines, passing east of Celebes (Sulawesi) into the Celebes Sea. The expedition called at Samboangan (Zamboanga) on Mindanao, and then Iloilo on the island of Panay, before navigating within the interior of the archipelago en route to the bay and harbour of Manila on the island of Luzon. The crossing north-westward from Manila to Hong Kong took place in November 1874.[10]
After several weeks in Hong Kong, the expedition departed in early January 1875 to retrace their route south-east towards New Guinea. The first stop on this outward leg of the journey was Manila. From there, they continued on to Samboangan, but took a different route through the interior of the Philippines, this time touching at the island of
Challenger then headed east into the open sea, before turning to the south-east and making landfall at Humboldt Bay (now Yos Sudarso Bay) on the north coast of New Guinea. By March 1875, the expedition had reached the Admiralty Islands north-east of New Guinea. The final stage of the voyage on this side of the Pacific was a long journey across the open ocean to the north, passing mostly west of the Caroline Islands and the Mariana Islands, reaching port in Yokohama, Japan, in April 1875.[10]
Challenger departed Japan in mid-June 1875, heading east across the Pacific to a point due north of the
The expedition left Tahiti in early October, swinging to the west and south of the
Most of January 1876 was spent navigating around the southern tip of South America, surveying and touching at many of the bays and islands of the Patagonian archipelago, the
The final stops, before heading out into the Atlantic, were
The period from early- to mid-April was spent sailing from Ascension Island to the Cape Verde Islands. From here, the route taken in late April and early May 1876 was a westward loop to the north out into the mid-Atlantic, eventually turning due east towards Europe to touch land at Vigo in Spain towards the end of May. The final stage of the voyage took the ship and its crew north-eastward from Vigo, skirting the Bay of Biscay to make landfall in England.[10] Challenger returned to Spithead, Hampshire, on 24 May 1876, having spent 713 days out of the intervening 1,250 at sea.[2]
Scientific objectives
The Royal Society stated the voyage's scientific goals were:[11][1]
- To investigate the physical conditions of the deep sea in the great ocean basins—as far as the neighborhood of the Great Southern Ice Barrier—in regard to depth, temperature, circulation, specific gravityand penetration of light.
- To determine the chemical composition of seawater at various depths from the surface to the bottom, the organic matter in solution and the particles in suspension.
- To ascertain the physical and chemical character of deep-sea deposits and the sources of these deposits.
- To investigate the distribution of organic life at different depths and on the deep seafloor.
One of the goals of the physical measurements for HMS Challenger was to be able to verify the hypothesis put forward by Carpenter on the link between temperature mapping and global ocean circulation in order to provide some answers on the phenomena involved in the major oceanic mixing. This study is a continuation of the preliminary exploratory missions of HMS Lightning (1823) and HMS Porcupine (1844).[1] These results are important for Carpenter because his explanation differed from that of another renowned oceanographer at the time, the American Matthew Fontaine Maury.[12] All these results of physical measurements were synthesized by John James Wild (i.e. the expedition's secretary-artist) in his doctoral thesis at the University of Zurich.[13]
A second important issue concerning the collection of different kinds of physical data on the ocean floor was the laying of submarine telegraph cables. Many transoceanic cables were being laid in the 1860s and 1870s and their efficient laying and operation were matters of great strategic and commercial importance.[1]
At each of the 360 stations the crew measured the bottom depth and temperature at different depths, observed weather and surface ocean conditions, and collected seafloor, water, and biota samples. Challenger's crew used methods that were developed in prior small-scale expeditions to make observations. To measure depth, they would lower a line with a weight attached to it until it reached the sea floor. The line was marked in 25-fathom (150 ft; 46 m) intervals with flags denoting depth. Because of this, the depth measurements from Challenger were, at best, accurate to the nearest 25-fathom (150 ft; 46 m) demarcation. The sinker often had a small container attached to it that would allow for the collection of bottom sediment samples.[1]
The crew used a variety of dredges and
The primary thermometer used throughout the Challenger expedition was the
Thomson believed, as did many adherents of the then-recent
Challenger Deep
On 23 March 1875, at sample station number 225 located in the southwest Pacific Ocean between Guam and Palau, the crew recorded a sounding of 4,475 fathoms (26,850 ft; 8,184 m) deep,[1] which was confirmed by an additional sounding.[16] As shown by later expeditions using modern equipment, this area represents the southern end of the Mariana Trench and is one of the deepest known places on the ocean floor.
Modern soundings to 6,012 fathoms (36,070 ft; 10,994 m) have since been found near the site of the Challenger's original sounding.[17] Challenger's discovery of this depth was a key finding of the expedition in broadening oceanographic knowledge about the ocean's depth and extent; the depression, the Challenger Deep, now bears the name of the vessel and its successor, HMS Challenger II, which in 1951 identified a depth of 5,944 fathoms nearby.[18] Thomas Gaskell, the Chief Scientist on HMS Challenger II, observed that the later measurement
was not more than 50 miles from the spot where the nineteenth-century Challenger found her deepest depth [...] and it may be thought fitting that a ship with the name Challenger should put the seal on the work of that great pioneering expedition of oceanography.[19]
The expedition also verified the existence of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge extending from the southern hemisphere to the northern one.[1]
Legacy
Findings from the Challenger expedition continued to be published until 1895, 19 years after the completion of its journey, by the Challenger Office, Edinburgh, established for that purpose. The report contained 50 volumes and was over 29,500 pages in length.[4] Specimens brought back by Challenger were distributed to the world's foremost experts for examination, which greatly increased the expenses and time required to finalize the report.[20] The report and specimens were displayed at the British Natural History Museum from January to July, 2023.[21] Some specimens, many of which were the first discovered of their kind, are still examined by scientists today.[22]
A large number of scientists worked on categorizing the material brought back from the expedition including the paleontologist Gabriel Warton Lee. George Albert Boulenger, herpetologist at the Natural History Museum, named a species of lizard, Saproscincus challengeri, after Challenger.[23]
Before the Challenger expedition, oceanography had been mainly speculative.[4] As the first true oceanographic cruise, the Challenger expedition laid the groundwork for an entire academic and research discipline.[6] "Challenger" was applied to such varied phenomena as the Challenger Society for Marine Science, the oceanographic and marine geological survey ship Glomar Challenger, and the Space Shuttle Challenger.[24]
References
- ^ ISBN 9781786303745.
- ^ ISBN 9781857287059.
- ^ a b c d e "The Voyage of H.M.S. Challenger 1873–1876. Narrative Vol. I. First Part. Chapter I" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 14 October 2013. – pages 19 and 20 list the civilian staff and naval officers and crew, along with changes that took place during the voyage.
- ^ ISBN 0394701577.
- ISBN 978-1862760103.
- ^ NOAA. Archivedfrom the original on 25 April 2015. Retrieved 31 January 2018.
- ^ "Scientific Equipment on HMS Challenger". HMS Challenger Project. 2 June 2015. Archived from the original on 31 January 2018. Retrieved 31 January 2018.
- ^ "Bermuda And The "Challenger" Expedition". Bernews. 29 March 2013. Archived from the original on 24 February 2020. Retrieved 24 February 2020.
- ^ Peter K. Weyl (1970). Oceanography: an introduction to the marine environment. p. 49.
- ^ a b c d e f g h The account of the expedition route given here is based on the 40 official nautical charts produced by the expedition, available at: "Challenger Expedition (1872–1876)". University of Kansas Natural History Museum. Archived from the original on 14 December 2012. Retrieved 2 February 2012. This also includes a map of the expedition route.
- ^ a b "HMS Challenger: Science". Birch Aquarium. Archived from the original on 26 January 2013. Retrieved 3 December 2013.
- ^ ISBN 9781786303752.
- ^ Wild, John James (1877). Thalassa: An Essay on the Depth, Temperature, and Currents of the Ocean. London, UK: Marcus Ward and Co.
- ^ "HMS Challenger – The science: dredging and trawling". Aquarium. University of California, San Diego. Archived from the original on 19 February 2015. Retrieved 13 October 2014.
- ISBN 9781786303769.
- ^ "Report on the scientific results of the voyage of H.M.S. Challenger during the years of 1872–76 (page 877)". 19thcenturyscience.org. Archived from the original on 17 April 2012. Retrieved 26 March 2012.
- ^ Amos, Jonathan (7 December 2011). "Oceans' deepest depth re-measured". BBC News. Archived from the original on 14 October 2012. Retrieved 7 December 2011.
- ^ "IHO-IOC GEBCO Gazetteer of Undersea Feature Names". GEBCO. August 2011. Archived from the original on 14 March 2012. Retrieved 20 March 2012.
- ^ Gaskell, Thomas (1960). Under the Deep Oceans: Twentieth Century Voyages of Discovery. London: Eyre & Spottiswoode. pp. 24–25.
- ISBN 9780674972018.
- ^ "Exploring Our Oceans: The Challenger Expedition and Its Legacy | Natural History Museum". www.nhm.ac.uk. Retrieved 23 June 2023.
- ^ "HMS Challenger: Findings". Natural History Museum, London. Archived from the original on 13 June 2013. Retrieved 3 December 2013.
- ISBN 9781421401355.
- ^ "Challenger (STA-099, OV-99): Background". John F. Kennedy Space Center. Archived from the original on 3 February 2009. Retrieved 21 December 2008.
Further reading
General
- "HMS Challenger expedition". Natural History Museum. Archived from the original on 2 November 2014.
- "Challenger Expedition (1872–1876)". University of Kansas Natural History Museum. Archived from the original on 14 December 2012.
- "The letters of Joseph Matkin from HMS Challenger". Birch Aquarium at Scripps Institute of Oceanography. Archived from the original on 23 July 2008.
- "Map of the route taken by HMS Challenger". Birch Aquarium at Scripps Institute of Oceanography. Archived from the original on 22 March 2012.
- "The Challenger Medal Roll (1895)". Library of 19th Century Science. Archived from the original on 13 March 2009.
Primary reports, accounts, and letters
- "Report Of The Scientific Results of the Exploring Voyage of H.M.S. Challenger during the years 1873–76". Library of 19th Century Science. Archived from the original on 7 July 2005.
- Philip F. Rehbock, ed. (1992). At Sea with the Scientifics: The Challenger Letters of Joseph Matkin. University of Hawaii Press. ISBN 082481424X.
- Robert Wynn Jones and Henry Bowman Brady (1884). The Challenger Foraminifera (1994 reprint ed.). Oxford University Press and Natural History Museum. ISBN 0198540965.
- Lord George Granville Campbell (1876). Log-letters from "The Challenger". Macmillan.
- William James Joseph Spry (1877). The Cruise of Her Majesty's ship "Challenger". Harper & Brothers – via archive.org.
- Henry Nottidge Moseley (1879). Notes by a Naturalist on the "Challenger". Macmillan.
- "Archive entry for journals of Andrew F. Balfour, including three from HMS Challenger voyage". AIM25 archives. Archived from the original on 9 June 2012.
Secondary literature
- Jones, Erika. The Challenger Expedition: Exploring the Ocean's Depths (London: Royal Museums Greenwich, 2022) online book review
- Antony Adler (2019). Neptune's Laboratory: Fantasy, Fear, and Science at Sea. Harvard University Press. ISBN 9780674972018.
- Helen M. Rozwadowski (2005). Fathoming the Ocean. Harvard University Press. ISBN 0674027566.
- R. M. Corfield (2003). The Silent Landscape: the Scientific Voyage of HMS Challenger. Joseph Henry Press. ISBN 0309089042.
- Eileen V. Brunton (1994). The Challenger Expedition, 1872–1876: A Visual Index. Natural History Museum. ISBN 0565011391.
- Eric Linklater (1974). The Voyage of the 'Challenger'. Cardinal. ISBN 0351172238.
- John B. Tait (1972). "Centenary of the Challenger Expedition, 1872–1876". Scottish Geographical Magazine. 88 (3): 221. .
- ISBN 116639994X.
- David M. Lawrence (2002). Upheaval From the Abyss: Ocean Floor Mapping and the Earth Science Revolution. Rutgers University Press. ISBN 9780813530284.
Collections and archives
- "HMS Challenger collection". Natural History Museum. Archived from the original on 2 November 2014.
- "Foraminifera in Brady HMS Challenger Collection". Foraminifera.eu-Project.
- "HMS Challenger Papers, 1872–1876". Edinburgh University Library (Archives Hub). Archived from the original on 14 January 2012.
External links
- Media related to Challenger expedition at Wikimedia Commons