The+Challenger

The Challenger Imagine trying to study marine animals back in the nineteenth century. No GPS to guide you and show you where you were, no cell phones in case you got lost, and you have to rely solely on the knowledge you have about the ocean. In 1872 to 1876, Charles Wyville Thompson directed one of the most successful and well know  voyages. He circled the globe aboard the //HMS Challenger// which was the first marine research ship. He covered almost 125,000 kilometers and came back with information that solved the disagreement about whether life existed in the ocean. In the nineteenth century very little was known about oceans. There was no research of the depth of the ocean and there were barely any known species beyond the shallow depths of the ocean floor. The closest research that was known were predictions. When the Royal Navy charted the coastlines, they supported the idea that the oceans were very deep bodies of water. As time went by, more and more people became interested in what the oceans had to offer and what they contained. The 1872-1876 Challenger expedition was named after it's researching vessel, //HMS Challenger//. Wyville Thompson asked the Royal Society of London to ask the British government to use one of their ships for a research expedition. To prepare the ship for this scientific voyage it had to undergo some change. Built completely out of wood, over 200- feet long, with 17 guns and an engine that could reach over 1,200 horsepower; this ship was obviously not made for ocean research. The ship had 15 guns taken out and in their place labs, storage space, and workrooms were built. Also instead of using a steam engine the ship had sails so that it would be easier to stop the ship to collect data. The steam engine was used only when research was being done on species at the bottom of the ocean.

The //Challenger// sailed out of Portsmouth, England on December 21, 1972. Captain George Nares sailed along with Wyville Thompson.Over the course of four years, the //Challenger// discovered over 4,000 undiscovered species. John Murray who surveyed the expedition said that it was, "the greatest advance in the knowledge of our planet since the celebrated discoveries of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries." The crew consisted of six scientists along with Thompson and then an additional 21 naval officers including Captain Nares. There were also 216 crew members but by the end of the trip there were only 144 men left. What happened to the men that didn't make it to the end of the trip? Well seven people died, five left when George Nares left, 26 were left in hospitals, and quite a few people disappeared at stopping points.

First the //Challenger// traveled south from England to the South Atlantic, and then around the Cape of Good Hope. This is at the southern tip of Africa. The ship then headed across the seas of the southern Indian Ocean, crossing the Antarctic Circle, and then to Australia and New Zealand. After that, Challenger headed north to the Hawaiian Islands, and then south around Cape Horn, at the southern tip of South America where the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans come together. After more exploration in the Atlantic Ocean, the //Challenger// returned to England in May 1876. ([])

The //Challenger// expedition not only came back with information about many new species and the fact that there were living things in the deeper areas of the oceans but also water depths, ocean temperatures, wind currants, etc. They had many tools that helped them with this research. For example there were engines that lowered nets, trawls, and other tools used for measuring, to the ocean floor and then back up. When they were brough back on the ship the nets were full of rocks and animals.

The //HMS Challenger// expedition in 1872-1876 was an amazing step up for oceanography. Like John Murray said, it was, "the greatest advance in the knowledge of our planet since the celebrated discoveries of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries."

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