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■i.Y
%rrie^ witer-sampling SL a Buchanan
Weft) and a
Lj °fje~-flank the • Other equipment
KlW<lre’ ^ to ri-Qht, a W’.a Baillee sounding lrie< and a dredge.
The corvette HMS Challenger steamed out of the harbor of Portsmouth, England, the morning of 21 December 1872, passed though the Needles and down channel into ® smooth sea with only a light headwind. The tlrst leg of her course was laid to Portugal.
The second day brought gales and heavy Seas. The well-loaded vessel was neatly shaken down. Wallowing in a beam sea, she r°Hed wildly—46° to one side and 52° to the other. The scientists on board were ill, and fee Navy crew ate stand-up meals, to the s°Und of smashing crockery. Foul weather c°ntinued; sometimes the Challenger beat l,nder sail, and occasionally she steamed into fee massive waves. Lisbon, the first port on a v°yage that was eventually to last three-and- a'half years and cover a distance nearly three hrnes the circumference of the world, was finally reached on 3 January 1873.
Since the voyage of Darwin about 30 years earlier, British naturalists had become increasingly interested in the animal and plant fife of the seas. Reason told these learned men feat life in the sea was most surely restricted fe the upper zones. For years, most naturalists believed that 300 fathoms or 1,800 feet '''as the depth limit for all life. They reasoned feat the depths were too cold, no light certainly existed, thus precluding plants, and fee pressures of many tons per square inch 'Vere absolutely unbearable. Not all agreed, however; some preferred to believe what they c°uld see—animal life that was dredged up Periodically from much greater depths.
A by-product of the rapid development of telegraphic communications—the overseas cables—helped to ascertain the actual extent of life in the sea. When, in 1860, a telegraph cable was retrieved for repair from 1,200 fe thorns, it was found to be heavily encrusted with corals and other sessile animal growth clearly seen to have been alive several years on the cable. Here, then, in over 7,000-foot depths, was an abundance of life that could not be denied. Similar positive discoveries did much to stimulate the interest of scientists as well as the public, not to mention those directly concerned with laying and maintaining cables.
By 1870, Professor C. Wyville Thomson and Dr. W. B. Carpenter had examined some of the depths around the British Isles, using uncomfortable old Navy gunboats and successfully dredging up wholly unknown forms of animal life from nearly three miles down. It became evident, however, that something more than such small ventures on the part of individual researchers was vitally needed now. Dr. Carpenter wrote a letter to the First Lord of the Admiralty urging the dispatch of a circumnavigating expedition thoroughly equipped and with a competent scientific staff to traverse the great ocean basins, the better to determine physical and biological conditions. With a speed unknown in these days, the request was granted and turned over to the Royal Society to determine a complete program for the project. Early in 1872, HMS Challenger was made available with her crew, under the command of Captain George S. Nares. Professor Thomson was in charge, assisted by a chemist, three naturalists, and John Murray—also a naturalist but destined to become one of the first marine geologists. The work of the Challenger and her scientific and Navy personnel was “to be of three or four years’ duration, during which soundings, thermometric observations, dredging, and chemical examination of sea water should be carried on continuously, with a view to the more perfect knowledge of the physical and biological conditions of the
struments, included adequate navigati011
am
the
able weights of 300 pounds. This was
great ocean basins, and in order to ascertain their depth, temperature, specific gravity, and chemical character ...”
Like a majority of oceanographic vessels to follow over the years, the Challenger was a converted ship, having recently been a 2,306- ton man-of-war from which 16 of the 18 68- pound guns had been removed. She was a full-rigged, spar-decked corvette with auxiliary steam power of 1,234 horsepower. Nearly the entire main deck was given over to the scientific party where there was a “natural history work room,” perhaps better called a biological laboratory. This area contained numerous drawers, work benches, racks and cases for bottles and jars to hold specimens of ocean life. Adjacent to it was a small but fully stocked professional reference library. Also on the main deck was a well equipped chemical laboratory where sea water was analyzed for its many properties and constituents.
A photographic dark room and studio were operated, as well as an aquarium, although this was not to be very successful. The sampling instrumentation for the voyage, which was the best available at the time and in many ways about the same as present day in-
The voyage and, as important, the subsequent reports, crowned the careers of two Scots, Sir Charles Wyville Thompson, left, and Sir John Murray.
equipment, hydrographic, magnetic, meteorological instruments. Specially signed dredges, trawls, sounding machiaf’ thermometers, and water sampling bQt ^ for great depths were on board. Hundreds miles of line were reeled and coiled in eV ' available spot on the forward section of11 main deck. For sounding there were 25,” fathoms of bolt rope, for dredging lOi-yj fathoms each of 3-inch and 2-\ inch line> well as 5,000 fathoms of 2-inch hemp- Hemp was still in use for sounding the b ^ tom depths, although a special machine usi*k wire cable had been developed for the cru - by Lord Kelvin. This device unfortuna1L' was not used since it snarled badly and 1 wire was not to be trusted at times when b° thermometers and heavy water bottles "’e attached along with the sounding weight- All soundings and sampling from dep1 were hoisted by an 18-h.p. donkey stea1’1 engine, using the main yard arm as a boo3 over the side. Sounding to determine dep1 . was carried out in shallow water of und ^ 1,000 fathoms with a light conventional 1^ which had a small compartment for obtain1’1® a bottom sample. For greater depths, a did11 ent device was developed which had detac forerunner of the modern corer which took 3 sample of the bottom in a tube. By dropp”1® the weights at the bottom, retrieval time 'v‘1’ greatly speeded up.
Much of the equipment was tested dun11® the early weeks of the voyage. The r>aV‘\ officers and bluejackets learned to operate d'1 dredges, trawls, sounding lines, and myr'3 other sample collecting devices. The scientist confined themselves to drawing, examinUV and describing what was collected.
The first sounding, made in 1,125 fathoi115’ came to grief when on hauling in, the k,1<j suddenly parted, losing most of the length 0 rope, a thermometer, and a sounding Ili:!f chine. Next, the dredge was put over, but 1 came back upside down with the last 3 fathoms of rope tangled about it. Finally! repeat of the dredging brought a starfish, 011 fish, and a shrimp in the dredge bag"'1 meager haul, but nonetheless exciting to the scientists because they were all very f3^ forms. Soundings took several hours 3,1
____ f?____________
JA°°k 13 days for the Challenger to sail from Portsmouth, England, to Lisbon, but another three- Q-half years to complete what is still the longest continuous oceanographic study.
tha:
ny of the deep dredgings of the bottom
consume most of a day’s work.
l^hus the Challenger began and continued t ? expedition which still holds the record for the longest continuous scientific under-
^ki
equalled in over-all significance. During subsequent three-and-one-half years, the
°te;
l'cre generally 200 miles apart. The voyage tvveen stations was mostly under sail, saving
lng of its kind and one which has never
‘P stopped some 362 times to occupy what anographers call a “station.” Stations
e steam for holding position on station. The
BJ, _ .
,allenger carried only 240 tons of coal. The T’*! bination of sailing and stopping every I 0 miles for a whole day made the cruise and wearisome for the crew members, •IJt they gradually adjusted to the proverbial
Orations and occasional joys of ocean ex- ( °ration. The scientists, on the other hand, (jere kept busy for long hours and were '"'‘Ply engrossed in their work.
|, ^ typical day began at 0530 if there was to 7 dredging. The steam that was required for le Work was gotten up in the night. Then, (pder steam, usually assisted by the ,sPanker”—the rest of the sails were furled—■ - ship put head to wind. The depth was de- j. rutined by sounding and as soon as the Was returned, the thermometers read, the ater bottle taken to the lab, and the bottom
sample collected from the tube, the ship bore off before the wind. The trawl was now lowered over the side. Although the “naturalist’s dredge,” a metal frame and mesh bag, was used, the beam trawl was preferred because it swept the bottom thoroughly, bringing back a larger collection of fish and swimming creatures. A dredging day, or a “field day” as the crew called it, usually took from ten to 12 hours. Excitement ran high among the scientists at the moment the trawl was boated. Who knew what live treasure, what wholly new creature, what “living” fossil, or form thought to be long extinct might be hauled back up into the 19th century sunlight? Many strange, bizarre, and grotesque animals were brought out of the depths, most of them never seen before. These bottom dwellers somehow had survived in utter darkness and bitter cold. Many had strange bioluminescent organs with which they made their own light as signals or lures for other fish. One interesting account by naturalist Moseley describes how a giant four-foot Pyrosoma was collected one evening. This animal is cylindrical in shape, one end open, composed of a glass-like transparent mass of small animals which unite with one another. Each member has two light cells which emit light when stimulated. Moseley relates: “I wrote my name with my finger on the surface of the giant Pyrosoma on deck in
made a bet with the entire crew at mess they would not find another Umbellularui
around.” The trawl’s catch was a const'
a tub at night, and my name came out in a few seconds in letters of fire.”
If the job of dredging was long and laborious, the job of sounding, when compared to modern practices, was more involved by far. As a result of using hemp line for the sounding device, there occurred considerable floatation which had to be overcome by a 300-pound weight. In this way, the sounding tube got quickly to the bottom, but then the weight of the line and inertia would keep the large ten-foot drum paying out. One of the operators had to time the rate of descent to detect the change which would occur when the weighted device hit bottom. Inaccuracies certainly must have occurred, yet it is remarkable how very much was accomplished by these relatively crude methods. Today, such a determination is accomplished in a matter of seconds through the use of echo sounding with a pulse of energy displayed visually on a graphic recorder. The Challenger's depth determinations and accompanying bottom samples formed the first complete framework for outlining and defining the basic shapes of the major ocean basins, and they are valid to this day. Depths of 26,850 feet were sounded in the Marianas Trench.
The events of the Challenger cruise are somewhat less harrowing than might be expected from a round-the-world adventure of over three years’ duration. Of numerous storms and gales encountered, few had any effect on the sound and well-designed ship. Two tragic occurrences, however, marred this nearly perfect record. Early in the voyage, while dredging in shallow water, the heavy dredge fouled on the bottom and the strain on the line was too much for the iron hook securing a block to the deck. Before any of the crew realized what was happening, the hook broke—releasing the block like a shot. It struck one of the seamen with tremendous force, fatally injuring him.
The second fatality did not come until the third year. One of the scientists, Dr. von Willemoes-Suhm, died, having never fully adjusted to life at sea. Professor Thomson,
• • • f h*5
chief scientist, recorded that “the loss oi j
valuable aid in working up the final result^
the expedition must, I fear seriously aa ^
their completeness. I regarded him as a y01'^
man of the highest promise, certain, had
lived, to have achieved a distinguished Pla
in his profession.”
Scientists and crew alike took genuine terest in their work and the group was, for j, most part, a happy one. Professor Thon's ^ points out that the critical experiment „
m
night. He paid the penalty at the next ^ ner, however, in providing champagne
source of speculation and a frequent focllS betting. i
As they neared Bahia, Brazil, on their o'
crossing of the Atlantic, there had been considerable calm weather which necessitated a lot of steaming. The report came from the engine room that the last of the coal had been expended. The great ship sat adrift for one whole day within sight of the harbor until the evening breeze sprang up to take them in.
Cooler and stronger winds and even occasional squalls saw the ship pushing steadily at 10 to 11 knots across the South Atlantic to Capetown in mid-summer. From Capetown, the Challenger worked southward toward the Antarctic Circle. Westerly winds freshened, and on the evening of 20 December, the Challenger bowled along at ten knots, rolling uncomfortably on a heavy swell. The following day dawned disagreeably with rain and squalls blowing fresh, the ship occasionally rolling 30 degrees. The air became noticeably chilly after the warm breezes surrounding the Cape of Good Hope, and the sea temperature fell 11° in four hours. The sailors warmed up on hot grog while the weather continued to make up.
In the evening the wind shifted eight
points and increased slightly, and 22 Dece ber 1873 saw them rolling and lurching ® fore a half gale and a heavy beam sea. 1 ship lay over to leeward as much as 37 ^
still turned in a day’s run of 240 miles'' markably good considering that the 0 ^ lenger was heavily loaded for the Antar^r venture and rode at least a foot beloW ^ lines. The day before Christmas, the vV1^ and sea slacked off somewhat, although ^ temperature dropped to 41° with sleet peh1^ the working crews. This second Christmas j sea was cold and gloomy with snow-cove^ islands in sight. In spite of the weather, crew and scientists were in good sphlts j their Christmas dinner. In the final da)s | 1873, the Challenger stopped at several snf3 islands on her way to the ice pack. ^ trawls brought up the richest hauls yetv countered, with as many as a hundred " species at one time. gS
By mid-February 1874, the first iceberj^ were sighted. Lord Campbell, a young sU lieutenant, recounts: “no words of mine c describe the beauty of these huge icebergs one, which we have just sailed past, had tn high caverns penetrating a long way >n • ’ with the wonderful coloring of those b caverns and white cliffs, dashed with Pa sea green, stratified with thin blue lines vC ing the semi-transparent wall of ice 200 in height. We can hear the waves roar111’’ against them as we slip by at night.” ^
h(i
Fine weather became routine as they
fed
tinued toward Antarctica; but one nig
id
when the dredge was over the side, the suddenly came up fresh from the south- the time the dredge had been hove up to deck, the wind approached gale force a'11
py
the
da
thef’
heavy snow squall brought in thick wea The gale rapidly increased and hard Sl1 stung the faces of the watch while the temp ature stood at 22 degrees. Suddenly, 111 thick squall came the hail from the 1° ,, castle, “Iceberg close under the lee bo''' . There was no room to steam ahead; the or * for full astern was given. The lower deck (
cleared to make sail; the main topmen've aloft to loose the main topsail, and the t° • trysail was taken in to assist the engine rev'e^, ing. The shouted commands were bar audible above the wind’s roar. The weatn clew of the main topsail was set aback, he3
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A graduate of Colby College in 1954, Mr. Shenton received his master’s degree in oceanography from Texas A&M University in 1957. He was a Research Scientist at Texas A&M in 1957-1958; Chief, Tracking Stations for Smithsonian Institution Satellite Tracking Program from 1958 to 1962; and Staff Ocean- '“rapher for Geraldine’s Laboratories, Bell Aero- P[1] [2]ce. Since 1964, he has been with Westinghouse J^tporation; he was Scientific Officer for Project jj'Vlng Saucer for a year and, since 1966, Senior Pgineer and Staff Oceanographer for the company’s , Cean Research and Engineering Center, Annapolis,
Maryland.
water is known, for example the chloride content, the quantities of all other major constituents can be easily determined. Such knowledge has figured significantly in effecting solutions of present-day military problems, as well as enhancing our efforts to harness the sea economically.
Of the biological findings obtained from the 362 stations worked by the Challenger, 4,717 new species and 715 new genera were identified. Concerning plankton, those minute floating animals and plants which are the basic food for all other creatures in the sea, their zones of occurrence were accurately defined. The naturalists noted that the quantity of marine animals—instead of being controlled by depth—was affected more by their distance from shore. Data from the Challenger Reports showed that in one case nearly five times as many animals were collected near shore in the same depth zone as 350 miles offshore. These findings indicated a relative shortage of food and nutrients away from the continents. Further, the Challenger naturalists found that plankton production was especially rich in the Antarctic, thus explaining the large numbers of migrating whales in these regions.
The vast amount of physical data collected, consisting of temperatures, salinities, and currents, forms the first world-wide and systematically gathered body of oceanographic evidence. Temperatures and salinities, or the total dissolved solids, determined from various layers of the major oceans, were characteristically different. Identification of individual water masses suggested large current systems never before suspected. Although these data from the Challenger cruise were scanty, considering the millions of cubic miles of oceans, they were nevertheless, cornerstone data, on which would later be built a more firm understanding of the sea’s physical processes.
Of no small importance was that portion of the expedition devoted to the investigation of the ocean floor, its topography, depth, and composition. Through his unrelenting efforts during the cruise and more so in the 20 years following, John Murray was largely responsible for the establishing of the almost entirely new field of marine geology. Bottom samples were analyzed and identified, then used to as-
results of the Challenger expedition crude °r primitive in light of present day practice The lack of better, more adequate instrumcl, tation is surpassed only by the far greater la of understanding and foresight on the par10 various groups allocating monies for ocea"0 graphic research and development.
The time is well at hand when another D1'
Carpenter must realize the grave need
progress beyond our small-scale, unorganize
attempts and open the eyes of the CongrC"7
and the American people to the necessity 0
an integrated approach to a thorough undf'r
standing of the depth of the seas. ,
• 'sn
th«
the
and immediately recommended that government annex the island and mine
sist in a general determination of the nature of the ocean basins and their environment. The occurrence of certain relatively rare elements in the sea was frequently noted in the bottom sampling. Manganese nodules were common in trawls, seeming to indicate an abundance on the sea floor. The presence of these and other deposits, such as iron oxides and phosphorite, has been of economic interest since this first reported occurrence.
Finally, a significant contribution was made in the observations of the meteorology of the seas and the great importance of the air and sea interactions, especially in the Antarctic regions. Complete and accurate records were kept which formed the basis for climatological analysis in the future.
The Challenger expedition stands as an imperishable monument to those who conceived, approved, organized, staged, and finally completed this great work. Few subsequent oceanographic expeditions have been so well organized and directed, or have achieved their goal so admirably. In this context, it is of interest to make some comparisons between the first true oceanographic expedition and our modern operations carried on by many nations today. To those familiar with the marvels of 20th century electronics, certainly most of the work and observations of HMS Challenger in 1872 seem the crude scratchings of the surface. But, further examination reveals that the work conducted on board the Challenger was extremely thorough and detailed. For the most part, the sampling operations such as temperature, salinity, dredging, and trawling were almost identical to methods still in use. Although some electronic sensors exist for temperature determination, few if any are reliable at depth. Instead, almost all modern oceanographic cruises depend on glass thermometers mounted on metal “bottles.” The nansen bottle still in use today was developed not long after the return of the Challenger. The process of obtaining bottom samples is speeded up slightly by a faster winch, but still depends on a device on the end of a long wire to the bottom. Recent developments in specialized echo sounding may, however, obviate much bottom sampling through sonic determinations. In summary, one could hardly call the methods and
In 1870, there were those in the Briti: government who strongly objected to speI1 ing the money required to outfit, stage, a" support the Challenger Expedition. The opP° sition was stilled somewhat by the statemeI that the cost would not really be much m0" than merely keeping the ship in commissi"" by the Navy. The fairly immediate returns" the voyage more than covered these costs, r a by-product of the expedition after the v°- age (Sir) John Murray, already an emine1' geologist, was sent some rock samples by naval commander who had collected the"1 from Christmas Island. Murray knew fr0"' his study of the Challenger expedition cofleC tion that these samples were rich in phosph3"
deposits. The British government sub~e quently received far more money in royal11 and taxes from Christmas Island than 1 entire cost of the Challenger's explorations- The make-up of the ocean has har" • changed in the years since the Challenger cha lenged its wrath to wrest some of its secr^Jj but the ocean remains largely unknown vV1 only a small percentage of the total an quately surveyed. A million, nay a bill10"’ Christmas Islands—the untold wealth of 1 sea’s resources—await the nation that bold ) strikes out on the new adventure of chart'1e the oceans and thereby unlocking the a°° of the treasure-house. Positive U.S. act1
must be taken on the recommendations tn ^ will be made by the Marine Sciences C°u"j cil. Is it too much to hope that such a nation^ program, having these goals in view, could L underway on the 100th anniversary of Challenger Expedition?
s*ils taken in, and slowly the Challenger gath- !'fed stern way under the towering mass of berg, clearing her by a narrow margin.
Soon after this, the expedition headed away r°m the ice into the Pacific for Melbourne, laving attained the record of being the first *teamship to cross the Antarctic Circle. The flowing two years, spent largely in the Pa- c>fic, greatly increased the collections of deep S,;a fauna and flora.
With the historic return of HMS Chal- enger to England on 24 May 1876, the science work was really just beginning, as the Majority of identification, analysis, and writ- lrig still remained to be done. Wyville Thomp- s°n had made a good choice in John Murray deputy, for in the 20 years to follow, Mur- r;iy took over the direction of preparing the Challenger reports. Murray succeeded Thom- spn in 1882. Under his leadership, the scientific workers compiled a monumental report Staling 50 quarto volumes which laid a firm foundation for world oceanography.
In chemical oceanography, for example,
[2]fiis foundation consisted of C. R. Dittmar’s determinations, made in 1884, of the constancy of composition of sea water. From 77 Samples taken from all parts of the world by file Challenger, he determined the values of die major constituents of sea water and showed that there were no significant regional differences in its relative composition, ^his discovery meant that, thenceforth, once die concentration of one constituent of sea