The Voyage of the “Challenger”

The Voyage of the "Challenger"

From 1872 to 1876 a doughty little ship sailed the seven seas and gathered an unprecedented amount of information about them, thereby founding the science of oceanography

by Herbert S. Bailey, Jr.

UST 77 years ago this month a spar since that pioneering voyage. It was the philosophy at the University of Edin decked little ship of 2,300 tons Challenger, rigged with crude but in burgh. He did some dredging in the sailed into the harbor of Spithead, genious sounding equipment, that Aegean Sea, studying the distribution JEngland. She was home from a voyage charted what is still our basic map of of flora and fauna and their relation to of three and a half years and 68,890 the world under the oceans. depths, temperatures and other factors. miles over the seven seas. Her expedition Before the Challenger, only a few iso Forbes never dredged deeper than about had been a bold attack upon the un lated soundings had been taken in the 1,200 feet, and he acquired some curious known in the tradition of the great sea deep seas. Magellan is believed to have notions, including a belief that nothing explorations of the 15th and 16th cen made the Rrst. During his voyage around lived in the sea below 1,500 feet. But turies. The unknown she had explored the globe in 1521 he lowered hand lines his pioneering work led the way for the was the sea bottom. When she had left to a depth of perhaps 200 fathoms Challenger expedition. England, the ocean deeps were an al (1,200 feet) in the PaciRc; failing to most unfathomed mystery. When she reach bottom, he concluded that he was HE MAN WHO organized the expe returned, she had sounded the depths of over the deepest part of the ocean. Tdition was Charles Wyville Thom every ocean except the Arctic and laid (Actually the water where he took his son, Forbes's successor as professor of the foundation for the modern science of soundings is 12,000 feet deep, far from natural philosophy at Edinburgh. Thom oceanography. the deepest bottom in the PaciRc.) After son Rrst made some summer dredging The ship was called the Challenger. Magellan no deep-sea soundings were cruises in ships borrowed from the Brit Her name and voyage are already cov taken for about 300 years. In the 19th ish Admiralty, and the results were so ered with the dust of time, but her story century a few sea captains and layers interesting that they prompted Thom is worth reviving today, when far more of telegraph cables began to plumb deep son and the Royal SOCiety to approach handsomely outRtted expeditions are waters, some of them getting their lines the Admiralty with a much more ambi once more exploring the sea deeps. They down as deep as two miles or more. tious project. They asked for a vessel are Riling in details and retouching parts One of the Rrst men to take a scien that could carry out an investigation of of a picture which in its broad outlines tiRc interest in the ocean depths was the "conditions of the Deep Sea through has remained essentially unchanged Edward Forbes, professor of natural out all the Great Oceanic Basins." The naval authorities, now fully awake to the importance of oceanic research, provided H.M.S. Challenger, a corvette Rtted with auxiliary steam power in addition to her sails. A naval crew under Captain George S. Nares was assigned to the mission, and Thomson selected a staff of scientists and other civilians to assist him. They proceeded to adapt or improvise the necessary scientiRc equipment and to Rt out laboratories on the ship. To make room for their gear they removed all but two of the warship's 18 guns. Their equipment included instruments for taking soundings, bottom samples and undersea temperatures; winches and a donkey engine; 144 miles of sounding rope and 12.5 miles of sound ing wire; sinkers, nets, dredges, a small library, hundreds of miscellaneous sci entiRc instruments and "spirits of wine" for preserving specimens. The expedition, coming after Charles Darwin's famous voyage in the Beagle and in the midst of the great uproar over his new theory of evolution, natur H.M.S. Clla Hengel', as depicted in the official Challenger report ally attracted public attention. Even

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8 POLE A-C RELAY Punch gave the Challenger a send-off: engines, the civil and naval crews each Bulletin 700 relays time took a standard series of observa HeT task's to sound Ocean, smooth are listed in many con tions: the total depth of water, the tem humours 01'l'Ough in, tact combinations. They peratures at various depths, the atmos are good for millions of To examine old N ep' s deep-sea pheric and meteorological conditions, trouble free operations. bed.... the direction and rate of the current on In a wOl'd, all heT secrets from Na the ocean surface and occasionally of tUTe to wheedle, the currents at different depths. They And the gTeat fTeight of facts also dredged up samples of the bottom, homeward bear. including its plant and animal life, and The Challenger sailed from Ports dipped up samples of the water and of mouth on December 21, 1872. She im the sea life at various levels. They found mediately ran into a howling storm at they had to make their soundings with 3-Wire Ther Low Current A- C D-C Relay. sea. Thomson found this no evil omen, the hemp rope, because the wire tended Relay. mostat Relay. pointing out that the gale "brought all to kink and break. Attached to the line our weak points to light" and increased were sinkers, thermometers and water ALLEN - BRADLEY confidence in the arrangements. His bottles; when the sinkers hit the bottom staff spent the first leg of the voyage, as they were automatically detached. By MOTOR CONTROLS far as Bermuda, in training and practice the time they had finishedtheir voyage, Allen-Bradley Co. on their work: sounding, dredging, they had made such observations at 360 134 W. Greenfield Ave. trawling and making measurements. stations scattered over the 140 million Milwaukee 4, Wis. Holding the ship steady with her steam square miles of the ocean floor.

© 1953 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, INC The routine was long and laborious. In really deep water it took more than SR-4R Devices in Industry -Uses Unlimited an hour and a half to reach bottom How to weigh automatically an expensive plastic from and much longer to haul the line back. PROBLEM: "Dredging," wrote one of the naval of storage hopper into freight cars. ficers, '\vas our bete noire. The romance of deep-water trawling or dredging in the Challenger, when repeated several hundred times, was regarded from two points of view: the one was the naval officer's, who had to stand for 10 or 12 hours at a sb'etch carrying on the work ...the other was the naturalist's ... to whom some new worm, coral, or echino derm is a joy forever, who retires to a comfortable cabin to describe with en thusiasm this new animal, which we, without much enthusiasm, and with much weariness of spirit, to the rum bling tune of the donkey engine only, had dragged up for him from the bottom of the sea."

A leading chemical company does it rapidly and accu HE TRIP was not, however, all SOLUTION: rately with a fully automatic SR-4 Weighing System. Tdrudgery. There was romance and • System will pay for itself quickly due to its very high adventure enough to inspire the officers accuracy in weighing large daily shipments of such an This SR-4 System is giving expensive material. and scientists, almost to a man, to pro all of these advantages: • Speed of operation (less than two minutes per 1000 Ih. duce memoirs, logs and other accounts cycle) cuts costs. for an eagerly waiting public at the end • Only one operator needed •••just part time. • Automatically furnishes complete record of each weighing. of the voyage.One of the first diversions • Rugged construction minimizes maintenance. occurred in the South Atlantic. Putting For latest technical in/ormation please write to Baldwin in at the tiny colony of Tristan Island, Lima-Hamilton CorP.,Dept. 3044, Philadelphia42, Penna. the Challenger's crew learned from the inhabitants that two brothers named Stoltenhoff, seeking their fortune at seal hunting, had marooned themselves nearly two years earlier on aptly named Inaccessible Island. The ship diverted its course to rescue the brothers. They A Library Binder' I had kept themselves alive on a diet of I penguins' eggs and wild pigs, but had ENGINEER! I had no luck catching seals. The ship also SCIENTIFIC IS YOUR WORK stopped at nearby Nightingale Island, a for AMERICAN STIMULATING? I rookery for hundreds of thousands of I I • penguins, and found it so covered with I I eggs that the shore party could hardly ARE YOU CHALLENGED walk without stepping on them. The 1 BY YOUR JOB? I penguins defended their nests furiously • and pecked one of the ship's dogs to ARE YOU RECEIVING death. PROFESSIONAL Beyond Cape Horn, on Marion Island, RECOGNITION? bl they saw multitudes of white albatross, !� but, heeding the warning of the Ancient Mariner, they killed none. This was a rare exception, for it was their practice SYLVANIA to collect specimens of indigenous flora believes in building men and fauna wherever they touched land. Exploring in the southernmost Indian CI.. A handsome and durable library The company, now in its 51st year, Ocean, the Challenger became the first binder in which to keep your copies is expanding rapidly. Net sales this year exceed 1938 by 16 times. steamship to cross the Antarctic Circle. of SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN. The scientists were tremendously inter Additional high caliber men are CI.. Bound in dark green library fabric, needed with training and experi ested in the icebergs and even fired a ence in all phases of electronics, cannon at one to break off a chunk. In gold leaf stamped, holds 12 issues. physics and mechanics. an unsuccessful attempt to find the "Ter CI.. Copies in binder open flat, may Write us about yourself, if your U. experience and future plans mination Land" reported by the S. be inserted or removed separately. fit into explorer Charles Wilkes, the ChallengeI' this picture. Address your order, enclosing check or ran into a sudden antarctic storm while JOHN WELD money order for $2.50 for each binder, to: traversing a pack of icebergs. With the Department E wind at 42 miles per hour and night r------� coming on, the ship took refuge in the 1 1 SYLVANIA ELECTRIC PRODUCTS INC. Department B I SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN 1 lee of a large berg, holding position 1 I 7/!' RadiO and Television Division 1 1 254 Rano Street close beside it with the steam engine. 2 West 45th Street, New York 36, N.Y. I 1 1 ___ �Ufl:-:'N:::r� __ During an unexpected lull in the wind, L ______� L J

© 1953 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, INC If you use a poly alcohol, this newly published refer o C E AN ence book. is indis pensable. It is the only book to tell the complete story on Glycerine properties, uses, anal ysis, specifications, sources, recov ery and refining. An authentic American Chemical Society Monograph, the new book contains material contributed by the country's ablest producers and re finers of Glycerine, and is edited by Carl S. Miner and N. N. Dalton, na tionally known authorities on the subject of Glycerine. A general outline of the voyage of t�te Latest Information The monograph is sponsored by the the ship rammed the berg before the Marianas Islands, the explorers hit their Glycerine Producers' Association, engine could be reversed and lost its jib deepest sounding-26,850 feet. This was and includes the latest information boom and other rigging. The damage not very far from the deepest of all time: on natural and synthetic Glycerine, was not serious and the rigging was re �he record to date is a sounding of purification of Glycerine by ion ex covered, but the company spent an 34,440 feet, made in the Mindanao change, and new equipment design. anxious night steaming back and forth Trench off the Philippines by a U. S. Chemists, purchasing agents, and in a dense snowstorm between two large Navy vessel in 1950. executives will want to keep this new icebergs. The ChallengeT zigzagged across the monograph handy for reference. It The ship next went on to Australia, Pacific, stopping at the Hawaiian Is has easy-to-read tables of the most New Zealand and the Pacific islands. In lands and Tahiti, and then rounded recent data on standards and specifi the Fijis they interviewed King Thack South America through the Strait of cations, and on physical and chemi ombau, a converted Christian, who had Magellan. It swung north through the cal properties of Glycerine. earlier cut out a prisoner's tongue and South and North Atlantic and finally eaten it in his sight-before eating the arrived home in England on May 24, Free 10-0ay Examination prisoner himself. The ship called at the 1876. Philippines, Japan, China and the Ad Of the ChallengeT's crew of some 240 For a free 10-day examination of miralties. On March 23, 1875, off the men, seven died ? uring the trip: two by the 475-page book, which sells for $12.00, write Reinhold Publishing Corporation, 330 West 42nd Street, New York 36, N. Y., publishers of the monograph. If you need information regarding any specific Glycerine requirement, just write Glycerine Producers' As sociation, 295 Madison Avenue, New York 17, N. Y.

Cladodactyla crocea, take n in the Falkland Islands

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COMMISSION was set up in Edin A burgh to assess the results of the Project research and consultation voyage, which were eventually pub in Biochemistry, Chemistry, lished in an officialreport of 50 volumes. Bacteriology and Entomology Two volumes contain a "summary of scientific results"; two a "narrative of the Does your work involve voyage." The other 46 are monographs (entrifugation of large Vitamin ana Amino Acid As written by some of the leading scientists of the day, among them T. H. Huxley, volumes at low temperatures? says • Proximate Analyses • S"ERVALL Mineral Determinations • In REFRIGERATED secticide, fungicide and bacteri ANGLE CENTRIFUGE cide screening • Antibiotic As says • Biological and chemical Meets these requirements even at high speeds in ONE insecticide assays • Toxicity complete, compact unit. Tests. Practical Chick Feeding laboratory tests demonstrate that ROTOR SAMPLE temperatures are below O°C for I Studies hour's run with SERVALL 400 cc Type 55-1 rotor operating at 13,000 r.p.m. Designed primarily for use with the superspeed rotor, other large volume, lower speed range rotors can be used Write lor price schedule interchangeably with even more effectiveness. Temperatures to minus 20°C can be achieved with large volume Type G rotors and with in termediary Type M, SP and SP/X rotors. WISCONSIN ALUMNI Write for Free Bulletin SA·51 R 'van �rva\\.inc. RESEARCH FOUNDATION 210 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK 10, N. Y. P.O. BOX 2059 • MADISON I, WISCONSIN J apeteJla prismatica

© 1953 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, INC Alexander Agassiz, H. N. Moseley and zontal migration." Such suggestions, the great German biologist Ernst Haeck based on the Challenger's observations, el. Most famous of the official reports gave direction to further investigation. •• are Haeckel's monographs on certain sea The expedition washed out of exist .a __ organisms that had previonsly been rela ence a form of living matter that had tively little known. One of the most in been "observed" by Huxley and de teresting is on the radiolaria, of which scribed by Haeckel. On the basis of THE EXPOSITION the expedition collected 3,508 new spe preserved specimens dredged during cies to add to the 600 then known. earlier expeditions, Haeckel had decided To see the Challenger's scientific re that the entire ocean floor, or at least a OF BASIC suIts in proper perspective one must major part of it, was covered with a thin remember that the voyage took place at layer of almost structureless living slime a time when every new discovery was which he named "Bathybius." At a time MATERIALS an exciting prize to be fittedinto the when Darwin's theories were still under evolutionary table. The Challenger dis severe debate, "Bathybius" had been FOR INDUSTRY covered 715 new genera and 4,417 spe hailed as a living example of the primor cies of living things, thus demonstrating dial protoplasm. The scientists of the that the oceans were teeming with un Challenger looked for it in vain, and HERE'S WHAT YOU WILL SEE: known life waiting to be classified. It finally discovered the answer to the puz Metals • Plastics proved beyond question that life existed z1e. The alcohol and sea water in which Rubber • Other non·metalics at great depths in the sea. The voyage the sea-bottom specimens were pre Cast forms Press-formed parts opened the great descriptive era of served had combined to form an amor Forged forms oceanography, which was followed by phous precipitate of sulfate of lime. This Molded non·metallics the analytic oceanography of our own was Haeckel's "Bathybius." Screw machine parts century. Weldments • Fin ishes Fasteners. laminations The summary volumes were written HE Challenger expedition made by Sir John Murray, who became head Tthousands of other contributions to of the commission after Thomson, ex various sciences-meteorology, hydrog hausted by the voyage, died in 1882. raphy, the physics and chemistry of sea Murray's comments and theories have water, geology, petrology, botany, zoolo had an important influence on oceanog gy, geography. Murray's map of the raphy. He strongly put forward the world-wide sampling of oozes and other view, for example, that at equivalent bottom deposits collected by the expedi latitudes both the Arctic and the Antarc tion has not been changed much by the tic have similar marine organisms, and many subsequent explorations. The that these are not to be found in the Challenger's crew perfected the method more temperate zones. This "bipolarity" of "swinging the compass" to get accu theory has now been discarded, but for rate magnetic readings. The voyage es a time it stimulated much investigation. tablished the main contour lines of the Murray also asserted that, contrary to ocean basins and disproved the myth of what had been hoped and expected, the the lost continent Atlantis. It yielded deep sea did not yield a widespread the first systematic plot of currents and fauna of great antiquity, though some temperatures in the oceans, and showed NATIONAL MATERIALS CONFERENCE very ancient species were found. He be that the temperature in each zone was A comprehensive conference on materials reaching into every criti lieved that under about 600 feet below fairly constant in all seasons. cal phase of materials selection, sea level the bottom deposits and fauna The achievement of the Challenger product design and engineering become more uniform with increasing was tremendous: a barrier had been will be held concurrently with the depth until a point is reached at which broken and the world of the depths ex exposition. Top experts from major industries will lead confer conditions are almost the same in all ph·ed. In a sense the Challenger had ence sessions. parts of the world. He added, "When answered the question that had echoed once animals have accommodated them down the ages in the words of Eccle Here's the great new exposi selves to deep-sea conditions there are siastes: "That which is far off and ex tion that enables you to see and few barriers to further vertical or hori- ceeding deep, who can find it out?" compare all the basic materials in one place, under one roof, at one time . . . to talk to the country's top materials experts ... to study the latest applica tions of materials new and old ... to pick up new ideas that will spark new product design and product improvement, lower costs, boost sales. It's the dreamed-of show for product and materials engineers, prod uct development executives, research, production and sales executives, product designers, top executives. Write for tick ets and details ..

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