History of Oceanography
Click on the arrows below to learn more

HMS Challenger in St. Thomas Harbor in 1876 near the end of its four year long expedition to explore the world’s oceans. The Challenger was the first true oceanographic research vessel specifically designed to investigate the biology, geology and chemistry of the oceans and seafloor.

The Challenger Expedition
Modern oceanography began with the Challenger Expedition between 1872 and 1876. It was the first expedition organized specifically to gather data on a wide range of ocean features, including ocean temperatures seawater chemistry, currents, marine life, and the geology of the seafloor. For the expedition, HMS Challenger, a British Navy corvette (a small warship) was converted into the first dedicated oceanographic ship with its own laboratories, microscopes and other scientific equipment onboard. The expedition was led by British naturalist John Murray and Scottish naturalist Charles Wyville Thompson. Thompson had previously dredged some curious creatures from the ocean depths in the North Atlantic and the Mediterranean Sea, and these discoveries persuaded the British government to launch a worldwide expedition to explore the ocean depths. The Challenger Expedition left Portsmouth, England, just before Christmas in 1872. The ship had many different types of samplers to grab rocks or mud from the ocean floor, and nets to capture animals from different levels in the ocean. Challenger also had different winches-mechanical engines used to lower and hoist sounding lines to measure how deep the ocean was. At each sampling station, the crew lowered trawls, nets and other samplers to different depths, from the surface to the seafloor, and then pulled them back on board loaded with animals or rocks.