3-047-129 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

H. M. S. Challenger, 1872. 'The Royal Society [suggested] that a ship should be fitted out for an naval expedition for scientific research, during which soundings, thermometric observations, dredging, and chemical examination of sea-water should be carried on continuously, with a view to a more perfect knowledge of the physical and biological conditions of the great ocean basins, and in order to ascertain their depth, temperature, specific gravity, and chemical character...it was recommended that observations should be made on the direction and velocity of the great drifts and currents...as well as on the fauna of the deep water, and on the zoology and botany of those portions of the globe...Professor Wyville Thomson [is] the scientific chief of the expedition...There is...a photographic-room, and a laboratory, fitted with every appliance which skill and experience could suggest...The naval officers have been selected...by the Hydrographic Department of the Admiralty, and the staff of civilian naturalists and physicists has been nominated...by...the Royal Society...The Challenger is commanded by Captain G. S. Nares...she will...circumnavigate the globe, and traverse the three great oceans from north to south and from east to west'. From "Illustrated London News", 1872.