Challenger HMS (1873)
Posted: Wed Oct 01, 2008 11:39 am
The 4d. stamp of Tristan da Cunha is an excellent picture of H.M.S. Challenger, the corvette launched at Woolwich in 1858. She was a single-screw wooden vessel of 2,306 tons, 18-22 guns, with a length of 200 ft. beam 40 ft., and draft 15 ft. Her engines developed 1,234 h.p.
In 1860, under command of Capt. John James Kennedy, R.N., she occupied Vera Cruz, Mexico, the Mexicans having postponed the payment of indemnities to persons who had suffered in recent revolutions. In August 1868 (under Commodore Rowley Lambert) she went to Rewa, in Fiji and shelled several villages, to punish the natives for murdering a British missionary and his dependents.
On 21 December 1872 the 2306 ton steam assisted corvette HMS Challenger sailed from Portsmouth on a 3-year voyage of marine exploration which laid the foundations of almost every branch of oceanography as we know it today.
Her naval complement was headed by Captain George Strong Nares, an experienced survey officer, while the Director of her scientific staff was Charles Wyville Thomson, Professor of Natural History at the University of Edinburgh. These two men were responsible for an extremely wide-ranging programme of research into the physical and biological characteristics of the deep sea, for when the Challenger sailed the scientific investigation of the open oceans had hardly begun and many basic questions were still unanswered. What was the nature of the animal life in the very greatest depths? Indeed, did animals exist at all over wide areas of the sea bed? (Only a few years previously it had been widely assumed that life was untenable in the perpetual darkness, enormous pressures and intense cold of the abyssal depths.)
To enable her to probe into these and many other problems, Challengers guns had been removed, her spars reduced, and laboratories, extra cabins and a special dredging platform installed. In all she was supplied with the staggering total of 181 miles of best Italian hemp for sounding, trawling and dredging.
During the 68890 mile voyage the naval staff was responsible for taking a wide variety of magnetic and meteorological observations, and for the actual working of the sampling gears at the 354 official stations where the vessel stopped to make detailed studies. The work of the scientists, or 'philosophers' as they were nicknamed aboard, began with the arrival of the samples on deck. The water samples were examined by the chemist, John Young Buchanan, while the contents of the nets and dredges were the responsibility of Wyville Thomson and his three young naturalist assistants.
The voyage was an orderly and unhurried affair, with the ship proceeding mainly under sail at the somewhat matronly rate of about 100 miles a day, generally using her engine only to maintain position when she stopped to work a station every two or three days. For the period, the expedition was also a very healthy one, for only 10 fatalities occurred amongst the total complement of 243 during the whole voyage.
1874-76 (Capt. F. T. Thompson) she went on a round the world scientific expedition, studying particularly the ocean beds.
By the time the ship returned to Spithead in May 1876, the expedition had already provided answers to some of the significant oceanographic questions which had been posed at the outset. There was now a much clearer idea of the form of the great ocean basins down to the greatest depth sounded at 4475 fathoms, including the important discovery of a submarine ridge running the length of the Atlantic Ocean.
The reports were the tangible evidence of the achievements of the Challenger venture, but perhaps of much greater importance in the long term was the co-operation between scientists of many countries, inspired by Wyville Thomson's leadership, which set the young science of oceanography on the path to becoming the truly international discipline that it is today.
In 1919 she was still in use at Chatham Dockyard as a hulk for the mooring of boats.
Sea Breezes 11/67 and various web sites.
Aus Ant SG40 Bermuda SG359 Christmas Is SG270 Grenadine of Grenada SG3407 French SAT SG135 Tristan SG75a 139 178 179 613 849
In 1860, under command of Capt. John James Kennedy, R.N., she occupied Vera Cruz, Mexico, the Mexicans having postponed the payment of indemnities to persons who had suffered in recent revolutions. In August 1868 (under Commodore Rowley Lambert) she went to Rewa, in Fiji and shelled several villages, to punish the natives for murdering a British missionary and his dependents.
On 21 December 1872 the 2306 ton steam assisted corvette HMS Challenger sailed from Portsmouth on a 3-year voyage of marine exploration which laid the foundations of almost every branch of oceanography as we know it today.
Her naval complement was headed by Captain George Strong Nares, an experienced survey officer, while the Director of her scientific staff was Charles Wyville Thomson, Professor of Natural History at the University of Edinburgh. These two men were responsible for an extremely wide-ranging programme of research into the physical and biological characteristics of the deep sea, for when the Challenger sailed the scientific investigation of the open oceans had hardly begun and many basic questions were still unanswered. What was the nature of the animal life in the very greatest depths? Indeed, did animals exist at all over wide areas of the sea bed? (Only a few years previously it had been widely assumed that life was untenable in the perpetual darkness, enormous pressures and intense cold of the abyssal depths.)
To enable her to probe into these and many other problems, Challengers guns had been removed, her spars reduced, and laboratories, extra cabins and a special dredging platform installed. In all she was supplied with the staggering total of 181 miles of best Italian hemp for sounding, trawling and dredging.
During the 68890 mile voyage the naval staff was responsible for taking a wide variety of magnetic and meteorological observations, and for the actual working of the sampling gears at the 354 official stations where the vessel stopped to make detailed studies. The work of the scientists, or 'philosophers' as they were nicknamed aboard, began with the arrival of the samples on deck. The water samples were examined by the chemist, John Young Buchanan, while the contents of the nets and dredges were the responsibility of Wyville Thomson and his three young naturalist assistants.
The voyage was an orderly and unhurried affair, with the ship proceeding mainly under sail at the somewhat matronly rate of about 100 miles a day, generally using her engine only to maintain position when she stopped to work a station every two or three days. For the period, the expedition was also a very healthy one, for only 10 fatalities occurred amongst the total complement of 243 during the whole voyage.
1874-76 (Capt. F. T. Thompson) she went on a round the world scientific expedition, studying particularly the ocean beds.
By the time the ship returned to Spithead in May 1876, the expedition had already provided answers to some of the significant oceanographic questions which had been posed at the outset. There was now a much clearer idea of the form of the great ocean basins down to the greatest depth sounded at 4475 fathoms, including the important discovery of a submarine ridge running the length of the Atlantic Ocean.
The reports were the tangible evidence of the achievements of the Challenger venture, but perhaps of much greater importance in the long term was the co-operation between scientists of many countries, inspired by Wyville Thomson's leadership, which set the young science of oceanography on the path to becoming the truly international discipline that it is today.
In 1919 she was still in use at Chatham Dockyard as a hulk for the mooring of boats.
Sea Breezes 11/67 and various web sites.
Aus Ant SG40 Bermuda SG359 Christmas Is SG270 Grenadine of Grenada SG3407 French SAT SG135 Tristan SG75a 139 178 179 613 849