OCEANOGRAPHIC RESEARCH SHIPS 



G. G. Lill and A. E. Maxwell 



Office of Naval Research 

 Washington, D. C. 



INTRODUCTION 



Modern oceanography is considered by most scientists to have begun with the unprecedented 

 round-the-iorld cruise of the HMS CHALLENGER from 1872 to 1876. There had been notable 

 cJS^ses prtor to this, such as the voyage of the HMS ENDEAVOUR under the leadership of 

 cSS Cook and the scientific direction of Sir Joseph Banks in 1768 to I'^l-nd the voyage of 

 the BEAGLE from 1831 to 1836 under Darwin, but no scientific cruise Pl'^^^^^f^^L^^^ 

 THAI I ENGER ever provided so much new scientific information. The HMS CHALLtNUtK 

 (f1^ D^sf s^r-deck corvette of 2306-ton displacement and auxiliary engines of 1234 horse- 

 ^wer.^ m three'tnd one half years she travelled 69,000 miles in the Atlantic and Pacific and 

 penetrated as far south as the Antarctic ice barrier, l The voyage of the CHALLENGER opened 



Fig. 1. HMS CHALLENGER -- 1872-1876 

 The "firBt" oceanographic research ship 



ISir WUham A. Herdman. The Founders of Q r^anopraohv and their Work (Edward Arnold U 

 Co., London, 1923). 



147 



