XX CHALLENGER 



seeing some of the Fuegian Indians, the most miserable and 

 dejected people they had encountered on the whole voyage. 



The old ship anchored in Spithead on 24th May, 1876, having 

 been away 3^ years and having sailed 68,^00 miles. Out of 243 

 men who had set sail, 6 1 had deserted the ship on the long voyage, 

 an interesting light on the discipline of those days. But much was 

 also the same at sea then as it is today; a seaman, Wilton, was 

 lost overboard from the chains in heavy weather in Cook Strait. 

 'He was a quiet, well behaved man and always did his duty well', 

 wrote Sub-Lieutenant Swire in his journal. 'Such men are scarce 

 in the Navy nowadays.' This remark might be heard in a ward- 

 room today. 



There is little evidence of any serious friction between the 

 naval officers and the scientists on this long and arduous voyage, 

 which says a great deal for the skill with which the Hydrographer 

 of the Navy and the Royal Society chose these men. There were 

 of course many minor incidents, such as the calling on deck of 

 the men at night to search for a broken spar, for the officer on 

 watch had heard an ominous crack. In fact this had been caused 

 by Moseley in his cabin firing a paper pellet from his airgun at 

 a large cockroach which had for long escaped him. On another 

 day Commander McLean, the executive officer, stubbed his toe 

 on a giant spider as he put his feet into his seaboots. The naturalists 

 had brought this animal onboard for study but it had gone into 

 hiding. 



One of the tasks set the Challenger scientists was to investigate 

 'bathybius', a supposed primordial stuff of life believed to exist 

 in the depths. This fabulous white matter had been found in 

 samples taken from the sea-bed but proved eventually to be 

 nothing more than a white precipitate resulting from the addition 

 of preserving spirits of lime to sea-water. However, before this 

 had been discovered the philosophers were in a great state of 

 excitement one day when a deposit of 'bathybius' was found 

 among sample bottles in the laboratory. While they were 

 gathered excitedly around this a marine came in to ask if anyone 

 had seen his pipeclay which he thought he had mislaid somewhere 

 in the laboratory. 



The ship lived on, dismasted and unrigged, as a coal hulk until 

 192 1 . Captain Swire, the last survivor of the expedition, died in 



