Published to mark the 150th anniversary of the launch of the Challenger expedition, The Challenger Expedition: Exploring the Ocean’s Depths tells the story of the groundbreaking voyage that transformed our understanding of the deep sea.
On December 1872, HMS Challenger, especially modified to support a team of civilian scientists,set sail from Portsmouth, England, to begin a round-the-world journey, unique for the scale of its ambition and scope.
Exploring the Deep tracks the paths of six objects associated with the Challenger expedition, including the Baillie sounding machine, a starfish, a photographic album and HMS Challenger itself, to reveal the stories of the often hidden work, technologies and international collaboration at the heart of this nineteenth-century scientific endeavour.
Lavishly illustrated with objects from the National Maritime Museum and significant collections around the world, The Challenger Expedition is a fascinating tale of scientific breakthroughs, global trade networks, empire and the legacy of the Challenger expedition on the modern study of oceanography.
About the Author
Dr Erika Jones is Curator of Navigation and Oceanography at Royal Museums Greenwich. She received her MSc in Environment, Science and Society from UCL and a BA in Environmental Science from Boston University. She was the recipient of a UK Arts and Humanities Research Council collaborative doctoral award with the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, and UCL, during which time she undertook original research into the Challenger Expedition. Jones is co-editor of Women in the History of Science: A Sourcebook (UCL Press, 2022)
