Guide to the Papers of HMS Challenger (as filmed by the AJCP), 1873-1890

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Summary

Collection number:

M2640 - M2642

Creator:

HMS Challenger

Extent:

22 items

Language:

English

Preferred citation:

Acknowledgement of use of this material should refer to the location of the original material and to the Australian Joint Copying Project.

Items from this collection should include references to the location of the original material and to the AJCP nla.obj number, which serves as the online identifier for the digital copy.

Example: M Series: Journal of Capt. James Cook, 18 February 1770, British Library Add. MS 27885 (AJCP ref: http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-1234)

Availability:

Available

Access conditions:

Available for reference.

Background

Content Summary:

Diaries of Sir John Murray 1874-1875, John J. Wild 1874-1875, Sir Charles W. Thomson 1874-1875 and Rudolph von Willemoes-Suhm 1874-1875 describing the voyage to Australia and the Pacific.

Logs of HMS Challenger 1874-1875.

Letter-book 1883-1890 of the zoologist Sir John Murray.

Letters 1874-1878 of Joseph Matkin containing descriptions of Melbourne, Sydney and places in the Pacific, and work on board the ship.

Journal 1874-1875 of Henry N. Moseley describing the voyage from Melbourne across the Pacific.

Biographical / Historical:

On 21 December 1872 the 2306 ton steam assisted corvette HMS Challenger sailed from Portsmouth on a 3½ year voyage of marine exploration. She was commanded by Captain G.S. Nares, and the Director of the scientific staff was Charles Wyville Thomson Professor of Natural History at Edinburgh University.

During the 68,890 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 samples were studied by the experts on board - water samples by John Young Buchanan, contents of nets and dredges by Wyville Thomson, and his naturalists, - H.N. Moseley (corals), Rudolf von Willemoes Suhm (crustaceans), and John Murray (pelagic organisms and ocean deposits). J.J. Wild acted as secretary and artist to the expedition.

From the ships complement of 243 only 10 fatalities occured - one of these was Willemoes Suhm who died from erysipelas in the Pacific, and sixty one ratings deserted, many in Australia.

On the return to England the main scientific work remained to be done. Wyville Thomson established the Challenger Office in Edinburgh, and organised the distribution of material to the specialist scientists. The strain of this and of establishing a style for the publications of the official reports broke his health. In 1881 he died, and it was left to John Murray to see to the publication of the 50 volumed report, the final volumes of which were not published until 1895 - twenty five years after the voyage. The foundations of modern oceanography are based on the scientific data and samples collected during Challenger's voyage and many of the reports still form the starting point for specialist studies in oceanography.

See also: E. Linklater. The Voyage of the Challenger. London. John Murray, 1972.

D.R.C. Kempe and H.A. Buckley. Fifty years of oceanography in the Dept of Mineralogy, British Museum (Natural History). Bulletin of British Museum (Natural History). Historical Series. Vol 15 no.2, Nov. 1987.

E. Brunton. Catalogue of Challenger photographs. Bulletin of British Museum (Natural History). Historical Series. (In press).

Access and use

Conditions Governing Access:: Available for Access.
Conditions Governing Use:: Many of the records digitised as part of the AJCP are still in copyright. Readers wishing to publish or reproduce documents should seek permission, in the first instance, from the owner of the original material.