Distributing specimens and collections was really controversial in the 1870s. A lot of scientists who had not necessarily been directly involved in the Challenger but were British felt that they should get their hands on them first. There are lots of people who say they've got some sediment from the Challenger because you could just put a spoon into the bottle and then distribute it around. It has been very easy to distribute. And so there areLots of people who can quite rightly say they have challenge and materials in their collections, in their museums or in private collections all over the world.
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the voyage of HMS Challenger which set out from Portsmouth in 1872 with a mission a to explore the ocean depths around the world and search for new life. The scale of the enterprise was breath taking and, for its ambition, it has since been compared to the Apollo missions. The team onboard found thousands of new species, proved there was life on the deepest seabeds and plumbed the Mariana Trench five miles below the surface. Thanks to telegraphy and mailboats, its vast discoveries were shared around the world even while Challenger was at sea, and they are still being studied today, offering insights into the ever-changing oceans that cover so much of the globe and into the health of our planet.
The image above is from the journal of Pelham Aldrich R.N. who served on the Challenger Surveying Expedition from 1872-5.
With
Erika Jones
Curator of Navigation and Oceanography at Royal Museums Greenwich
Sam Robinson
Southampton Marine and Maritime Institute Research Fellow at the University of Southampton
And
Giles Miller
Principal Curator of Micropalaeontology at the Natural History Museum London
Producer: Simon Tillotson