The Voyage of the Challenger…in the Years 1872-1876

1938

Hocken Library: Bliss Oversize KU Chal Sw

London: Golden Cockerel Press

After a voyage of 70,000 miles, the Challenger recorded 492 deep sea soundings (a record sounding was made at the Marianna Trench, near Guam), 133 bottom dredges, 151 open water trawls and 263 serial water temperature observations. Some 4,700 new species of marine life were discovered. Fifty-six volumes of reports totalling 29,500 pages were produced, taking 13 years to publish. John Murray, publishing overseer, described the Report as ‘the greatest advance in the knowledge of our planet since the celebrated discoveries of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries’. This posthumous Golden Cockerel edition written by Herbert Swire, biologist on the Challenger, offers an intriguing narrative of the expedition, greatly enhanced by colourful illustrations from his journal.