The Challenger Expedition 1872-1876 .... as important as the Moon landings ..... today on the wireles

Some have asserted that the The Challenger Expedition of 1872-1876 is as important as the Moon landings.  

HMS Challenger, 1874

I shall be listening at 9 this morning on Radio 4, part of In Our Time series, and if I miss it it will be available on line.*

"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 crew of HMS Challenger, 1874

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.

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"

HMS Challenger, 1875

Pictures; HMS Challenger, 1874, Drawn by Royal Navy sub-lieutenant navigator Swire on the HMS Challenger during the scientific voyage of 1872-1876. His note - Monday February. 16th. 2.30 pm. Tacked & stood north. / Lat 66 - 40 - S / Long 78 -15 - E. Source, http://search.slv.vic.gov.au/permalink/f/1cl35st/SLV_VOYAGER3500826 State Library Victoria H2017.82/2 And The image above is from the journal of Pelham Aldrich R.N. who served on the Challenger Surveying Expedition from 1872-5, courtesy of Radio 4.

*The Challenger Expedition 1872-1876, In Our Time, Radio 4, https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001fcvd