In this special episode of the Into the Blue, the National Oceanography Centre’s very own podcast, we travel back to December 1872 to recap one of the most important scientific expeditions in history – The Challenger Expedition.
Dr Alejandra Sanchez Franks is joined by Dr John Gould, Emeritus Fellow at the NOC, and Victoria Ingles, Senior Curator at the National Museum of the Royal Navy, to tell the story of the expedition and what it means to oceanography and exploration today. This includes it’s inception, the route and places the crew visited, what happened after it returned to the UK as well as the findings and conclusions.
The episode is available on a range of different podcast apps such as Spotify, Apple Podcast, Amazon Music and more. It is also available to watch on our YouTube channel, where you will be able to see the very special filming location – the Expedition Room in the National Oceanographic Library!
Links below:
Listen to the episode on your favourite podcast app
Still hungry for more?
If you’d like to find out more about the Challenger Expedition here are a few links to additional resources:
The Challenger Society website – here you can learn more about the expedition itself and explore how the group keeps the expedition in the marine science conversation today.
The NOC’s ‘Past, Present, Future’ – earlier in 2022 we took the Challenger Expedition and compared it to a recent expedition, DY149, and the Net Zero Oceanographic Capability Report to see how science expeditions have changed and will change in the future.
National Museum of the Royal Navy – as mentioned in the podcast by Victoria Ingles, the Navy were heavily involved in the inception and execution of the Challenger Expedition. Learn more about their history by visiting the museum.
HMS Challenger and SMS Gazelle Comparison – as mentioned by Dr Gould in the podcast, Challenger wasn’t the only around-the-world expedition taking place in that time period. Dr Gould’s new paper compares it with the expedition of SMS Gazelle and takes a deep dive into it’s similarities and differences.