The
Challenger expedition, which embarked from
Portsmouth, England on 21 December 1872, was a grand tour of the world covering organized by the
Royal Society in collaboration with the
University of Edinburgh. British scientist Charles Thomson led a large scientific team which accompanied the crew. • Captains:
George Nares (1873 and 1874) and
Frank Tourle Thomson (1874 to 1876) •
Naturalists:
Charles Wyville Thomson (1830–1882),
Henry Nottidge Moseley (1844–1891) and
Rudolf von Willemoes-Suhm (1847–1875) •
Oceanographers:
John Young Buchanan (1844–1925) and
John Murray (1841–1914) To enable her to probe the depths, all but two of
Challengers guns had been removed and her
spars reduced to make more space available for scientific instruments. Laboratories, extra cabins and a special
dredging platform were installed as well. She was loaded with specimen jars,
ethanol for preserving samples acquired,
microscopes and other chemical apparatus,
trawls,
dredges,
thermometers, water sampling bottles, sounding leads and devices to collect
sediment from the sea bed and great lengths of rope with which to suspend the equipment into the ocean depths. In all she was supplied with 181 miles (291 km) of Italian hemp for sounding, trawling and dredging.
Challengers crew was the first to sound the deepest part of the ocean, which was thereafter named the
Challenger Deep. Notable publications include: C.W. Thomson,
Report on the scientific results of the voyage of HMS Challenger during the years 1873–76... prepared under the superintendence of the late Sir C. Wyville Thomson,... and now of John Murray,... (fifty volumes, London, 1880–1895); H.N. Moseley,
Notes by a naturalist on the Challenger (1879); W.J.J. Spry,
The cruise of the Challenger (1876). ==Later service and decommissioning==