Editing Challenger expedition (section)

== Expedition ==
[[File:Challenger negatives box Picture 0105.jpg|thumb|upright|One of the original boxes containing the photographic negatives brought back from the expedition]]
On its landmark journey circumnavigating the globe,<ref name="Rice" /> 492&nbsp;deep sea soundings, 133&nbsp;bottom dredges, 151&nbsp;open water trawls and 263&nbsp;serial water temperature observations were taken.<ref>{{cite book|title=Oceanography: an introduction to the marine environment|author=Peter K. Weyl|year=1970|page=49}}</ref><ref name="Aitken_t1" /> About 4,700&nbsp;new species of marine life were discovered.

The scientific work was conducted by [[Wyville Thomson]], [[John Murray (oceanographer)|John Murray]], [[John Young Buchanan]], [[Henry Nottidge Moseley]], and [[Rudolf von Willemoes-Suhm]]. Frank Evers Bed was appointed [[prosector]]. The official expedition artist was [[John James Wild]].<ref name="crew list"/> As well as Nares and Maclear, others that were part of the naval crew included [[Pelham Aldrich]], George Granville Campbell, and Andrew Francis Balfour (one of the sons of Scottish botanist [[John Hutton Balfour]]).<ref name="crew list"/> Also among the officers was [[Thomas Henry Tizard]], who had carried out important hydrographic observations on previous voyages. Though he was not among the civilian scientific staff, Tizard would later help write the official account of the expedition, and also become a [[Fellow of the Royal Society]].

The original ship's complement included 21&nbsp;officers and around 216&nbsp;crew members.<ref name="NOAA">{{cite web|last=Bishop|first=Tina|title=Then and Now: The HMS Challenger Expedition and the "Mountains in the Sea" Expedition|url=http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explorations/03mountains/background/challenger/challenger.html|work=oceanexplorer.noaa.gov|publisher=[[NOAA]]|access-date=31 January 2018|archive-date=25 April 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150425002856/http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explorations/03mountains/background/challenger/challenger.html|url-status=live}}</ref> By the end of the voyage, this had been reduced to 144 due to deaths, desertions, personnel being left ashore due to illness, and planned departures.<ref name="NOAA"/>

''Challenger'' reached [[Hong Kong]] in December 1874, at which point Nares and Aldrich left the ship to take part in the [[British Arctic Expedition]]. The new captain was Frank Tourle Thomson.<ref name="crew list"/> The second-in-command, and the most senior officer present throughout the entire expedition, was Commander [[John Maclear]]. Willemoes-Suhm died and was buried at sea on the voyage to [[Tahiti]]. Lords Campbell and Balfour left the ship in Valparaiso, Chile, after being promoted.<ref name="crew list"/>

[[File:Track of H.M.S. Challenger Dec.r 1872 to May 1876 - UvA-BC OTM HB-KZL 62 04 07.jpg|thumb|upright=1.5|left|Track of HMS ''Challenger'' from December 1872 until May 1876. The colour contours represent ocean surface density.]]
The first leg of the expedition took the ship from [[Portsmouth]] (December 1872) south to [[Lisbon]] (January 1873) and then on to [[Gibraltar]]. The next stops were [[Madeira]] and the [[Canary Islands]] (both February 1873). The period from February to July 1873 was spent crossing the Atlantic westwards from the Canary Islands to the [[Virgin Islands]], then heading north to the North Atlantic archipelago and [[Imperial fortress]] [[British Overseas Territory|colony]] of [[Bermuda]] (home base of the North America and West Indies Station), east to the [[Azores]], back to Madeira, and then south to the [[Cape Verde Islands]]. During this period, there was a detour in April and May 1873, sailing from Bermuda north to [[City of Halifax|Halifax]] and back, crossing the [[Gulf Stream]] twice with the reverse journey crossing further to the east.<ref name="official charts">The account of the expedition route given here is based on the 40 official nautical charts produced by the expedition, available at: {{cite web|url=http://hercules.kgs.ku.edu/hexacoral/expedition/challenger_1872-1876/challenger.html|title=Challenger Expedition (1872–1876)|archive-url=https://archive.today/20121214200054/http://hercules.kgs.ku.edu/hexacoral/expedition/challenger_1872-1876/challenger.html|archive-date=14 December 2012|work=University of Kansas Natural History Museum|access-date=2 February 2012}} This also includes a map of the expedition route.</ref>

After leaving the Cape Verde Islands in August 1873, the expedition initially sailed south-east and then headed west to reach [[St Paul's Rocks]]. From here, the route went south across the equator to [[Fernando de Noronha]] during September 1873, and onwards that same month to [[Salvador, Bahia|Bahia]] (now called Salvador) in Brazil. The period from September to October 1873 was spent crossing the Atlantic from Bahia to the [[Cape of Good Hope]], touching at [[Tristan da Cunha]] on the way.<ref name="official charts"/>

[[File:Challenger H2017 82 2.jpg|thumb|left|upright=1.5|HMS ''Challenger'' in the [[Southern Ocean]], drawn by crewman Sub-lieutenant Herbert Swire]]
December 1873 to February 1874 was spent sailing on a roughly south-eastern track from the Cape of Good Hope to the parallel of [[60th parallel south|60 degrees south]]. The islands visited during this period were the [[Prince Edward Islands]], the [[Crozet Islands]], the [[Kerguelen Islands]], and [[Heard Island]]. February 1874 was spent travelling south and then generally eastwards in the vicinity of the [[Antarctic Circle]], with sightings of icebergs, pack ice and whales. The route then took the ship north-eastward and away from the ice regions in March 1874, with the expedition reaching [[Melbourne]] in Australia later that month. The journey eastward along the coast from Melbourne to Sydney took place in April 1874, passing by [[Wilsons Promontory]] and [[Cape Howe]].<ref name="official charts"/>

[[File:Challenger expedition.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|Expedition crew in 1874]]
When the voyage resumed in June 1874, the route went east from Sydney to [[Wellington]] in New Zealand, followed by a large loop north into the Pacific calling at [[Tonga]] and [[Fiji]], and then back westward to [[Cape York Peninsula|Cape York]] in Australia by the end of August. The ship arrived in New Zealand in late June and left in early July. Before reaching Wellington (on New Zealand's North Island), brief stops were made at Port Hardy (on [[D'Urville Island, New Zealand|d'Urville Island]]) and [[Queen Charlotte Sound (New Zealand)|Queen Charlotte Sound]] and ''Challenger'' passed through the [[Cook Strait]] to reach Wellington.
[[File:Amatabaulay, during the Challenger Expedition, 1874.jpg|thumb|Amatabaulay, a [[Tongan people|Tongan]] pilot taken on board by the expedition in July 1874.]]
The route from Wellington to Tonga went along the east coast of New Zealand's North Island, and then north and east into the open Pacific, passing by the [[Kermadec Islands]] en route to [[Tongatabu]], the main island of the Tonga archipelago (then known as the Friendly Islands). The waters around the Fijian islands, a short distance to the north-west of Tonga, were surveyed during late July and early August 1874. The ship's course was then set westward, reaching [[Raine Island]]—on the outer edge of the [[Great Barrier Reef]]—at the end of August and thence arriving at Cape York, at the tip of Australia's [[Cape York Peninsula]].<ref name="official charts"/>

Over the following three months, from September to November 1874, the expedition visited several islands and island groups while sailing from Cape York to China and [[Hong Kong]] (then a [[British Hong Kong|British colony]]). The first part of the route passed north and west over the [[Arafura Sea]], with [[New Guinea]] to the north-east and the Australian mainland to the south-west. The first islands visited were the [[Aru Islands Regency|Aru Islands]], followed by the nearby [[Kai Islands]]. The ship then crossed the [[Banda Sea]] touching at the [[Banda Islands]], to reach Amboina ([[Ambon Island]]) in October 1874, and then continuing to [[Ternate Island]]. At the time, all these islands were part of [[Dutch East Indies|Netherlands East-Indies]] and are since 1949 part of [[Indonesia]].

From Ternate, the route went north-westward towards the Philippines, passing east of Celebes ([[Sulawesi]]) into the [[Celebes Sea]]. The expedition called at Samboangan ([[Zamboanga City|Zamboanga]]) on Mindanao, and then [[Iloilo]] on the island of Panay, before navigating within the interior of the archipelago en route to the bay and harbour of [[Manila]] on the island of Luzon. The crossing north-westward from Manila to Hong Kong took place in November 1874.<ref name="official charts"/>

After several weeks in Hong Kong, the expedition departed in early January 1875 to retrace their route south-east towards New Guinea. The first stop on this outward leg of the journey was Manila. From there, they continued on to Samboangan, but took a different route through the interior of the Philippines, this time touching at the island of [[Cebu (island)|Zebu]]. From Samboangan the ship diverged from the inward route, this time passing south of Mindanao—in early-February 1875.

''Challenger'' then headed east into the open sea, before turning to the south-east and making landfall at Humboldt Bay (now [[Yos Sudarso Bay]]) on the north coast of New Guinea. By March 1875, the expedition had reached the [[Admiralty Islands]] north-east of New Guinea. The final stage of the voyage on this side of the Pacific was a long journey across the open ocean to the north, passing mostly west of the [[Caroline Islands]] and the [[Mariana Islands]], reaching port in [[Yokohama]], Japan, in April 1875.<ref name="official charts"/>

[[File:The Challenger at Juan Fernandez.jpg|thumb|upright=1.4|left|''Challenger'' at the [[Juan Fernández Islands]] off [[Chile]]]]
''Challenger'' departed Japan in mid-June 1875, heading east across the Pacific to a point due north of the [[Hawaiian Islands|Sandwich Islands]] (Hawaiʻi), and then turning south, making landfall at the end of July at [[Honolulu, Hawaii|Honolulu]] on the Hawaiian island of [[Oahu|Oʻahu]]. A couple of weeks later, in mid-August, the ship departed south-eastward, anchoring at [[Hilo Bay]] off [[Hawaii (island)|Hawaiʻi Island]], before continuing to the south and reaching [[Tahiti]] in mid-September.

The expedition left Tahiti in early October, swinging to the west and south of the [[Tubuai Islands]] and then heading to the south-east before turning east towards the South American coast. The route touched at the [[Juan Fernández Islands]] in mid-November 1875, with ''Challenger'' reaching the port of [[Valparaiso]] in Chile a few days later. The next stage of the journey commenced the following month, with the route taking the ship south-westward back out into the Pacific, past the Juan Fernández Islands, before turning to the south-east and back towards South America, reaching Port Otway in the [[Gulf of Penas]] on 31 December 1875.<ref name="official charts"/>

Most of January 1876 was spent navigating around the southern tip of South America, surveying and touching at many of the bays and islands of the Patagonian archipelago, the [[Strait of Magellan]], and [[Tierra del Fuego]]. Locations visited here include Hale Cove, Gray Harbour, Port Grappler, Tom Bay, all in the vicinity of [[Wellington Island]]; Puerta Bueno, near [[Hanover Island]]; Isthmus Bay, near the [[Queen Adelaide Archipelago]]; and Port Churruca, near [[Santa Ines Island]].

The final stops, before heading out into the Atlantic, were [[Puerto del Hambre|Port Famine]], [[Sandy Point, Chile|Sandy Point]], and Elizabeth Island. ''Challenger'' reached the [[Falkland Islands]] towards the end of January, calling at [[Port Stanley]] and then continuing northward, reaching [[Montevideo]] in Uruguay in mid-February 1876. The ship left Montevideo at the end of February, heading first due east and then due north, arriving at [[Ascension Island]] at the end of March 1876.

The period from early- to mid-April was spent sailing from Ascension Island to the Cape Verde Islands. From here, the route taken in late April and early May 1876 was a westward loop to the north out into the mid-Atlantic, eventually turning due east towards Europe to touch land at [[Vigo]] in Spain towards the end of May. The final stage of the voyage took the ship and its crew north-eastward from Vigo, skirting the [[Bay of Biscay]] to make landfall in England.<ref name="official charts"/> ''Challenger'' returned to [[Spithead]], [[Hampshire]], on 24 May 1876, having spent 713&nbsp;days out of the intervening&nbsp;1,250 at sea.<ref name="Rice"/>