The Challenger Expedition was a scientific and exploring expedition carried out at the expense of the British Government by means of the ship Challenger, a frigate-built vessel of about 2000 tons, fully equipped with all the most improved scientific appliances for ascertaining the depth, temperature, currents, etc, of the ocean, and the character of the ocean bottom, and for amassing natural history specimens. The ship set sail on December the 7th, 1872, under the command of Captain (afterwards Sir) George Nares, Professor (afterwards Sir) Wyville Thomson being at the head of the scientific staff attached to the ship. In the course of the expedition the ship called at Madeira, Teneriffe, the Bermudas, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Cape Verde Islands, Cape of Good Hope, Kerguelen Islands, Melbourne, Sydney, Hong Kong, Japan, Valparaiso, etc, returning home by way of the Strait of Magellan, and arriving on May the 24th, 1876. During the three and a half years of the cruise the ship traversed about 70,000 nautical miles, and a vast amount of highly useful information was accumulated, the results being published at government expense in a great many volumes. Several popular works on the expedition were also published. Research Challenger Expedition
In negotiating the treaty of 1846, by which the forty-ninth parallel, from the Rocky Mountains to the sea, was made the boundary between the American and British possessions, a controversy arose concerning the course of the line through the channel which divides Vancouver Island from the mainland. The Americans contended for the Canal de Haro, the British for the Rosario Strait. To avoid conflict, it was decided that both nations occupy the island of San Juan at opposite ends. In 1872 the German Emperor, acting as arbitrator, decided for America. Research San Juan Question
The Tuatara or Spenodon (Sphenodon punctatus, Sphenodon guntheri or Hatteria punctata) is the only surviving genus of the snout-headed reptiles, Rhynchocephalia order or group of prehistoric reptiles which preceded the dinosaurs. The tuatara is a lizard-like reptile found only on some 30 islands off the north coast of New Zealand, the Sphenodon guntheri species being found only on North Brother Island in the Cook Strait. The tuatara lays between 10 and 14 eggs which it buries in the ground and live either in a burrow it digs itself or sharing a burrow built by petrels. A fully grown tuatara is about 60 cm long, usually dark olive in colour with yellow dots. The tuatara is carnivorous, feeding mainly on insects, snails and earthworms but also eating lizards small birds and eggs. It differs from the lizards in having the quadratebone, to which the lower jaw is attached, immovable; while the bones of the vertebrae are hollowed at both ends. The mandible is beak-like and there is a pineal body, or rudimentary third eye, in the top of the skull. The skin is tubercled, and a crest of small spines runs along the middle of the back and tail. It is a sluggish moving creature. Research Tuatara
Ferdinand Magellan (Fernao de Magalhaes) was a Portuguese sailor. He was born in 1480 at Sabrosa and died in 1521. He discovered the strait of Magellan. Research Ferdinand Magellan
Frederick William Beechey was an English sailor. He was born in 1796 and died in 1856. He was a son of William Beechey, the painter, and In 1818 he accompanied Franklin in an expedition to discover the north-west passage, and the following year took part in a similar enterprise with Parry. In 1821 he was commissioned, with his brother H W Beechey, to examine by land the coasts of North Africa from Tripoli eastward, an account of which appeared in 1828. From 1825 to 1828 he was commander of the Blossom in another Arctic expedition, by way of the Pacific and the Bering Strait, of which a narrative was published in 1831. In 1854 he was made rear-admiral of the blue. Research Frederick Beechey
John Davis (John Davys) was an English navigator. He was born in 1550 at Sandridge, in Devonshire and died in 1605. Between 1585 and 1587 he conducted three expeditions for the discovery of the north-west passage. In the first he coasted round the south of Greenland and sailed across the strait that now bears his name into Cumberland Gulf, and in the third he sailed north through Davis Strait into Baffin's Bay. He also accompanied the expedition of Cavendish to the Pacific in 1591 to 1593, and made several voyages to the East Indies. In 1605 John Davis was killed by Japanese pirates in the Indian seas. He wrote Seamen's Secrets (a work on navigation), and the World's Hydrographical Description.
John Davis was an American statesman. He was born in 1787 and died in 1854. He was a National Republican Congressman from 1825 until 1834, when he became Governor of Massachusetts. From 1835 to 1840 he was a US Senator, and opposed the administrations of Jackson and Van Buren. After again serving as Governor from 1840 until 1841, he was returned to the Senate from 1845 until 1853. He opposed the Mexican War and the introduction and extension of slavery, and received the appellation of 'Honest John Davis'. Research John Davis
The Onkilon were a division of the Inuit family, formerly inhabiting north-east Siberia about East Cape on the Bering Strait. They were wiped out by Chukche invaders around the 16th century. Research Onkilon
Vitus Bering (Vitus Behring) was a Danish navigator. He was born in 1680 Horsens, Jutland and died in 1741. The courage displayed by him as captain in the navy of Peter the Great during the Swedish wars led to his being chosen to command a voyage of discovery in the Sea of Kamtchatka. In 1728 and subsequently he examined the coasts of Kamtchatka, Okhotsk, and the north of Siberia, ascertaining the relation between the north-eastern Asiatic and north-western American coasts, and discovered the Bering Strait which was named after him. Returning from America in 1741, he was wrecked upon the desert island of Awatska (Bering's Island), and died there. Research Vitus Bering
Sir William Fairbairn was a Scottish engineer. He was born in 1789 at Kelso and died in 1874. He was apprenticed as an engine-wright at a colliery in North Shields, and commenced business on his own account in Manchester with a Mr. Lillie in 1817, where he made many improvements in machinery, such as the use of iron instead of wood in the shafting of cotton-mills. About 1831, his attention having been attracted to the use of iron as a material for ship-building, he built the first iron ship. His firm became extensively employed in iron shipbuilding at Manchester and at Millwall, London, and had a great share in the development of the trade. He shares with Mr. Stephenson the merit of constructing the great tubular bridge across the Menai Strait. William Fairbairn was one of the earliest members of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, of which he was president in 1861-1862. He was created a baronet in 1869. Research William Fairbairn
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Abbreviations
Research Challenger Expedition
