Dive to the Depths of the History of Ocean Exploration

In 1882, the U.S. Commission of Fish and Fisheries launched the Albatross. It was a steam-powered ship specifically designed for dredging and collecting seafloor samples and marine life at multiple depths. It was the first ship built for marine research under the purview of any world government. After over 30 years of exploration and research, the Albatross was decommissioned in 1921, but continued to serve as a nautical training vessel for several years.

Archaeology finds have revealed that ancient Greeks as early as 1000 BCE used sea sponges for bathing, so they must have acquired them from the seafloor, likely by free diving. Centuries ago, divers would pour oil into their ear canals and hold a mouthful of oil before diving to compensate for the increased pressure during descent. Divers would cut as many sponges as they could before surfacing for air.

During the Cold War, the U.S. Navy experimented with underwater human habitats, the first of which was named Sealab I. In 1964, the first successful mission was completed off the coast of Bermuda. For 11 days, four aquanauts lived and worked in Sealab I at a depth of 193 feet. There were two more Sealab missions in the 1960s, but there have been no long-term laboratories due to the dangers associated with the deep-sea environment.

During the 1950s, Marie Tharp analyzed SONAR readings of the world’s oceans and meticulously plotted them by hand. The result was the world’s first complete map of the ocean floor, which revealed unknown mountain ranges, continental shelves, and canyons. She also found evidence of continental drift, which provided proof in favor of the then-controversial theory of plate tectonics.

Science fiction writer Jules Verne was fascinated by the developing technology of his time and incorporated it into many of his stories. One such inspiration was the Nautilus, France’s first hand-powered submarine, for which he named the submarine in his 1870 book, “Twenty-Thousand Leagues Under the Sea.”

The bathysphere was a 5,000-pound cast-iron sphere, less than 5 feet in diameter, designed in the 1930s by engineer Otis Barton. It was intended to be tethered to a research ship via a steel cable and a telephone line. Barton and biologist William Beebe conducted dozens of dives in the bathysphere off the coast of Bermuda, many below the previous record depth of 525 feet.

As early as the eighth century, Viking explorers attempted to measure the depth of the ocean by dropping lead weights attached to ropes into the ocean and recording how much of the rope was underwater when the weight reached the bottom. They recorded measurements in fathoms, which roughly equaled the distance from fingertip to fingertip of a Viking’s outstretched arms. Today, 1 fathom equals 6 feet.

SONAR, short for Sound Navigation and Ranging, uses underwater sound waves to detect objects and measure distances. Beginning in World War I, the technology was used to detect enemy submarines. Oceanographers still use SONAR to map the seafloor, measure water depths, and find shipwrecks. SONAR echoes, or soundings, are used to create 3D models of the ocean floor.

In 1943, Jacques Cousteau collaborated with engineer Émile Gagnan to create the Aqua-Lung, more commonly known as SCUBA (Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus). Made from bottles of compressed air with a regulating valve, the Aqua-Lung was the first system that expelled the air the divers consumed while also supplying breathable air on demand.

The British warship HMS Challenger was converted into the world’s first oceanographic vessel. Between 1872 and 1876, the Challenger expedition, led by naturalists John Murray and Charles Thompson, collected data on ocean temperatures, seawater chemistry, currents, marine life, and seafloor geology. It was the first expedition of its kind and sparked international efforts to further study the oceans.