History of Oceanography

1877-1880 ALEXANDER AGASSIZ made three voyages on the USCG SS Blake. After the Civil War, the US Coast and Geocentric Survey started important surveys and charts of the US Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico coasts, Gulf Stream, and continental shelf. The Blake also dredged for samples in these areas. Agassiz also cruised the South Pacific and made "borings" into coral reefs in 1896 to test Darwin's theory of their formation. Results, however, were inconclusive.

1885 PRINCE ALBERT OF MONACO hosted annual oceanographic cruises to research and map surface currents. He achieved this by releasing floats and he later investigated deep ocean fauna. Twenty-five years later, he built and opened the Musée Oceanographique in Monaco.

1671-1673 ROBERT BOYLE published 4 essays on ocean topics including the saltiness of sea, pressure and temperature at depths, sea floor composition, tide, currents, waves and marine plants. He either relied on his own experiments or directed others to use the hydrometer, diving bell, barometer, sealed thermometer, and sounding lead lines. In his later years he attempted to perfect the desalination of sea water.

1859 CHARLES DARWIN was very influenced by Jean Baptiste Lamarck and Comte de Buffon in developing his theory of biological evolution which he published in The Origin of Species based upon observations he had made on his voyages aboard the HMS Beagle. His theory of coral atoll formation remained in controversy until drillings in 1945 on Eniwetok Atoll reinforced it.

1884 WILLIAM DITTMAR chemically analyzed the Challenger's sea water samples and established the "Constancy of Composition" or specific gravity of dissolved salts in sea water. He also introduced direct methods of determining the minor constituents.

1899 VAGHN WALFRID EKMAN was a Swedish hydro-dynamist/physicist who developed the mathematical relationships to explain effects of wind blowing across the water and developed a model called the Ekman spiral using information from Nansen's voyage of the Fram and his observations of iceberg movement.

1850 EDWARD FORBES was an English biologist who tried to determine the vertical distribution of plant and animal life in the ocean. The majority of the plants and animals were located near the surface and the numbers decreased with depth. Thus, very little, if any, life would be found in the deep ocean. This was called the Azoic (no life) Zone. It was very controversial as well as incorrect.

1777 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN was a American inventor, scientist, and statesman. While serving as Postmaster General, he published maps of the Gulf Stream Current using data from the ship captains of the mail ships, as well as making observations whenever he sailed across the Atlantic. These maps allowed ships to take advantage of the Gulf Stream when going north to save time.

1670's EDMOND HALLEY studied winds and monsoons, defined wind, and established the cause of trade winds. He studied currents, mapped tides, and studied evaporation. In the mid-eighteenth century, he was appointed Astronomer Royal and worked on perfecting methods of calculating longitude. He also continued his interest in deep-sea diving techniques until his death.

1760 JOHN HARRISON perfected the chronometer for determining longitude mathematically at sea each day at noon.

1662 ROBERT HOOKE became the Royal Society's "curator of experiments." In 1691 he reported the usage and development of oceanographic equipment over the past 25 years including the barometer, shallow water sediment dredge, new sounding methods, water pressure gauge, deep-sea thermometer, water sampling diving spectacles, air supply, and effects of pressures on animals.

1871-1949 MARTIN KNUDSED developed chlorine titration of determining salinity of sea water.

1758 CAROLUS LINNAEUS developed binomial nomenclature and taxonomy (classification), published in the tenth edition of Systema Naturae, which included marine plants and animals.

1840 SIR CHARLES LYELL wrote Principles of Geology which discussed the geological effects of wave and current action on coasts.

1835-1855 MATTHEW FONTAINE MAURY is called the father of Oceanography. This career Navy officer was put in charge of the Depot of Naval Charts and Instruments after suffering an injury during his career. He analyzed the log book's information about wind, weather, and current patterns used by 19th century navigators. He helped organize the first International Meteorological Conference in Brussels (1853) to establish uniform methods of recording nautical information at sea. He also published The Physical Geography of the Sea (1855) which summarized his standardizations. Maury played an important role in laying the first trans Atlantic telegraph cable.

1893-1896 FRIDTJOF NANSEN directed the Fram expedition and developed a water collecting device to obtain sealed samples from different vertical depths. This devise is called the Nansen bottle. Often a reversing thermometer is attached to the bottle. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1922.

1687 SIR ISAAC NEWTON published Principia Mathematica and was the first to propose that tides on earth are caused by the gravitational attraction of the sun and moon in his Universal Law of Gravitation.