“HISTORY OF

VOYAGING“
NAME: ZOHA ALI 
ENROLNMENT NO. 02-101192-038
COURSE: METEROLOGY
INSTRUCTOR: MAM RASHIDA QARI
 EARLY VOYAGING AND DISCOVERY

 History of marine science is associated with the history of

voyaging.
 Voyaging means travelling on the oceans for the specific
purpose.
 Oceans transportation offers people the benefits of mobility
and greater access to food supplies.
 The first direct evidence of voyaging comes from records of
trade in the Mediterranean sea.
 Greek began ocean exploration in the Atlantic ocean around 700-900 B.C.
 Greek seafarers noticed a current running from north to south beyond
Gibraltar.
 They decided that this great mass of water is part of an immense
following river.
 The Greek name for this river was oreganos. Our word “ocean” is derived
from Oceanus , a variant of that root.
 Mediterranean traders first developed charts of journeys which evolved
into the science of cartography.
 Charts are graphic representation of water and related information.
 Maps primarily represent land information.
 Phoenician sailors were also very much at home in this “river” but like the
Greeks, they rarely ventured out of sight of land.
 Early mariners began to record information to make their voyages easier
and safer location of rocks, land mark sailing times and direction of
currents etc.
 All these early travelers were skilled at telling direction by the stars and
by the position of the rising or setting sun.
 Voyaging for science ( Alexandrian Period)

  Marine science, the organized study of the ocean, began with the
technical studies of voyagers.
  Progress in applied marine science began at the “Library of Alexandria”
in Egypt.
 Library of Alexandria was really a university (first university in the
world) in Egypt (by Alexander the Great). Voyaging for Science
(Alexandrium Period)
  Eratosthenes of Cyrene, a Greek astronomer, philosopher and poet first
calculated the circumference (~40,000 km) of Earth.
 The Greek Pythagoreans had realized Earth was spherical by the sixth
century B.C , but Eratosthenes was the first to estimate its true size.
 Demonstrated knowledge of geometry and that earth wasn't flat.
  Divided the earth into 360° north-south and east-west and invented
Latitude and longitude. Voyaging for Science (Alexandrium Period)
 Voyages of the Oceanian Peoples 

 The Oceanian Peoples made impressive travels in small boats. 

 Polynesian Diaspora from Philippines to Micronesia (north) and
Melanesia (south) all the way to Easter Island off S.A. 
 Meanwhile, Viking (fast, strong and stable ship) made it from
Scandonavia to Africa and the Arabian Penninsula. Again made it to
North America about 860 A.D. 
  The Polynesians are one of four cultures that inhabited some 10,000
islands scattered across nearly 26 million square kilometers of open
Pacific Ocean.
  By 1086, the Chinese philosopher Shen Kuo had deduced that Earth was
of great age and shaped by sedimentary deposit, rock formation, uplift
and erosion over great spans of time.
 Admiral Zheng commanded a voyage including 317 ships and 37,000
men and explored Indian Ocean to Africa.
 The Age of European Discovery

  Prince Henry, (Son of Portugal royal family) established a center at

Sagres for the study of marine science and navigation “ through all the
watery roads.”
  Henry’s explorers pushed south into the unknown and opened the west
coast of Africa to commerce.
  He sent out small, maneuverable ships designed for voyages of discovery
and manned by well-trained crews. 
 His mariners used the compass—an instrument (invented in China in the
fourth century B.C) that points to a magnetic pole.
 Voyaging for Science in the Seventeenth Century

 Franklin measured water temperatures and first explained the Gulf

Stream's cause. 
  Franklin and T. Folger printed the first map of the Gulf Stream in 1769-
1770.
  Captain James Cook made three voyages of scientific discovery in (1768-
79)  Conveyed members of the Royal Society to observe the transit of
Venus in front of the sun.
  Determined the outline of Pacific Ocean and discovered New Zealand,
Australia, Hawaiian Islands. 
 Measured surface ocean conditions and made first accurate map of ocean
using chronometer. 
  Sir James Ross successfully collected deep water sample from 2000first
meters using various device.
 Alexander Marcet (1819) showed that average salinity of sea water
behaves differently from fresh water. 
  James Rennell wrote the first scientific textbook on current of Indian and
Atlantic ocean (18th-19th century). 
  Sir James Clark Ross took the first modern sounding in deep sea in
1840. 
  The First Scientific Expedition towards Galapagos Island was made by
HMS Beagle and Charles Darwin (1831-36).
  The First modern deep-ocean scientific expedition (The HMS Challenger
expedition) was made in (1872-76 ).
 Charles Thomson invented “Oceanography”, the science of oceans. 
 Measured conditions of Deep Ocean (chemistry, temperature, biology,
bottom sediment).
 Measured depth of ocean in several hundred locations with Deep Ocean
sounding (cannonballs and ropes).
 
  Manganese nodules were discovered. 
 They made a hypothesis that-

“There would be no life below ~550 m because of lack of light and

high pressure”.

  Finally it has been proved “Wrong”! 

 Oceanography from the 1880s to the 1930s 

 Marine sciences developed through several local, national and international

agencies (1880s-1930s) 
  First oceanographic ship, the "Albatros" was built in 1882.
  Murray’s Scottish Marine station was established in 1880s for scientific
research.
  “North Atlantic Expedition” by Sir John Murray and Johan Hjort(1910)
was the most ambitious research.
  The classic book The Depths of the Ocean was written in 1912. 

 
  The International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (The First
Oceanographic Organization) was established in 1902. 
 The first acoustic measurement of sea depth was made in 1914.
 General Bathymetric Chart of the ocean was made by Prince Albert of
Monaco(1921). 
 Fridtjof Nansen (1893) obtain first oceanographic, meteorological and
astronomical data from the Arctic Ice.
 The Meteor" expedition gathered 70,000 ocean depth measurements using
an echo sounder from the Mid Atlantic Ridge (1925-1927).
 Development of Modern Oceanography

 Sverdrup and Fleming (1942) published "The Ocean" 

  Maurice Ewing and Bruce Heezen (1953) identified the Great Global Rift
along the Mid Atlantic Ridge. 
 The nuclear submarine Nautilus made the first journey under the ice to the
North Pole in 1958. 
 The nuclear submarine Nautilus made the first journey under the ice to the
North Pole in 1958.
 The Ocean Drilling Project started in 1966. “Encyclopedia of
Oceanography” was published by Rhodes Fairbridge (1966). 
  The U.S. Congress created a National Council for Marine Resources and
Engineering Development in 1966. 
 "The Sea" (covering physical oceanography, seawater and geology) was
Published in 1962.
  The World Ocean Circulation Experiment (WOCE) started in 1990 and
continued until 2002. 
 Geo-sat seafloor mapping data became available in 1995. 
  Deep sea vents were iscovered by John Corlis and Robert Ballard in
1977.
 The application of large scale computers started from 1970s to allow
numerical predictions of ocean conditions.
 Rise of Oceanographic Institutions 
 Scrips Institution of Oceanography
  Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory
  NASA (Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadensa
 Prince Albert I of Monaco 
 Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (MIT)