Quick update on the HMS Challenger Project and useful resources

Hello all! Firstly – sorry it has been so long since I have written a post. It has been manic here! Whilst I am trying to get through a lot of data work and disappearing off to Ireland and Cardiff (for the second time), Holly has been starting to write some website content and disappearing … Read more

The HMS Challenger Project Team visiting museums

Hello! Heather here. Recently Holly and I spent the week at the Natural History Museum in London. This is packed with specimens dredged and trawled by HMS Challenger – most departments will have some sitting in their store cupboards somewhere! NHM (previously the British Museum) took in all the types collected from the expedition before passing off some … Read more

BBC’s The Long View Compares HMS Challenger to the Space Shuttle Programme

Three of NASA’s five space shuttles were named after British exploration ships – the Discovery and the Endeavour after Captain Cook’s ships; while the ill-fated Challenger, which exploded on launch in 1986, was named after our very own HMS Challenger. HMS Challenger and NASA space shuttle Challenger The connections are very appropriate, in fact. Not … Read more

Scientific Equipment on HMS Challenger

Hello! This is Peter (the Challenger Project’s volunteer) writing. I’m a history student at the University of Exeter, and I’ll be working here until the end of June. As you probably know, the Challenger project is bringing together data from museums all over the country. It’s great that there’s so much information, but it can … Read more

The doom and gloom of the HMS Challenger voyage…

The HMS Challenger voyage was massive. A four year long trip around the world is not going to go without ups and downs. Here are some of the sad and unfortunate deaths of the crew as the years went by. 18th November 1872 – Challenger at Sheerness, Kent [googlemaps https://www.google.com/maps/embed?pb=!1m18!1m12!1m3!1d1272228.2725905256!2d-1.6171698629065225!3d51.479802712613164!2m3!1f0!2f0!3f0!3m2!1i1024!2i768!4f13.1!3m3!1m2!1s0x47d8d5fd673a9139%3A0xb08db03282ac83a7!2sSheerness%2C+Kent!5e0!3m2!1sen!2suk!4v1431077465138&w=400&h=300] Let’s start right at the … Read more

April’s Anemones

April’s anemones! Sea anenomes are in the phylum cnidaria, like jellyfish. Sea anemones attach themselves to rocks with their adhesive foot, attacking prey as they go past with their stinging tentacles. Their tentacles have cells that contain toxins that, when touched, shoot out venom that paralyse the prey. The anemone then uses its tentacles to … Read more

March’s Molluscs

March’s Molluscs!   Today I will tell you about some of the molluscs found on the Challenger expedition along the way – more specifically, the octopus (read about January’s jellyfish here). Above are pictures of cuttlefish and octopus found on the expedition. Firstly – what are molluscs? These are a very large phylum of invertebrates with … Read more

The Scientists on board HMS Challenger

Scientists aboard HMS Challenger Amongst the crew that were on the boat were six scientists. Wyville Thomson was the chief scientist, being one of the people (along with Carpenter) that proposed the idea of the expedition. Born in 1830, the natural historian first lectured at Aberdeen before becoming chair of natural history at Cork and … Read more

January’s Jellyfish

Hello and Happy New Year to you all! January’s jellyfish! For this month’s post I am going to tell you about two species of the jellyfish found around the seas from the HMS Challenger expedition. They are named differently now but after a bit of research we found out what their current names/species are. Let’s start with the … Read more