Dr. Tyler
OCE 2001 - Introduction to Oceanography
Chapter 1 – Origins of Oceanography
I. Early Seafarers
A. Humans crossed coastal seas & channels to settle
continents
1. Arrived in New Guinea/Australia by 40 - 30,000 BC
2. Crete, Cyprus, Corsica, Sardinia by 8500 - 4000 BC
3. Earliest evidence of boats Egypt - 3500 - 2400 BC
B.Mediterranean and Atlantic
1. First regular seafaring trade probably by Crete
2. Phoenicians reigned after Crete fell – 1200 - 200 BC
 Celestial navigation
3. Greeks sailed outside Mediterranean – 900 - 700 BC
a. Found N-S current beyond Gibraltar  River =
“okeanos”
b. First “charts” ~800 BC
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4. Alexander the Great (Library of Alexandria)
a. 300 BC – 415 AD
b. Largest storehouse of ancient knowledge
1) Ships that entered harbor had records held and
copied
2) Mob killed Hypatia, burned Library & 700K
scrolls
c. Advancements in navigation
1) Eratosthenes calculated earth’s circumference
(w/in 8%)
2) Latitude & longitude, divided into 360O; minutes,
seconds
3) Oriented charts: east to the right, north at top
4) Ptolemy (90-168 AD) “Improved” early
circumference
a) Miscalculated the distance of degrees and size
of Asia
b)  estimated Earth to be smaller
5. Fall of Roman Empire brought on the Dark Ages
a. Next 1000 years until European Renaissance
b. Advances by Arabs or imported from Asians
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6. Europeans
a. Vikings began raids in the Dark Ages - 780 AD
1) Fast, strong, boats plundered to Constantinople
2) Concentrated explorations toward west
a) Discovered Iceland (700) and Greenland (995)
b) Bjarni Herjulfsson -blown off course to N.
Amer. 986
c) Leif Ericsson – 980?-1001
(1) Found Newfoundland (Vinland)
(2) Colonized Vinland 1000-1012 AD
b. European contributions
1) Sounding line - with waxed weight for bottom
sample
2) Fathom – ~6 ft, middle finger to middle finger
3) Speed as ‘knots’ with knotted line on log,
4) Timing-glass
5) Starboard (right – “steerboard”) and Port (left)
6) 1410, Latin version of Ptolemy’s world map
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C.Pacific Ocean
1. Pacific Islanders spread from SE Asia and Indonesia
2. Colonized New Guinea/Australia ~ 40-30,000 BC
3.  Philippines in 18,000 BC
4. Micronesians
a. colonized larger west Pacific Is. - 4000-3000 BC
b. developed the stick chart
5. Polynesians came later – 1000-500 BC
a. Colonized “cradle of Polynesia by 500 BC
b. Overpopulation and resource depletion forced
migration
1)  colonized nearly every inhabitable island
2) Easter Island by 400 AD
3) Hawaii by 500 AD
c. Ocean technology
1) Double-hulled vessels  catamarans (100
people/supplies)
2) Skilled navigators
a) Improved stick charts
b) Own system for celestial navigation
c) Change in rhythmic set of waves, water color
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D.Indian Ocean
1. Trade routes between coasts and islands of SE Asia
2. Chinese voyages - 1405 – 1433 AD
a. Ming dynasty organized 7 voyages to expand
influence
b. Gave away treasures, but became financial burden
c. Began China’s isolation from the world  mid1800s
3. Technological contributions
a. Large ships with water-tight bulkheads and
central rudder
b. Multiple masts with battens in sails for support
c. Windlasses and lines from deck to hoist/lower
sails
d. Compass
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II. Age of “Discovery”
A. Coincided with European Renaissance
 Overland trade routes to India cut by Turks in 1453
B. Prince Henry the Navigator, of Portugal (mid-1400s)
1. Established maritime center
2. Used the Chinese “magical” compass
C.Christopher Columbus
1. Master navigator and salesman
2. Shopped around for support (Italy, France)
3. Portuguese just found sea route to India, so not
interested
a. Columbus and others miscalculated the Earth as ½
true size using Ptolemy’s map
b. Thought sail to India from the west in less time
4. Convinced Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain to fund
trip
5. Thought he arrived in Indies, never saw N. Amer.
continent
D.Ferdinand Magellan (Portuguese in service to Spain)
1. Circumnavigate Earth  route to Orient – 1519-22
2. Again greatly underestimated distance
3. Killed in Philippines; 34 crew returned out of 260 men
E. Sir Francis Drake
a. Privateer – raided Spanish ships,
b. Defeated Spanish “Armada” attacking Britian
c. Sailed around world (1577-80) for a profit
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F. Age of European Discovery ended …
1. Native people/cultures were destroyed by
disease/warfare
2. Priceless artifacts melted down for gold/silver coins to
fund Europe’s wars
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III. Sailing for Science – Systematic Ocean Exploration
A. In 1700’s Spain, France, & Britain were leaders of
maritime commerce
B.Captain James Cook – 3 voyages 1768-80
1. First “scientific” voyage - HMS Endeavour - 1768
2. Arguably the first ‘real’ marine scientist
3. Main reason  assert British presence in South Seas
a. Verify Edmund Halley’s calculations of planetary
orbits
b. Search for hypothetical southern continent
4. Discovered ‘cure’ of scurvy (vitamin C deficiency)
5. 1778 – discovered Hawaii, already with Polynesians
 killed in a misunderstanding with natives
C.Benjamin Franklin
1. Noted ships took longer from England than to
America
2. With cousin, Tim Folger  path of Gulph Stream
D.Matthew Maury – “father of physical oceanography”
1. Used records kept aboard ships on winds & currents
2. The Physical Geoography of the Sea – 1855
E. Charles Darwin and HMS Beagle
1. Sailed to S. America & Pacific Islands – 1831-35
2. Structure and Distribution of Coral Reefs - 1842
3. Studied barnacles, volcanic islands, fossils, evolution
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F. Challenger Expedition
1. First true “oceanographic” expedition
2. 1872 – left on 4 year voyage around the world
3. Tested hypothesis that no life existed below 1800 ft
(549 m)
4. Sampled as deep as 26,850 ft (8185 m) off
Philippines
5. Currents, weather, sediments, reefs, manganese
nodules
6. 50 volume report was foundation of oceanography
IV. “Modern” Oceanography
A. Early 1900s, many advances being made
B. Musée Oceanographique
1. First oceanographic institute
2. Funded by Prince Albert of Monaco in 1906
3. Most famous alumnus was Jacques Cousteau
C. U. S. Institutes
1. Scripps Institution of Oceanography – La Jolla
(1912)
2. Woods Hole Oceanographic Inst. – Cape Cod
(1930)
3. Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory – Columbia U.
(1949)
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D. New technologies developed
1. Newly designed ships
2. Fridtjof Nansen – water sampling deep polar regions
3. Echo sounder allowed mapping of ocean floor –
1925
4. Challenger II made precise depth measurements in
Atlantic, Pacific, Indian and Mediterranean – 1951
a. Discovered the deepest oceanic trench (Mariana)
b. Descended into trench in the bathyscaphe - 1960
E. Glomar Challenger
1. Deep-sea drilling expedition – 1963 -1980
2. Found that rocks in deep ocean cores were younger
than those on continents  plate tectonic theory
F. Oceanography is “big science”
1. Very expensive ship time, satellites, aircraft,
computer time
2. Cooperative efforts among countries and institutions
3. Global in scale
4. Large-scale field experiments examine open ocean
processes
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