The History with Marine Science
• Navigation/Exploration; Early Science; Modern Era
• 3000 BC: Polynesians (mid-Pacific Islands) or
Phoenicians (Mediterranean, Britain, West Africa)
• 700s BC: Greeks as first cartographers (chart
makers); word ocean from okeanus (river).
• 300s BC: Chinese invented the compass, which did
not arrive in the West until 1100s AD by Arabs.
Admiral Zheng He 1403-1433, good will expeditions.
Polynesian Exploration:
From Indo-china eastward into the Pacific 30,000 years ago to New Guinea and
Philippine Is. by 20,000 years.
Expansion to mid-Pacific island about 2,500 years ago, reaching Hawaii by 450-600 AD
(or about 1,500 years ago).
Mediterranean Advances:
Library of Alexandria (235BC to
415 AD) housed all knowledge of
the region. Ancients may have
been more advanced than
remaining records suggest.
Eratosthenes (second librarian)
was first to calculate the
circumference of the earth (230
BC). His estimate was 46,250 km
and the actual is 40,000 km.
He was also the first cartographer
to place longitude and latitude
lines of orientation on his charts.
= 7.2º
Eratosthenes’ chart (ca 300 BC)
Later Hipparchus (ca 120 BC) divided the globe in 360º of arc.
Ptolemy (ca 150 AD) defined the present coordinate system (W-E; N-S), and divided
degrees into 60 minutes and minutes into 60 seconds
Early European
Advances:
Prince Henry of Portugal
(“the Navigator” mid-1400s
AD), encouraged the use of
the compass. Established
first known institute of
marine science and
navigation.
Not until after Columbus
“discovered” the New World
in 1492 did the Americas
appear on charts.
First circumnavigation of the
globe was performed by
Ferdinand Magellan
between 1519-1522.
Waldseemuller Chart (1507).
Gerhardus Mecator, in 1569, modification still distorts higher latitudes.
A further modification known as a Miller projection is used to day.
Magellan was seeking trade routes to the Orient. He died in 1521 while
in the Phillipines Islands. Only 13 % of his crew circumnavigated Earth.
James Cook (1st marine scientist?)
HMS Endeaver, Adventure, Resolution, and
Discovery
3 expeditions of the Pacific (1768-1780)
Rediscovered the Hawaiian Islands and most of
what the Polynesians had settled over 1000 years
earlier!
By 1700s, charts
were becoming
more elaborate
and included
currents and wind
data, not just
coastlines and
bottom
obstructions.
Gulf Stream chart
by Ben Franklin
and seaman
cousin Timothy
Folger, 1769. The
“road map” to fast
trans-Atlantic
travel.
US Navy Involvement:
1838-1842 Lt. Charles Wilkes lead the US
Exploring Expedition that circumnavigated
the globe including charting part of
Antarctica.
Formal Database
Established on
Navigation Charts.
Matthew Maury, 1847, as
Director of Bureau of Charts.
Launched research into
understanding current and wind
systems globally.
Maury was a “pencil pusher”, a
cartographer not a mariner.
Revised charts were distributed
free of charge in exchange for
more ship log data from
captains.
Challenger Expedition (1872-1876):
Charles Thompson and John Murray lead the first purely oceanographic expedition to
focus on life at sea, as well as physical and chemical conditions where it was found.
Over 362 sampling stations resulted in discovery of more than 4000 species.
Searched to depths of >3000 m and found organism! There was life below 600 m.
Charles Darwin’s voyages on HMS Beagle (1831-1836) were less extensive.
Fridtjof Nansen
First “Professor of Oceanography”
Fram expedition in the Arctic ice cap
(1893-1897). Proved there was no land
mass under the Arctic ice pack.
20th Century
Oceanography:
WWI the sea becomes an
important battlefield, thus
an impetus for advances in
naval science and
technology.
German Sonar
(Echosounding) maps the
seafloor in 1925 Meteor
Expedition.
Glomar Challenger, 1960s
Ocean floor drilling to study
seafloor formation and age.
Kaiko
JAMSTEC = Japanese marine science
consortium
ROV = remote operated vehicle; Depth of
11,000 m
Alvin
WHOI = Woods Hole Oceanographic
Institute
Manned submersible; depth of 4,500 m;
deep sea vent studies.
Satellites:
Sea level & seafloor
topography
(TOPEX/Poseidon).
Ocean surface
temperature.
Plankton productivity.
Navigation (GPS)!