Challenger also had different winches-mechanical engines used to lower and hoist sounding lines to measure how deep the ocean was. The ship had many different types of samplers to grab rocks or mud from the ocean floor, and nets to capture animals from different levels in the ocean. The Challenger Expedition left Portsmouth, England, just before Christmas in 1872. Thompson had previously dredged some curious creatures from the ocean depths in the North Atlantic and the Mediterranean Sea, and these discoveries persuaded the British government to launch a worldwide expedition to explore the ocean depths. The expedition was led by British naturalist John Murray and Scottish naturalist Charles Wyville Thompson. For the expedition, HMS Challenger, a British Navy corvette (a small warship) was converted into the first dedicated oceanographic ship with its own laboratories, microscopes and other scientific equipment onboard. It was the first expedition organized specifically to gather data on a wide range of ocean features, including ocean temperatures seawater chemistry, currents, marine life, and the geology of the seafloor. Modern oceanography began with the Challenger Expedition between 18.
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