Published to mark the 150th anniversary of the launch of the Challenger expedition, The Challenger Exploring the Ocean’s Depths tells the story of the groundbreaking voyage that transformed our understanding of the deep sea.

On December 1872, HMS Challenger, especially modified to support a team of civilian scientists,set sail from Portsmouth, England, to begin a round-the-world journey, unique for the scale of its ambition and scope.

Exploring the Deep tracks the paths of six objects associated with the Challenger expedition, including the Baillie sounding machine, a starfish, a photographic album and HMS Challenger itself, to reveal the stories of the often hidden work, technologies and international collaboration at the heart of this nineteenth-century scientific endeavour.

Lavishly illustrated with objects from the National Maritime Museum and significant collections around the world, The Challenger Expedition is a fascinating tale of scientific breakthroughs, global trade networks, empire and the legacy of the Challenger expedition on the modern study of oceanography.