 Painting ofChallenger byWilliam Frederick Mitchell | |
| History | |
|---|---|
 United Kingdom | |
| Name | Challenger |
| Builder | Woolwich Dockyard |
| Launched | 13 February 1858 |
| Decommissioned | Chatham Dockyard, 1878 |
| Fate | Broken for scrap, 1921 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class & type | Pearl-classcorvette |
| Displacement | 2,137 long tons (2,171 t)[1] |
| Tons burthen | 1465bm[1] |
| Length |
|
| Beam | 40 ft 4 in (12.29 m) |
| Draught |
|
| Depth of hold | 23 ft 11 in (7.29 m) |
| Installed power |
|
| Propulsion |
|
| Sail plan | Full-rigged ship |
| Speed | 10.7knots (19.8 km/h) (under steam) |
| Armament |
|
HMSChallenger was aPearl-class corvette of theRoyal Navy launched on 13 February 1858 at theWoolwich Dockyard.
As part of theNorth America and West Indies Station, she took part in naval operations during theSecond French intervention in Mexico, including the occupation ofVeracruz, in 1862. She was assigned as theflagship ofAustralia Station in 1866, undertaking apunitive expedition inFiji before leaving the station four years later.[2][3]
TheRoyal Society of London obtained the use ofChallenger from the Royal Navy in 1872 and modified the ship to undertake the first global marine research expedition: theChallenger expedition (1872–1876). She carried a complement of 243 officers (including commanderGeorge Nares), scientists (withCharles Wyville Thomson the chief scientific supervisor) and sailors when she embarked on her 68,890-nautical-mile (127,580 km) journey.
TheUnited StatesSpace ShuttleChallenger was named after the ship.[4] Herfigurehead is on display in the foyer of theNational Oceanography Centre, Southampton.
TheChallenger expedition, which embarked fromPortsmouth,England on 21 December 1872, was a grand tour of the world covering 68,000 nautical miles (125,936 km) organized by theRoyal Society in collaboration with theUniversity of Edinburgh.[5] British scientist Charles Thomson led a large scientific team which accompanied the crew.[6]
To enable her to probe the depths, all but two ofChallenger's guns had been removed and her spars reduced to make more space available for scientific instruments.[8] Laboratories, extra cabins and a specialdredging platform were installed as well.[9]
She was loaded with specimen jars,ethanol for preserving samples acquired,microscopes and other chemical apparatus,trawls,dredges,thermometers, water sampling bottles, sounding leads and devices to collectsediment from the sea bed and great lengths of rope with which to suspend the equipment into the ocean depths.[9][10] In all she was supplied with 181 miles (291 km) of Italian hemp for sounding, trawling and dredging.[11][9]Challenger's crew was the first to sound the deepest part of the ocean, which was thereafter named theChallenger Deep.[9]
She was commissioned as aHis Majesty's Coastguard andRoyal Naval Reserve training ship at theHarwich Dockyard in July 1876.[2] In 1878,Challenger went through an overhaul by the Chief Constructor atChatham Dockyard with a view to converting the vessel into a training ship for boys of the Royal Navy. She was found suitable and it was planned to take the place ofHMSEurydice which sank off theIsle of Wight on 24 March 1878.[12]
The Admiralty did not go ahead with the conversion and she remained in reserve until 1883, when she was converted into areceiving hulk in theRiver Medway, where she stayed until she was sold to J B Garnham on 6 January 1921 and broken up for hercopper bottom that same year.[2] Only herfigurehead now remains, kept at theNational Oceanography Centre, Southampton.[13]
Media related toHMSChallenger (1858) at Wikimedia Commons