1. An Invitation to Marine Science, 7th
Oceanography
An Invitation to Marine Science, 7th
Tom Garrison
Chapter 2
History

2. Understanding the Ocean Began with Voyaging for Trade and Exploration
Early Peoples Traveled the Ocean for Economic Reasons
Ocean transportation offers people the benefits of mobility and greater access to food supplies.
Any coastal culture skilled at raft building or small-boat navigation would have economic and nutritional advantages over less-skilled competitors.
The first direct evidence we have of voyaging, or traveling on the ocean for a specific purpose, comes from records of trade in the Mediterranean Sea.
The Egyptians organized ship-borne commerce on the Nile River.
However, The first consistent ocean traders were probably the Cretans, or the Phoenicians who inherited maritime supremacy in the Mediterranean after the destruction of the Cretan civilizations around 1200 B.C.
Skilled sailors, the Phoenicians carried their wares through the Strait of Gibraltar to markets as distant as Britain and the W. coast of Africa. Given their simple ships, this was quite an accomplishment.

3. Understanding the Ocean Began with Voyaging for Trade and Exploration
What does voyaging offer people?
Expansion of trade
Increased availability of food
Mobility of residence
All of the above
Answer: (d)

4. Understanding the Ocean Began with Voyaging for Trade and Exploration
The Greeks began to explore outside the Mediterranean into the Atlantic Ocean around B.C. Pictured above is a replica of a Greek ship from about 500 B.C. Despite being skilled sailors, neither the Greeks nor Phoenicians ventured beyond the sight of land.

5. Understanding the Ocean Began with Voyaging for Trade and Exploration
Early mariners began recording information to make their voyages easier and safer.
Such information included the location of rocks in a harbor, landmarks and the sailing times between them, and the direction of currents.
These first cartographers, or chart makers, were probably Mediterranean traders who made routine journeys from producing areas to markets.
Their first charts (from about 800 B.C.) were drawn to job their memory for obvious features along the route.
Today’s chart’s are detailed graphic representations of water and water-related information.

6. Understanding the Ocean Began with Voyaging for Trade and Exploration
What information was not available for early cartographers to put on charts?
Direction of currents
Water depths and related information
Location of rocks in harbors
Sailing times
Answer: (b)

7. Understanding the Ocean Began with Voyaging for Trade and Exploration
Curiosity and commerce encouraged people to undertake ever more ambitious voyages. But these voyages were only possible with astronomical direction, advanced shipbuilding technology, accurate graphic charts, and a growing understanding of the ocean itself.
It was at this moment that the need for Marine Science, the organized study of the ocean, became evident and began with the technical studies of these early voyagers.

8. Systematic Study of the Ocean Began at the Library of Alexandria
Progress in applied Marine Science began at The Library at Alexandria, in Egypt.
Founded in the 3rd century B.C. at the request of Alexander the Great, the Library stored information on every area of human endeavor and was considered to be the first university in the world.
In Alexandria, traders, explorers, scholars, and students had a place to conduct research and exchange information about the seas.
The principles of celestial navigation, the technique of finding one’s position on earth by reference to the apparent positions of stars, planets, the moon, and the sun, were invented at the Library at Alexandria.

9. Eratosthenes Accurately Calculated the Size and Shape of Earth
Greek astronomer, philosopher, and poet Eratosthenes of Cyrene was the second librarian at Alexandria (from 235 B.C. until 192 B.C.).
He was the first to calculate the circumference of Earth and also invented a system of longitude and latitude.

10. Eratosthenes Accurately Calculated the Size and Shape of Earth
A diagram showing Eratosthenes’s technique for calculating the circumference of Earth. As described in the text, he used simple geometric reasoning based on the assumptions that Earth is spherical and that the sun is very far away. Using this method, he was able to discover the circumference of Earth to within about 8% of its true value.

11. Latitude and Longitude
The world, according to a chart from the third century B.C. Eratosthenes drew latitude and longitude lines through important places rather than spacing them at regular intervals as we do today. The Alexandrian perception of the world is reflected in the size of the continents and the central position of Alexandria.

12. Latitude and Longitude
Our present regular grid of latitude and longitude was invented by Hipparchus, a librarian who divided the surface of the Earth into 360⁰.
Latitude lines run parallel to the equator
Longitude lines run from pole to pole
Alexandria, his home and that of the great Library of Alexandria, was the location of the first “zero longitude” line.
A later Alexandrian scholar, Claudius Ptolemy advanced this by dividing the degrees into minutes and seconds of arc, something still used by navigators today.
Ptolemy also oriented charts by placing east to the right and north at the top.

13. Latitude and Longitude
Diagrams showing the calculation of lines of latitude and longitude.

14. Latitude and Longitude
Though the Library of Alexandria weathered the dissolution of Alexander the Great, it did not survive the subsequent period of Roman rule.
The last librarian was Hypatia, the first notable woman mathematician, philosopher, and scientist. She was a symbol of science and knowledge, concepts the early Christians identified with pagan practices.
In A.D. 415 a mob brutally murdered Hypatia and burned the library with all its contents.
Afterwards, most of the community of scholars dispersed, and Alexandria ceased to be a center of learning in the ancient world.
This great loss of information likely sent Europe into the “Dark Ages” after the Roman Empire fell in 476 A.D.

15. Latitude and Longitude
Western intellectual development slackened during the “Dark Ages” that followed the fall of the Roman Empire. For almost 1,000 years, until the European Renaissance, much of the progress in medicine, astronomy, philosophy, mathematics was made by the Arabs.

16. Latitude and Longitude
The fall of the library of Alexandria can be attributed to growing tensions between Hypatia and early Christian Romans.
True or False?
True

17. Ocean Seafarers Colonized Distant Islands
In the history of human migration, no voyaging saga is more inspiring than that of the Polynesian colonization’s.
They are an example of knowledge of oceans and marine science used to colonize some 10,000 islands scattered across nearly 10 million square miles of open Pacific Ocean.

18. Ocean Seafarers Colonized Distant Islands
“Red Arrows” show a possible direction and order of settlement.
Polynesian ancestors originated from Southeast Asia or Indonesia.
First they populated New Guinea
10,000 years later they spread to the Philippines.
By 900 A.D. they had settled the “cradle of Polynesia” -Tonga, Samoa, the Marquesas, and the Society Islands.
Between 300 and 600 A.D. Polynesians successfully colonized nearly every island within the “Polynesian Triangle” (shown in yellow).
The remote islands of Hawaii were among the last places on Earth to be populated.
How did these risky voyages into unexplored territory come about?
It was a mixture of thins…overpopulation, depletion of resources, politics, intertribal tension.
However, Religious warfare may have been the strongest stimulus to colonization….
If the losers of a religious war were banished from the home islands under penalty of death, their only hope for survival was to reach a distant and hospitable new land.

19. Ocean Seafarers Colonized Different Islands
Throughout the Polynesian colonizations, seafaring knowledge was practiced and perfected.
The Polynesians used a system of shells and bamboo to represent island positions for navigation.
They also used many indicators to find islands that were near, but could not be seen such as…
A change is the rhythmic set of waves against the hull.
The flight tracks of birds at dusk.
The smell of the water
And others.
Others Included:
-the temperature, salinity, and color of the water.
- the colors of the sunrise and sunset.
The positions of stars and clouds
The direction of the wind relative to the sun.
The type of marine life clustering near the boat.
Every nuance had a meaning; every detail had been passed in ritual from father to son.
The greatest Polynesian minds were navigators, and reaching Hawa’ii was their greatest achievement.

20. Viking Raiders Discovered North America
A Viking ship from around A.D This painting is a reconstruction drawn from a ship found in 1880 at the bottom of a Norwegian fjord. Sturdy and intended for travel over open water, the ship is 76 feet long and 17 feet wide. Oarsmen sat on loose benches or chests, and holes for the oars could be covered by small disks so that water would not flow in when the ship heeled under sail.

21. Viking Raiders Discovered North America
Vikings were bands of Scandinavian adventurers and treasure seekers whose remarkably fast, strong, and stable ships enabled them to sail or row faster than a horse and rider could spread warning.
Between A.D. they had swept down the coast of Europe, raiding villages on a regular basis.
Although initially powerless, one possible cause for the Renaissance in Europe was the need to come together for protection against these northern raiders.
French, Irish, and British defenses became more effective and eventually, Vikings began looking westward.
It was during this westward voyage that the Vikings “discovered” North America, though Natives were already living there.

22. The Chinese Undertook Organized Voyages of Discovery
As the Dark Ages distracted Europeans, Chinese navigators became more skilled and their vessels grew larger and more seaworthy. In the early 1400s they set out to explore the other side of the world.

23. The Chinese Undertook Organized Voyages of Discovery
Admiral Zheng He (“jung huh”) commanded the greatest fleet the world had ever known- 317 ships
Their aim: to display the wealth and power of the Ming Dynasty as well as distribute treasure.
Ships were loaded with gifts designed to show China’s wealth and degree of civilization.

24. The Chinese Undertook Organized Voyages of Discovery
The Chinese invented the compass (lower left), the central rudder, water-tight compartments, and sails on multiple masts (lower right).

25. The Chinese Undertook Organized Voyages of Discovery
What was not an invention rendered by the Chinese to facilitate their ocean voyage?
Central rudder system
Watertight compartments
Chronometer
Compass
Answer: C

26. The European Age of Discovery
During the Age of Discovery, Renaissance Europeans set out to find alternative ocean routes for possible commerce. Prince Henry of Portugal, thought ocean exploration held the key to great wealth and successful trade. In the mid-1400s, Henry established a center at Sagres for the study of marine science and navigation. Prince Henry was responsible for the accumulation of detailed charts which led to increased commerce.

27. European Age of Discovery
Christopher Columbus “discovered” the New World after Native Americans had already been living there for 11,000 years and Norwegian Vikings had visited nearly 500 years earlier.
So why does Columbus get the credit?
Because he was a skilled salesman whose interesting souvenirs, exaggerated stories, and promises of vast wealth excited the imagination of royal courts.

28. European Age of Discovery
Columbus’ intention was to pioneer a sea route to India and Japan yet

29. European Age of Discovery
The Waldseemüller Map, published in 1507 – the first map to name America and to show the New World as separate from Asia. This is an image of the only known copy to survive of the 1,000 printed from 12 wood blocks. It was purchased in 2007 by the U. S. Library of Congress for US$10,000,000.

30. Magellan Expedition
The journey of the Magellan expedition, the first voyage around the world. Only 18 out of 260 sailors managed to return after three years of dangerous travel.

31. Voyaging Combined with Science to Advance Ocean Studies
James Cook, a commander in the British Royal Navy, is credited with leading voyages that greatly contributed to scientific oceanography.
Some of the accomplishments of James Cook and his scientists include:
Verification of calculations of planetary orbits
Charting of New Zealand and the Great Barrier Reef, Tonga and Easter Island
Initiation of friendly relations with many native populations
Sampling marine life, land plants and animals
Recording data concerning the ocean floor and geological formations

32. The First Scientific Expeditions Were Undertaken by Governments
The United States Exploring Expedition launched in 1838 was a naval and scientific expedition.
The HMS Beagle, on which Charles Darwin served as a naturalist, voyaged to South America and some Pacific Islands.
(BELOW) HMS Challenger expedition of was the first oceanic expedition dedicated to scientific research.

33. Contemporary Oceanography Makes Use of Modern Oceanography
What advances in oceanic exploration occurred in the twentieth century?
Polar Exploration – explorers reached both the North and South poles in the twentieth century
The Meteor Expedition – first expedition to use modern optical and electronic equipment for oceanographic investigation
The Atlantis – investigations on this research vessel confirmed the presence of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.
The Trieste – a blimp-like bathyscaphe which descended into the Challenger Deep area of the Mariana Trench
Glomar Challenger – samples obtained by scientists on this drilling ship provided confirming evidence for seafloor spreading and plate tectonics.

34. Voyages for Science in the 20th Century
What advances in oceanic exploration occurred in the 20th century?
Polar Exploration – explorers reached both the North and South poles in the twentieth century
The Meteor Expedition – first expedition to use modern optical and electronic equipment for oceanographic investigation
The Atlantis – investigations on this research vessel confirmed the presence of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.
The Trieste – a blimp-like bathyscaphe which descended into the Challenger Deep area of the Mariana Trench
Glomar Challenger – samples obtained by scientists on this drilling ship provided confirming evidence for seafloor spreading and plate tectonics.

35. 20th Century Voyages Contributed to Oceanographic Knowledge
Echo sounders sense the contour of the seafloor by beaming sound waves to the bottom and measuring the time required for the sound waves to bounce back to the ship.
If the round-trip travel time and wave velocity are known, distance to the bottom can be calculated. This technique was first used on a large scale by the German research vessel Meteor in the 1920s.

36. The Rise of Oceanographic Institutions
Three of the most prominent oceanographic institutions in the United States:
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
Scripps Institution of Oceanography
Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University

37. Chapter 2 in Perspective
In this chapter you learned that science and exploration have gone hand-in-hand. Voyaging for necessity evolved into voyaging for scientific and geographical discovery. The transition to scientific oceanography was complete when the Challenger Report was completed in The rise of the great oceanographic institutions quickly followed, and those institutions and their funding agencies today mark our path into the future.
In the next chapter you will learn about Earth’s inner layers – layers that are density stratified. You will find these layers to be heavier and hotter as depth increases, and you’ll learn how we know what’s inside our planet even though we’ve never been past the outermost layer. As you will see, today’s earthquakes and volcanoes, and the slow movement of continents, are all remnants of our distant cosmological past.