It had been the longest period of the voyage away from civilization and the crew and Scientifics shared a sense of relief when the Antarctic leg of the voyage was finally over. No one complained when Nares scrapped the planned visit to Hobart in Tasmania and decided instead to head straight for Melbourne. Almost as soon as they anchored, Challenger was overrun with influential citizens anxious to see the ship and to bid its crew welcome to Australian waters. As they rode at anchor in Hobson's Bay they were amazed and delighted by the contrast to the silence and loneliness of their Antarctic sojourn. All was movement, color, and gaiety. Coastal steamers arrived and departed, yachts and steam launches filled with pleasure seekers and cargo crisscrossed the bay, and all around them merchant ships and other men o' war were towed in and out of the harbor as they arrived from distant lands or made ready to set out across the Pacific Ocean that lay just beyond the sandbars.

(Collins Street, Melbourne a few years after Challenger's visit)

Most impressive of all, the horizon before them was dominated by the vast magnificent city of Melbourne, its skyline broken here and there by church spires and high roofs and the foreground dominated by the new buildings of government: the city hall, the new post office, government house, the parliament buildings and the treasury. Everything they saw reminded Challenger's crew that they had arrived at the furthest outpost of an empire that ruled the world, and that Australia, like India, was another vibrant jewel in Victoria's crown...

Sydney

Challenger arrived in Sydney on Easter Monday, April 7, 1874. Among those unfamiliar with the “Australian station,” the approach caused some consternation. The harbor was almost completely enclosed by high cliffs and inexperienced hands wondered if they were about to run aground. But almost at the last minute the gap between Sydney Heads became visible–as Captain Nares knew it would–and Challenger slipped through into one of the most perfect natural harbors in the world.

Although Sydney Harbor was arguably one of the most spectacular and beautiful anchorages in the British Empire, like any working port it had its more prosaic side and the eastern shore was dominated by wharfs and quays where freight and passenger vessels berthed. Here, too, was the dry dock Challenger desperately needed after the rigors of the Antarctic voyage. She was still scarred after her encounters with icebergs so proper repairs to her jury-rigged jib boom were a top priority.

The months in Sydney passed agreeably, the officers at least finding the company civilized and charming. The Scientifics were in their element too, particularly Henry Moseley, who had realised that if the deep ocean was one place where the proof of Mr. Darwin's theories might be found, then Australia was another.

Chains of Command

The Australian writings of both Spry and Moseley contain frequent references to the so called missing links of the fossil record, reflecting Victorian biologists' preoccupation with the search for intermediate forms of life; that is, forms that have characteristics of both ancestor and descendent. Australia has two of the most spectacular examples in the animal kingdom, the egg-laying mammals commonly known as the echidna and the platypus...