Cape
York, Australia, September 8, 1874, 10o56'S,
142o 40'E to Yokahama, Japan, June 16, 1875,
35o28'N, 139o 38'E
Challenger
arrived at the most northerly point of Australia, Cape
York on September 1, 1874, and anchored off the small
community of Somerset. Joseph Matkin was unimpressed with
the area, describing it as having a “flat sterile appearance”
with “not a hill over 600 feet high.”
What
did impress him, however, was the contrast between the
flat monotony of the northern Australian scrubland and
the huge mountains, some more than 13,000 feet high, that
loomed only 120 miles away, across the Torres Straits,
on the island of Papua New Guinea. Not only did those
mountains fascinate him, but he knew exactly what they
were, describing them as part of a "[M]ountain system
[that] may be traced across the Pacific from the Rocky
Mountains in North America. It rises in the Sandwich Islands
over 13,000 feet, again in Japan higher still, still higher
in New Guinea. It does not touch the continent of Australia
but stretches more to the east; it appears moderately
high at the New Hebrides and Fiji Islands and extends
through the New Zealand islands rising over 13000 feet
on the South Island… Everywhere along its course earthquakes
are prevalent and owning to its near vicinity they have
occasional shocks here that are felt in no other part
of Australia."
Joe
Matkin knew what he was looking at all right: one of the
biggest and most extraordinary marvels that Challenger
would encounter in all her epic voyage, the most westerly
point of the ring of volcanoes that rim the Pacific Ocean,
the so called Ring of Fire.
Twilight of an Empire
On
September 8, 1874, Challenger weighed anchor and moved
gently out into the Torres Straits. They were heading
north into the Arafura Sea, a broad shallow pocket of
water bounded by New Guinea to the east and Timor to the
west. Beyond Timor another arc of volcanic islands, barely
glimpsed from their current position, curved gracefully
northwest. This chain incorporated Sunda, Sumatra, and
Java. Between Sumatra and Java, in that year of 1874,
lay an island that within a decade would become infamous
across the world by blowing its top with a vengeance and
causing spectacular sunsets for years to come: Krakatoa.
Yet
as the Australian coast receded into the southern haze,
Challenger sailed toward the vestiges of one of the greatest
of the European empires, the Dutch East Indies. The heart
of this trading enterprise was a group of islands known
as the Moluccas. Even in Challenger's time they were famous
across the world as the Spice Islands because of the variety
and quality of the spices to be found there. The ship
approached Banda, the heart of the Spice Islands, having
lingered in the Aru and Ki islands off the west coast
of New Guinea, toward the end of September 1874.
Challenger
was now in the heart of the Dutch East Indies and for
days all aboard had felt the presence of a colonial power
that was not their own...
...In
this far-flung outpost of the world it was a reminder
that the British were not alone in their imperial ambition.
Joe Matkin wrote “Our men o'war seldom go this way… this
route to China is called the Molucca passage and is little
frequented by any but Dutch ships, so here they reign
supreme and have their own way...”
Banda
Island lies just to the south of the island of Ceram (Seram
as it was in those days) and was well liked by Challenger's
men despite its use by the Dutch colonial administration
as a convict settlement, for it was beautiful...But it
was the volcano that impressed them most, rising 2,200
feet above the tranquil scene, the vast secret bulk of
“ever burning” volcano, Gounong-Api.
Challenger
departed Banda and its vast nutmeg plantations on October
2, arriving in the Spice Island capital, Amboyna, two
days later. There they stayed until the 10th, when they
moved on for the island of Ternate to the north. On either
side, striding to the north like lines of volcanic sentinels,
were grim reminders of the fiery temperament of this part
of the world.
They
made their way through the Molucca passage, past the islands
of Obi and Batchian where the clove trees grew in glorious
abundance, then past Makian, the old volcano that had
exploded in 1646, splitting the peak in two and destroying
villages wholesale. On the 15th they passed between the
great symmetrical volcanoes that dominated the islands
of Ternate and Tidore, and anchored off the town of Ternate
in the evening.
Despite
the looming presence of the gently smoking peak of Ternate,
Campbell's enthusiasm for yet another earthly paradise
fairly bubbled over...
However,
earnest Henry Moseley's scientific interests were not
so easily derailed by earthly paradise. He was determined
to climb the peak despite the danger...
Hong
Kong
They arrived in Hong Kong on the
16th November 1874 where a tremendous shock awaited the
ship's company: Captain Nares had been ordered back to
England to take command of the forthcoming Arctic Expedition.
Accompanying him from Challenger would be Lieutenant Pelham
Aldrich. It was a bitter blow for Scientifics, officers,
and crew, but especially for Wyville Thomson.
Captain Frank Thurle Thomson of
H.M.S. Modesty, and Lieutenant Carpenter of H.M.S. Iron
Duke, both frigates on the China station, were to be their
replacements. Thomson was due to arrive within days from
Shanghai and his arrival was viewed by some aboard with
a trepidation succinctly summed up by Matkin, who wrote,
“He bears a bad name for tyranny on this station.”
They stayed in Hong Kong for more
than two months and on January 6, 1875, headed south again
toward the Philippines. South of Mindanao they turned
east for Humboldt Bay on the coast of New Guinea. Finding
the natives hostile they elected not to prolong their
visit. Instead they pushed on for the Admiralty Islands
where, arriving on March 3rd, they found a friendlier
reception as well as some of the most exquisite native
artwork that they had yet encountered.
Swire noted the tedium, too, and
also wrote of its consequence: that tempers were frayed
and faces sullen in the wardroom. However, as they approached
the Mariana Islands of the western Pacific, he was just
about to encounter the one incident on his long journey
around the world that would in future years afford him
the greatest pleasure. On March 23, 1875, 13 days after
leaving Nares Harbor, soundings indicated a depth of 4,475
fathoms or about 27,000 feet. This staggering abyss, now
known to be almost 7 miles deep, was by far the deepest
part of the seafloor that Challenger encountered. To honor
both the occasion and the popular young sub-lieutenant,
the Scientifics named it Swire Deep (although sadly the
name was later changed to Challenger Deep).
Within a hundred years, this extraordinary
place would be visited by two of the most enterprising
Americans ever using Bubbles
in the Deep...
The House of the Rising Sun
It was not until they were almost
in sight of Japan on April 11, that the wind picked
up and they then made good time up the Gulf of Yedo
toward Yokahama, accompanied by sharks, porpoises, and
dolphins that had come out to greet the ship.
...Below decks Joe Matkin reveled
in the complexity and richness of this alien culture
even as he wrestled with his grief...
"I am thankful to think that
Father lived long enough to see us all provided for
and properly educated. Few children in our station of
life have had so much spent on their education and start
in life… By the time you get this we shall be 'Homeward
bound' and you will be able to count the months instead
of years as they fly past. I have fully determined to
leave the Navy when I get back; there will be nothing
to hinder me; I shall have a little money and what is
better a good character! and I hope we shall all be
settled down in England and have many happy years yet
in the old home."
As they left Japan, Campbell
summarized the feelings of all on board when he wrote,
“Let me advise all those who wish to travel and find
real novelty of scene, combined with comfort and cleanliness,
to visit Japan.”
