Fathoming the Ocean: The Discovery and Exploration of the Deep Sea

“[An] amiable, in-depth examination of the most critical era for the development of modern oceanography” (Publishers Weekly).

In a history at once scientific and cultural, Helen Rozwadowski shows us how the Western imagination awoke to the ocean’s possibilities in maritime novels, in the popular hobby of marine biology, in the youthful sport of yachting, and in the laying of a trans-Atlantic telegraph cable.

The ocean emerged as important new territory, and scientific interests intersected with those of merchant-industrialists and politicians. Rozwadowski documents the popular crazes that coincided with these interests from children’s sailor suits to the home aquarium and the surge in ocean travel.

She describes how, beginning in the 1860s, oceanography moved from yachts onto the decks of oceangoing vessels, and landlubber naturalists found themselves navigating the routines of a working ship’s physical and social structures.

Author : Helen Rozwadowski

Paperback : 276 pages

SKU: P29085

Reviews

“An amiable, in-depth examination of the most critical era for the development of modern oceanography” (Publishers Weekly).