Sea Change

The sea was a vital part of 19^th-century life: distant travel, commerce, and the livelihoods of many depended on it. Tales of sea voyages, both fact and fiction, were immensely popular. As scientists explored the depths of the oceans, however, stories began to take place not just on the sea, but in it.

In the early 1800s, scientists believed the deep sea simply could not sustain life. Knowledge of the oceans had largely been limited to shores and shallow waters, but the mid-19^th century saw the start of our exploration of this immense underwater world. Technological improvements to submersible vessels and diving gear helped make the seas more accessible. The bold plan to lay a telegraph cable across the Atlantic Ocean made understanding the ocean floor essential, and helped drive deep-sea exploration further.

You are going to travel through a wonderland. ... I am going to embark on a new underwater tour of the world—who knows, perhaps the last?—and revisit everything I have studied on my many travels; and you will be my study companion. Starting today, you will enter a new element, you will see what no man has ever seen before...; and our planet, through my efforts, will deliver up its last secrets.

—Captain Nemo to Dr. Aronnax, in Jules Verne's Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas

Matthew Fontaine Maury, superintendent of the U.S. Naval Observatory, turned to the practical experience of mariners, using logs and charts from naval and whaling vessels to compile critical data on ocean currents, winds, and more. His extensive research included efforts to chart the Atlantic Ocean floor, and was the first comprehensive oceanographic study made. Understanding the sea through ships' records became an international effort, and earned him the nickname "Pathfinder of the Seas." Maury published his Physical Geography of the Sea to a wider audience, introducing the public, in frequently lyrical prose, to what was now known about the mysterious underwater world. Jules Verne kept a copy at hand when writing Twenty Thousand Leagues, even basing whole passages on Maury's influential book.

Maury's work had a role to play in one of the greatest engineering feats of the 19th century. In 1854, New York financier Cyrus Field began pursuing a plan to connect North America and Europe with a telegraph cable across the Atlantic Ocean floor. Samuel Morse and other innovators tinkered with a telegraph system in the 1830s and ‘40s, and in 1844, the first message was sent from Washington, D.C., to Baltimore, Maryland. Cross-Atlantic communication was still limited to being transported slowly via ship. The transatlantic telegraph cable was one of the era's most ambitious engineering efforts. The project was challenged by repeated failures and technical troubles, but 12 years and five attempts later, a cable was successfully laid across the Atlantic in 1866. 

Samples of the ocean floor were examined to reassure investors that it was a safe resting place for the undersea cable. These samples indicated a firm and stable bed, consisting mostly of the shells of minute creatures then called infusoria. The slides below are samples of fossil shells from near Barbados, and from a sounding taken at 2050 fathoms. The initials "CF" at right are almost certainly those of Cyrus Field.

Infusoria from the Atlantic Ocean floor The Illustrated London News, December 6, 1856 Courtesy Princeton University Library	Microscope slides of ocean floor samples, ca. 1856 National Museum of American History Gift of Isabelle Field Judson (Photo: Hugh Talman)

In 1858, engineers connected a transoceanic cable for the first time. Celebrations ensued on both sides of the Atlantic. New York’s Tiffany & Co. purchased surplus cable and converted it into souvenirs, umbrella handles, and charms. But when the cable failed after mere weeks, the public’s enthusiasm turned to disappointment. Eight years later, the goal was finally achieved: America and Britain were connected by cable across the Atlantic ocean floor, thanks to Isambard Kingdom Brunel's ship The Great Eastern, five times larger than any other vessel afloat. The transatlantic cable shrank the time it took to send a message between continents from ten days to mere minutes, and stirred a new interest in deep-sea oceanography. The public was gripped by the historic event, following the events in newspapers, and buying commemorative books which recounted the saga of the cable laying.

Transatlantic cable souvenir Made by Glass, Elliot & Co. and Tiffany & Co. National Museum of American History Gift of Silver Creations, Ltd. and Lanello Reserves Inc. (Photo: Hugh Talman)	W. H. Russell The Atlantic Telegraph London, 1866

R. M. Ballantyne, a prolific author of adventure novels for young people, saw the dramatic potential in the story and penned The Battery and the Boiler, retelling the story of the laying of the Atlantic cable. The Atlantic cable makes a cameo appearance in Verne's novel as well.

In the early 1900s, the Frank Reade Weekly Magazine, "containing stories of adventures on land, sea & in the air," regularly pitted its inventor hero and his companions clad in diving suits against undersea foes, and showcased technologically imaginative deep-sea vessels, and fantastic undersea creatures. Fiction had taken to the seas as science did, with adventures in undersea settings persisting into the 20th century and beyond. Though much has been learned since the early 19th century, there is still a great deal left to discover about the ocean's depths.