Customer Reviews

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

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Years ago in a professional economics journal I read an article with a title something like, "Proof that Monopoly Reduces Quality." What it actually proved was that in a somewhat complicated mathematical model, if you make the right assumptions, monopoly reduces quality. A more accurate title for this book would be, "A Chronicle of Early Deep Ocean Research: Being largely concerned with the efforts of Britons and Americans--and proving by the methodical accumulation of evidence that the celebrated 'Challenger' expedition of 1873-7 was not a beginning but rather a culmination of many decades of research."

Academic fashion has long since moved away from the heroic model of scientific advance--of the disinterested seeker of truth toiling in isolation and coming up with marvelous discoveries. Here motives are mixed and science is a social process. This is, no doubt, more accurate.

Old history of science worked backward: "We now know this important thing; previously we didn't. What led to its discovery?" Rozwadowski is more interested in the entire process, and what is found out is not a focus. At the end of the book, I asked myself, "What important things did people know at the end of the book that they didn't at the beginning?" and little came immediately to mind. Much of the book seemed like Toynbee's insult, "just one damn thing after another."

The book finally comes to life in the final chapter, about life aboard ship. Here the modern concern with the non-elite, with social relations and process, serves her well. We get a more realistic view of what was happening. But there are also a few bits of academic silliness. At one point, she says, "Stealing and desertion were the most powerful forms of protest available to common sailors." As if stealing was a public suicide note, "This is all your fault; you drove me to this; I hope you feel awful." As if slaves fled to "send a message" to their former owners.

I always seem to finish books like this wishing there were more and better diagrams. Here there are only reproductions (sometimes too small) of period illustrations. These give us some sense of how people at the time saw themselves and what they were doing.

With a different focus, and at half the size, this could have been an interesting book for a general audience. I fear that only specialists will find the actual book a satisfying experience.

This book will be extremely helpful to university professors and teachers in literature or science studies who want to introduce students to topics in the study of the ocean. I'm very satisfied with the cogent overview of ocean exploration this book gives, but....

...be warned, the kindle version does not have pictures that work and you also cannot access the footnotes while reading. This really upsets me, and I'm considering returning the kindle edition for a refund.

Helen Rozwadowski not only knows a lot about fishing, she knows a lot about oceanography and the fascination that people have always had for the sea. I love this book; I love the way Helen has captured the excitement in Victoria England and the U.S., as the general public falls in love with exploring the oceans. Helen writes about little boys in sailor suits, Queen Victoria going dredging, and some of the events that led up to the Challenger expedition, the first global exploration of the seas that began in 1872. The Challenger expedition is often considered the start of oceanography, but as Helen shows, the expedition rested squarely on the shoulders of many, many people. It's also a rollicking good read, and it won the Ida and Henry Schuman Prize from the History of Science Society last year.