The route of the Challenger Expedition from Sydney to Wellington and onwards through Fiji and Vanuatu to the Torres Strait.



The Challenger Expedition carried out the most detailed and extensive examination of the world's oceans in the history of exploration and the voyage still holds the record for the longest continuous scientific mission, with the exception of manned spaceflight. 140 million square miles of ocean floor was charted and ocean temperature readings were taken at 362 stations.



The official report of the expedition ran to 29,552 pages in 50 royal quarto volumes, and was supported by various accounts written by the crew. The most famous of these being: The Cruise of H.M.S. Challenger by W.J.J. Spry in 1876. The writing and publication of the official report was initially taken up by Charles Wyville Thomson, but due to poor health and his early death in 1882, John Murray soon took over, and was responsible for most of the work throughout.



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