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Sailing around the globe by harnessing the force of the wind in the sailcloth alone, prior to the advent of steam power, was a marvelous feat. A circumnavigation required masterful navigational skills, physical endurance, and bold resolve. Yet these supreme challenges were repeatedly surmounted by scientific expeditions, sponsored to pursue a broad scope of investigations. To extend knowledge of geography, explorers ventured into the vast oceans to seek out lands new to them in the Pacific Ocean between the East Indies and the Americas, to define the boundaries of the great southern continent, or to find a passage between the great oceans from the North Pacific Ocean.
Yet the goals of scientific voyages went far beyond charting lands. Elaborate studies of natural history, astronomy and oceanography were undertaken. Scientists accompanied the commander and crew on board, and space was made for chronometers, telescopes, specimen bottles and boxes, paints and palettes, chemicals, sounding apparatus and a wide assortment of equipment and instruments.
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