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Ocean Exploration

  • 600 BCE

    First Sea Routes

    First Sea Routes
    Phoenicians create sea routes around the Mediterranean Sea and into the Red Sea and Indian Ocean looking for tin.
  • 500 BCE

    Treasure Diving Begins

    Treasure Diving Begins
    A king from Persia gets a diver and his daughter to dive for treasure during a Persian-Greek war.
  • 1002

    Voyage of Leif Erikson

    Voyage of Leif Erikson
    Leif Erikson lands in North America. He named it Vinland and makes a Norse settlement where he lands.
  • Sep 20, 1519

    First Circumnavigation of the World

    First Circumnavigation of the World
    Ferdinand Magellan attempts to sail around the world. His fleet does so, but he does not. He is killed in 1521 by poison arrows.
  • First Submarine

    First Submarine
    A physician named Cornelis Drebbel builds the first submarine, it is made out of wood, iron, and leather. His submarine reaches a depth of 12-15 feet in the Thames River.
  • The Nautilus

    The Nautilus
    The inventor of the steamboat creates a submarine named The Nautilus. It is made of wood and iron, and has a rudder system that is still used today.
  • First Deep Sea Canyon Discovered

    First Deep Sea Canyon Discovered
    James Alden, of the Coast Survey Steamer Active, finds a gulch in Monterey Bay off of California. The canyon is now called Monterey Canyon, it is over 95 miles long, and 11,800 feet deep.
  • Deep Sea Life in Abundance

    Deep Sea Life in Abundance
    A scottish naturalist dredges the ocean floor, deeper than 4389 meters. He finds life all the way down there, disproving a theory that life cannot exist below 548 meters.
  • Titanic Sinks

    Titanic Sinks
    The Titanic sinks after hitting an iceberg, killing over 1500 people. This strikes motive for an effort to create a means of finding objects in the water ahead of a boat.
  • Deepest Ocean Dive

    Deepest Ocean Dive
    Three men dive almost 7 miles into the ocean in an underwater vehicle called a bathyscaphe. They discover an abundance of unknown life under the water.
  • Deepest Dive in Suit

    Deepest Dive in Suit
    Sylvia Earle sets a record for the deepest dive in a dive suit using a pressurized metal suit called a JIM suit. She dove 381 meters into the coast of Oahu for two and a half hours.
  • First Video of a Giant Squid

    First Video of a Giant Squid
    The first giant squid video ever was taken, swimming in Japan. The small Giant Squid is only 9 feet long, compared to most giant squid growing over 60 feet.