Description: By the middle of the 19th century, as scientists explored the frontiers of polar regions and the atmosphere, the ocean remained silent and inaccessible. Rozwadowski explores the scientific and cultural history of how this changed.
Brief description: Helen M. Rozwadowski is Assistant Professor of History and Coordinator of Maritime Studies, University of Connecticut at Avery Point.
Review Quotes: Helen Rozwadowski is one of the rising generation of American historians of science. Her speciality is the development of marine science on both sides of the Atlantic during the 19th and 20th centuries. In Fathoming the Ocean she goes back to the mid-19th century to tell the fascinating story of how sailors and scientists combined to carry out the first explorations of the ocean depths, showing how these actors and events revolutionized understanding of a hirtherto unknown region. In the process, Rozwadowski greatly expands our own understanding, all while telling a story that is original, wide-ranging, and illuminating. I have greatly enjoyed reading this book.--Margaret Deacon, Southampton Oceanography Centre, author of Science and the Sea: The Origins of Oceanography