A Mounted image of H.M.S. Challenger mored in St Thomas in the Westindies, along with a collection of 40 engravings from the original Challenger reports, many hand-coloured of various marine creatures,

Footnote: Between the years of 1872 and 1876 the Challenger expedition made many scientific discoveries and laid the foundations of modern oceanography. The expedition was named after the naval vessel used, H.M.S. Challenger.

The expedition was suggested by Charles Wyville Thomson of the University of Edinburgh and Merchiston Castle School, the Royal Society of London used H.M.S. Challenger, a ship from the Royal Navy, and, in 1872 equipped it for scientific research fitting it out with laboratories and the latest scientific equipment, then, in December of 1872 under captain George Nares Challenger set sail from Portsmouth.

Challenger sailed just under 70,00 nautical miles during the expedition surveying and exploring as it went, the final result was ‘the Report Of The Scientific Results of the Exploring Voyage of H.M.S. Challenger during the years 1873–76’, the report catalogued over 4000 previously unknown species, and John Murray who supervised the publication described the report as "the greatest advance in the knowledge of our planet since the celebrated discoveries of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries"