Fathoming the Ocean - Helen M ROZWADOWSKI - Google Books

http://books.google.de/books?id=_hg8o1HpgQQC&pg=PA172&dq=francis+lucas+sounding&hl=de&sa=X&ei=-4JaT8rSD4Pcsga0iJDqCw&ved=0CFcQ6A

By the middle of the nineteenth century, as scientists explored the frontiers of polar regions and the atmosphere, the ocean remained silent and inaccessible. The history of how this changed--of how the depths became a scientific passion and a cultural…