Box for Dana medal
Date2014
Object number00056181
NameBox
MediumMetal
DimensionsOverall (closed): 88 × 83 × 15 mm
ClassificationsTools and equipment
Credit LineAustralian National Maritime Museum Collection Gift from Judith Wood
DescriptionOn June 14, 1928 the Danish Government set sail the research ship Dana on a two year expedition financed by Denmark’s largest scientific fund the Carlsberg Foundation. This trip around the world was led by Professor Johannes Schmidt with Captain G. Hansen and a team of Royal Navy Officers. Starting in Copenhagen, the Dana circled the globe from a westerly direction stopping at a total of 661 stations, collectively travelling 65,000 miles by the trip’s end on June 30, 1930. This expedition was continuing off the insights found by the first Dana expedition in 1921-22. It revealed that there was an oxygen-free layer of intermediate water with unknown horizontal distribution in the eastern waters of the Pacific. The hydrographer on this first expedition noted this was a peculiar phenomenon that was unknown to occur in the other major oceans.
The Dana obtained specimens of eels at different life stages near the equator as well sailing through the southern Atlantic to collect detailed data on ocean conditions as well. Dana collected samples and data of the European freshwater eel genus (Nessorhamphus) that lead to conclusions about its distribution across oceans. This concluded Prof. Schmidt’s 20 year search for the spawning location of these eels and enabled him to solve the complete life history of the animal. This was one of the major discoveries of the expedition, however all the material collected has assisted future research into eels and the conditions of the ocean.
The Dana sunk only a few years later in June 1935 after a German trawler Pickhuben struck the ship in dense fog of the early morning. Once all on board escaped unharmed, the ship then sank in ten minutes with everyone’s personal belongings and large amounts of scientific material too.SignificanceBefore this trip, fisher’s in North America and Europe had pointed out that they never came across baby eels in their catch. One of Prof. Schmidt’s most significant discoveries during this voyage, was finding the spawning location of European freshwater eels in the western end of the Sargasso Sea. From this, he was able to solve the complete life history of the animal and draw many other observations of distribution and living conditions of marine fauna across the expanse of waters they surveyed. This discovery was a major conclusion of nearly 20 years of searching by Prof. Schmidt for these eels. Prof. Schmidt and his collaborators work has been able to assist future researchers for the rest of the century and beyond by having made such methodical recordings during the voyage. The physical, chemical and biological conditions were measured at multiple stations so that at every square of 10° there are abundant (sometimes up to 40) data entries to access.
During its voyage, Dana descended on ports at countries like Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and prior Dutch colonies in Indonesia bringing with it two films depicting life and activities in Denmark and the Faroe Islands. Dana docked at Sydney and Brisbane in 1929 and it is suspected that Prof. Schmidt presented these medals to multiple local persons of interest present at these events.
