It seems appropriate that we start this decent to the deep ocean floor with a famous map, Carta Marina, from 1539 (Figure 3.1). The last major section (Section 5) is devoted to the regulation of the seafloor ending with UNCLOS III and the scientific development underpinning it.Ģ.1 Representing the Unknown Deep Ocean Floor The third period (Section 4) introduces the powerful alliance between science and navies leading up to important research project as ‘The Challenger’ and ‘Meteor’ really increasing the knowledge of the seafloor. In the second major part (Section 3), the first attempts to measure the deep sea and to use the seafloor as a place for cables are discussed. After an introduction (Section 1), it starts with the Carta Marina from 1539 describing the dangers of crossing the surface of the sea and the first attempts for soundings and measuring of tidal waters (Section 2).

The chapter consists of four major parts as a parallel to four major historical phases of the cultural appropriation of the sea floor. This chapter is an overview, too short of details and modifications, but it might be an introduction to an area very few have seen, but still covers almost 5⁄7 of the Earth’s surface. Science has come to play an important part as have real examination of the sea floor. As time flows these have shifted and varied. Secondly that the resources and their regulations always have been based on these representation. It is important to acknowledge that the representation of the seafloor is the most important element in this history. A place so inaccessible requires other means and ways to figure out the relation between humans and the deep sea. In this chapter, I will try to establish something that could be called a human history of the sea floor. The representations developed afterwards combined with all sort of technological devices have made the ocean floor a place for a great variety of claims and hunt for resources. Not to mention the fascinating story of the cartographer Marie Tharp (1920–2003) and her detailed drawings of the ocean floor that finally contributed to the breakthrough of plate tectonics in the late 1960s and restored Wegener’s ideas. It suffices to remember the ridicule Alfred Wegener (1880–1930) was subjected to with his theory of continental drift from 1912. Science came to play an important role in overtaking earlier guesswork and anecdotes about the sea floor. So let us start this human history of the ocean floor reminding ourselves that our object of study is not direct accessible and that our impressions of the sea floor is always mediated in one way or another: by different technologies, by science or by literature or cultural traditions. The more so since the ocean floor is not directly accessible to us in any way – we depend on representations.

It is our inner picture of the sea floor that makes things happen – whatever picture that is. It could be argued that representations are the key to understanding human actions. The last major section (Section 5) is devoted to the regulation of the seafloor ending with UNCLOS III and the scientific development underpinning it.

The chapter consists of four major parts as a parallel to four major phases of the cultural appropriation of the sea floor. It argues that the perception of the seafloor often leads to actions and organized activities as resources are discovered and attempted appropriated. This chapter gives a short introduction to the very long history of how western societies has perceived and to some extent experienced the deep ocean floor from the perils of the seafarers in the sixteenth century to UNCLOS III.

Chapter 3 call of the sea