The Origins Names
Atlantis is named for the primary research sailing vessel used by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute
from 1930 to 1966 and was the first vessel to use electronic sounding devices to map the ocean floor.
The ill-fated Challenger was named for an American naval research vessel that sailed the oceans in the 1870s.
Columbia is named for the sloop captained by Robert Gray who, on May 11, 1792, maneuvered his ship through dangerous inland waters to explore British Columbia and what are now the states of Washington and Oregon.
Discovery was named for one of the two ships used by the British explorer Captain James Cook when he discovered Hawaii and explored Alaska and northwestern Canada in the 1770s. It was also the name of one of Henry Hudson's ships that explored Hudson Bay in 1610-1611. Yet another ship named Discovery was used by the British Royal Geographical Society in 1875 to explore the region of the North Pole, and yet another was built by the Society in 1901 to explore the Antarctic regions. This last ship Discovery still exists.
The other of Cook's ships is the namesake for the Shuttle Endeavour. This ship was used in astronomical research, and its observations enabled the astronomers of the day to determine accurately, for the first time, the distance between the sun and the Earth. It was also noted as the ship that first explored New Zealand. Its voyages were the first long-distance sea voyages in which no crewmembers died of scurvy; Captain Cook forced the crew to eat a high vitamin C diet that prevented the disease.
Back
Designed: Stargate