Surveying has been called the second oldest profession in the world. However, at some point before angles were taken, someone stuck a stick in the water to determine how deep the water might be; that was the birth of hydrography. Since then, attempting to know and map the seafloor depths and the composition of that seafloor has become a significant field of study worldwide.
Electronic depth sounding started with the sinking of the Titanic and was propelled further by two World Wars. The concept of multibeam started in a field in Australia and was propelled by the Cold War to the current state-of-the-art multibeam echosounders.
The journey from a stick in the water to modern multibeam echosounders is exciting and interesting; the following presentation looks at the high points of that journey.
