Bathymetry: plumbing the depths to get to the bottom

I stumbled onto this word recently and found it interesting. The idea of mapping the bottom of a lake the size of one of the Great Lakes or the bottom of the ocean caught my imagination, so I investigated it further. There is amazing technology available these days to do this with great accuracy.

My curiosity revolved around the lack of technology prior to the current era. I wonder how they did it without lasers and modern equipment. My imagination and limited technological information led me to the familiar realm of literature, and...of course...I landed on the person of Samuel Clemens. We are told that he developed his pen name, Mark Twain, on hearing the crew of Mississippi river boats call out those words when measuring the depth of the water. The rope they used sank to the bottom because it was weighted, and there were knots on the rope to measure the number of fathoms beneath the river boat. When it hit the second knot, they called out "mark twain"...meaning second fathom. Not very sophisticated, but it provided us with a wonderfully colorful name attached to one of the great people of our society's history. I suspect Clemons never heard the word bathymetry; my resource says that it is a word that emerged into our lexicon in the 1860's.

Just pursuing this word led me to the phrase, "plumbing the depths" which has to have come from the same practice. Relating it to the story of Samuel Clemens/Mark Twain helps to get the picture of what the phrase means. We use the phrase fairly commonly in the writing produced today. It has come to mean something more than a navigational aid, however. More commonly, it means to explore the deeper meaning of a subject, trying to get "to the bottom" of a concept.

Investigative reporting is supposed to be about plumbing the depths, but I fear that in many cases the reporter is satisfied too early in the process, and jumps on a discovery only part way to the bottom. I am increasingly wary of investigative reports that are published very quickly after an event. When further investigation reveals that a first impression was inaccurate, the corrections published are ineffective in adjusting the perceptions of the public.

I lived in a town many years ago where there was an abundance of persons with emotional or mental limitations. When a nearby Developmental Center began to close down and started releasing long-term residents into the community, the character of the community changed dramatically. The former residents suffered from all kinds of mishaps and false starts in their attempts to adapt to life "on the outside."

One young man known to me was accused of rape and imprisoned rapidly. The newspapers and other media jumped on the story and convicted him quickly. At the same time, the entire population of former residents of the Developmental Center was convicted by the published stories. I was one of numerous citizens who knew that there was something wrong with the reports. This young man had a well developed moral fibre and respected the difference between right and wrong. Our defense of him was seen as liberal softness on crime.

When it was discovered that the victim of the alleged rape had lied to avoid detection by her parents that she was pregnant from having had sexual relations with a forbidden boyfriend the print media printed small corrections to their story, hidden well into the pages of the newspapers. The young man was released from jail, but his reputation had been destroyed. With the help of some friends, he relocated to another part of the country where he lived a healthy and productive life. But he was emotionally scarred by the experience.

The depths of the story had not been plumbed appropriately. The bottom was not sought...just enough information to make a headline. Precautionary terms such as alleged were not employed, and anecdotal commentary by people who knew the young man were derided instead of reported as significant input.


I'm one of those who believes that it is inappropriate to publish the name and personal information about a suspected rapist prior to the point where a confession or incontrovertible evidence has been obtained. The media appropriately withholds the name of the victim. I believe it is important to withhold the name of the alleged rapist as well.

This may seem like a long way from bathymetry to Mark Twain, to plumbing the depths to faulty investigative reporting. But that's how my mind works.

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