The Meteor was a German boat which was developed by Alfred Merz. There was a total of 123 crew members on this boat. This boat is famous for being the first to use electronic sounding equipment to measure the ocean depths. What the boat used was an echo sounder. An echo sounder is a device that measures the distance to the depth of the ocean through the use of sounds which it produces. They were able to find the depth and map the ocean floor with this device.