Richard Corfield tells the story of the voyage of HMS Challenger (1872-1876) - the first voyage to be set up specifically for scientific investigation. Rather than just tell the story, though, Corfield uses it as a way of telling us about the current state of knowledge about the oceans and the sea floor - so we find out what the Challenger scientists discovered, and also something about the current state of knowledge in the same area.

If you already know something about oceanography, this book will not teach you anything new. If you are interested in the historical aspects, it is probably not really detailed enough for you. However if you want an introduction to the kinds of things studied under the heading of 'oceanography' and a look at how this branch of science started, then this is a good, readable way in. I found a few of Corfield's explanations muddled (on plate tectonics, mainly), but that didn't spoil my enjoyment of the book.