The Voyage of the Challenger

Doubleday, 1972. Hardcover. Very Good. 10x7x1. 1972 hardcover with dust jacket. UNREAD COPY with bright, unmarked, firmly bound pages. Jacket remains bright and glossy, shows minimal shelf-rubbing and minor edge wear only. This is NOT an ex-library book. Publisher's ink spray at bottom page edges. A very good, clean copy overall. "In 1872 HMS Challenger left Portsmouth on a voyage that was to take her round the world, eight times across the Equator, into the Antarctic ice, and over 68,000 nautical miles in a thousand days at sea. She was a three-masted corvette with auxiliary steam, and as well as a crew of 243 she carried a team of scientists let by Professor Wyville Thomson.... THE VOYAGE OF THE CHALLENGER is a book of adventure as well as discovery. Eric Linklater uses the personal journals of the scientists and naval officers aboard the Challenger to give an individual edge to the expedition's scientific triumph, and to convey a masterly immediacy to his readers. In 1872 the camera was a recent invention. A darkroom was installed on board the ship, and photographic plates were coated and exposed to bring back a unique record of the voyage. This book's narrative is illustrated with photographs made from the original plates, and from the scientists' albums there are many other illustrations which have never before been published.