One of Australia’s best non-fiction writers Michael Veitch has interviewed the men and women who worked on board CSIRO’s Marine National Facility research vessel Southern Surveyor, to produce an engaging and sometimes dramatic account of their adventures.

The book includes a chapter on physical oceanographer Professor Tom Trull from the ACE CRC, CSIRO and the University of Tasmania, whose infamous voyages into the Southern Ocean, have left many a scientist curled up in a bean bag in the Operations Room, while the ship battled through big seas and strong winds.