{"product_id":"the-wake-of-hms-challenger-wood-9780691233246","title":"The Wake of HMS Challenger: How a Legendary Victorian Voyage Tells the Story of Our Oceans' Decline","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA scientific adventure story that dramatizes how profoundly our oceans have changed over the past 150 years\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn December 1872, HMS\u003ci\u003e Challenger\u003c\/i\u003e embarked on the first round-the-world oceanographic expedition. Its goal: to shine a light for the first time on the mysteries of the deep sea. For the next four years, \u003ci\u003eChallenger's\u003c\/i\u003e naturalists delved the oceans, encountering never-before-seen marvels of marine life. The expedition's achievements are the stuff of legend: it identified major ocean currents and defining features of the seafloor, including the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and Mariana Trench; it measured worldwide sea temperatures and chemistry, creating baseline data for all ocean research since; and, most spectacularly of all, it collected nearly five thousand sea creatures and plants new to science. In \u003ci\u003eThe Wake of HMS Challenger, \u003c\/i\u003eGillen D'Arcy Wood looks afresh at this legendary scientific odyssey and shows why, 150 years later, its legacy looms larger than ever. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThe \u003ci\u003eChallenger\u003c\/i\u003e's scientists had no way of knowing that the incredible undersea aquarium they were documenting was on the verge of catastrophic change. Off Portugal, they encounter a brilliant starfish now threatened with extinction by microplastics; in St. Thomas, teeming coral habitats that today have been decimated by ocean warming; and at remote Ascension Island, the breeding grounds of the now-endangered green turtle. Lyrical and elegiac, \u003ci\u003eThe Wake of HMS Challenger \u003c\/i\u003eoffers a stunning before-and-after picture of our global oceans. It is both a reminder of what we have lost since the Victorian age and an urgent call to preserve what remains of the diverse life and wild beauty of our planet's final frontier.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Wood\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0691233241\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780691233246\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Princeton University Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 10\/21\/2025\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 328\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover","brand":"Wood","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":46927672901887,"sku":"9780691233246","price":29.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_97975018-051f-46e2-8237-5d04b7f8bcff.jpg?v=1749372596","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/the-wake-of-hms-challenger-wood-9780691233246","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}