Book Review - The Wake of HMS Challenger: How a Legendary Victorian Voyage Tells the Story of Our Oceans' Decline - Princeton University Press

 

     Gillen D'Arcy Wood has done a remarkable job with this book, presenting it on two levels. It may be read as a first rate, lively historical account of the fêted journey of the HMS Challenger, as a stand-alone story, or, it may also serve as a record of maritime abundance and its decline, as humankind continues to relentlessly pillage the riches of the oceans. 

     It is profoundly sad that we know more about the surface of Mars than we know of the seafloor and the watery realm that makes up two thirds of the surface of Planet Earth, our only home. In that pervasive, facile manner of humans to sugarcoat the truth, shifting baselines are used to suggest that all is well, when the results of staggering losses of biodiversity, polluted oceans, microplastics, increased acidity, overfishing, and other anthropogenic affronts are in plain sight. The science is abundantly clear, we know the facts, the need is pressing - indeed the Doomsday Clock ticks ever closer to midnight - yet we ignore them, or in some cases even deny them.  As Wood says, "In the Anthropocene ocean long-term beneficial relationships turn toxic and all creatures suffer." Is it not heartbreaking to contemplate that one estimate set the pre-Columbian population of Green Turtles at more than ninety million, now reduced to perhaps a few hundred thousand, a fraction of one percent of the original population?

     We twiddle our thumbs on our smartphones as the world collapses around us.

     The dark, mysterious abysses of the oceans are rich in the rare earth minerals and other materials necessary to fuel the expansion of smartphones and associated 21st century accessories, electric cars - and who knows what else? As well, the seabed contains vast reserves of oil and gas. Mining and drilling will transform rich ecosystems into lifeless deserts, and the associated noise will compromise the ability of cetaceans and other creatures to communicate. The degree of toxic byproduct associated with marine resource extraction is distressing to even contemplate.

     Yet it is naive to think that the lawless Wild West of deep ocean exploitation is not about to begin in earnest. Wars between nations have been fought over access to resources, and will be again. 

     The Sixth Extinction is gathering speed and we are doing our best to propel it forward. One could be forgiven for thinking that "Onward towards doom" is our mantra.

     The Challenger expedition yielded fifty volumes of scientific information; they remain benchmark publications to this day. 

     The voyage of the HMS Challenger was in every way a remarkable journey of discovery, with hardship and privation, desertion, and even death, accompanied by a dogged determination to seek scientific truth.

     Gillen D'Arcy Wood has rendered a great service to us all by chronicling the odyssey in so entertaining and illuminating a fashion. We will never see the likes of this journey again.

 The Wake of HMS Challenger: How a Legendary Victoria Voyage Tells the Story of Our Oceans' Decline - Princeton University Press

Gillen D'Arcy Wood

Hardcover - US$29.95 - ISBN: 9780691233246

328 pages - 5.5 x 8.5 inches (13.75 x 21.25 cm)

37 black-and-white illustrations

Publication date: 21 October, 2025