In 1912, a young naturalist named Robert Cushman Murphy was offered the opportunity of a lifetime - to spend two years on one of the last Yankee whaleships out of New Bedford, on a voyage to Antarctica. During the voyage, Murphy kept a journal, packing it with observations of his experiences on board.

In 1912, a young naturalist named Robert Cushman Murphy was offered the opportunity of a lifetime ¿ to spend a year on one of the last Yankee whaleships out of New Bedford, on a voyage to the Antarctic. During the voyage, Murphy not only collected specimens and took photographs, developing them in seawater, but kept a journal that was later published and became a bestseller. Now, Eleanor Mathews, his granddaughter, has now taken Murphy's diary and supplementing it with his own original photographs, to present this fascinating story for modern readers. As a portrait of seafaring life, of the whaling industry still under sail, and an account of a natural history expedition, it is a unique window into a vanished time.