Acknowledgments 



ADO ZEN different Captains wrote nearly three hundred 

 Letters of Proceedings at the old-fashioned mahogany desk 

 in the Commanding Officer's 'cuddy' in Challenger. Before 

 telling the story of the ship I had to read all these and I am 

 indebted to the Hydrographer of the Navy for giving me access 

 to them, and for his permission to reproduce portions of two 

 charts. 



Some of these Letters of Proceedings hint at interesting or 

 amusing happenings and give some description of the difficulties 

 being encountered by the Surveyors, but for the most part they 

 are but brief factual accounts of the movements of the vessel and 

 the month-to-month progress of the work. When I had read them 

 and made notes 1 had a framework upon which to hang the tales 

 of her Company and the stories of the ship herself. 



I have, therefore, to thank a very large number of persons, 

 many of them in the Royal Naval Surveying Service, for so 

 willingly assisting me to spin the yam, for I have served but a 

 brief period in Challenger compared with many of my informants, 

 who have returned for second and even third commissions in the 

 dear old ship. 



To list the name of everyone to whom my thanks are due 

 would be a long task. I must specially mention a few who have 

 supplied me with invaluable material : Vice-Admiral Sir Guy 

 Wyatt, K.B.E., C.B., who lent me his manuscript of a paper on 

 Challenger's pre-war work in Labrador which appeared in the 

 Journal of the Royal Geographical Society; Captain E. H, B. 

 Baker, D.S.O., R.N., who lent me his spirited diary kept whilst 

 on detached survey work in Labrador, and gave permission to 

 use many of his excellent photographs taken whilst serving in 

 Challenger; Commander G. P. D. Hall, D.S.C., R.N., who gen- 

 erously allowed me to make the fullest use of his notes made 

 whilst serving in Challenger and which he had intended for a book 

 of his own; and also Commander Alun Jones, R.N., and Com- 

 mander J. M. Sharpey-Schafer, O.B.E., R.N., who both supplied 



