This is a 350 page hard-cover marine biology textbook that surveys both marine biology and oceanography, covering topics as diverse as marine biology, oceanography, tides, oceans, currents, whales, whaling, and ships and personages from the HMS Challenger to Ferdinand Magellan, Christopher Columbus, James Cook, buccaneers, Eratothenes, Vasco da Gama, Bartholomew Dias, Juan Sebastian del Cano, Edward Forges, Charles Darwin, and Alfred Wegener. Many notable paintings by Winslow Homer and Richard Ellis grace its pages and its cover.