Foreword – Carl Wunsch -- Foreward – Paul Gaffney -- Preface -- Acknowledgements -- Waves and wave spectra -- Oceanographers learn about power spectra -- Wave prediction -- Where the swell begins -- Coming to America -- Coming to America -- Caltech -- Serving in the Army -- Clearance problems -- Bikini (1946) and Eniwetok (1951) -- Settling down at Scripps -- Munk finally gets his degree -- Wind-driven ocean circulation -- From waves to tides 1958-1968 -- 6 Deep sea tides 1964 -- The alleged suicide of Aristotle -- 7 Internal waves 1971 – 1981 -- Ocean Acoustics 1974 -- The Gulf Stream sheds eddies -- The Mode experiments -- Ocean Acoustic Tomography -- Heard Island -- Whales -- The last twenty years -- Mohole 1957 – 1964 -- The wobbling earth 1950 – 1960 -- IGPP. 1962 -- The Cambridge connection -- Finding the faculty -- Building the Laboratory -- Navy -- Finis -- Appendix.

The present volume documents an interview with the eminent oceanographer and geophysicist Walter Munk, who is one of the "grand old men" of oceanography. The book covers many key issues, such as ocean-wave prediction, ocean acoustic thermography. As a highly prominent scientist who has influenced many present day key oceanographers, Munk's career covers 70 years of practice, beginning about 1940 and continuing to the present.