"... Over a four year period beginning in 1848 she was sent out from England under orders from the Admiralty to make the first full and accurate survey of the coasts and harbours of New Zealand ... she was an early steamship, equipped both with sails and paddle wheels. The vessel was also most fortunate in her commander, Captain John Lort Stokes, an experienced hydrographer, as well as her complement of 100 men, which included some very able and distinguished officers and supernumeraries who were also scientists and artists ... A descriptive shore and shipboard journal was kept in addition to a formal log, but for various the book itself was never written. The manuscript journal became separated into two parts and all the other papers and records of the cruise were filed away in museums and institution. Sheila Natusch has now put matters to right with her own distinctive account of the whole voyage of the Acheron ... an intimate study of the Acheron's people not only receiving their many visitors and going about their daily work on the survey but ranging far and wide as explorers and naturalists. It tells a lot that is new about the different New Zealand settlements in early colonial times, with the Maoris particularly receiving a good share of direct "observation" ..." -- Inside front cover.