The saga of HMAS Perth and USS Houston in the Battle of Sunda Strait has never been fully told. In 1942, when valour was all that stood between defeat and victory, these two cruisers earned their place in naval history. But this is also the story of a son finding his father. Brendan Whiting's search was triggered when he came upon an old cedar box containing his father's war-time diaries and a letter written to him by his father when he was serving on HMAS Perth. The author's voyage of discovery has led him through the exploits of HMAS Perth in the Mediterranean to the disastrous Battle of the Java Sea and the final battle of the Sunda Strait: the battle from which his father never returned.