Their trip begins on the aircraft carrier HMS Warrior. On it, they sail through an Atlantic hurricane, squeeze through the Panama Canal, and then head to Easter Island, where they arewitness to three megaton H-bomb explosions. Afterward, they tour Hawaii and the South Pacific and around the coast of South America, serving as goodwill ambassadors.

Compiled by crewmember Michael Johnston from journals, letters, and contemporary records, and with a foreword by HRH The Duke of Edinburgh, H-Bombs and Hula Girls concludes with a surprising revelation that Operation Grapple may not have been quite what it seemed.