I first met Nick when I was a young eager scientist on the RRS Charles Darwin. We were doing a GLORIA cruise in the Pacific and I was absolutely captivated by what Nick and his machine were sowing s of the seafloor thousands of metres below us. I have two endearing memories of Nick: one was on that cruise how over the weeks he patiently and keenly explained to me everything about the GLORIA system and from that I developed a fascination with technology and huge respect for those that make it happen. The second memory I have is of a taxi ride back from the airport after a long cruise with Nick, and he was talking about how much he missed his wife and family and couldn’t wait to get home. A truly kind and generous man, that will be much missed by all of that were lucky enough to know him.