Hayter was first-lieutenant of HMS Basilisk (Captain John Moresby, RN) which made a cruise to islands of the Western Pacific and to Papua in 1872-73. It was on this voyage that Moresby named Port Moresby after his father, Admiral Sir Fairfax Moresby.

The journal begins with the departure of HMS Basilisk from England to Australia, via Madeira and the Cape of Good Hope. From Sydney, she visited New Zealand and Torres Strait. Then, after returning to Sydney, she went to Lord Howe Island, Norfolk Island, the northern outliers of Tonga, Wallis and Futuna, Rotuma, the Ellice Islands, some of the outliers of the Solomons, New Hebrides, New Caledonia, Torres Strait and Papua.