A survey is made of some of the major researches on ocean waves of the last 25 years. Starting with the introduction of the wave spectrum by Barber and Ursell and their observations of the decrease in period of swell waves arriving on the Cornish coast, which established the predominant linearity of the propagation of storm-generated waves across the ocean, we proceed to the more precise and ambitious experiments in the Pacific by Munk, Snodgrass and others. The latter work identified the arrival in California of waves generated in the Indian Ocean, nearly half-way round the world, and developed into a detailed study of the attenuation of swell as it travels along a great circle path from beyond New Zealand to Alaska. A summary is given of some basic aspects of the new theory of nonlinear scattering in water waves, and finally, instrumental techniques and theory involved in the study of waves in the North Atlantic Ocean for forecasting purposes are reviewed in simple terms.