The story involves the voyage of the Flashaway on its journey to start a colony on the planet Robinello, which is estimated to require hundreds of years to complete.
In order to ensure that the crew remains on-mission, historian Professor Grimstone is placed in hibernation and periodically revived to provide them with important historical information.
During his periodic revivals, Grimstone is dismayed to watch the aging crew and eventually, their descendants, slowly forget not only the mission, but everything about America, Earth, and even Robinello.
Grimstone's periodic interventions, which sometimes force him to resort to violence to keep the crew in line, manages to keep the ship on-course for nearly 600 years.
[6]: 74 The story was also the inspiration for A. E. van Vogt's "Far Centaurus", via John W. Campbell, which is based on the idea of arriving at a now-populated planet.