Captain Cook's Apprentice

'What are they saying?' Isaac asked Taiata.
'They are calling us tupua. . . goblins and demons.'
'And what else?'
'They say they will come back and kill us all.'

When young Isaac Manley sailed on the Endeavour from England in 1768, no one on board knew if a mysterious southern continent existed in the vast Pacific Ocean. It would be a voyage full of uncertainties and terrors.

During the course of the three-year journey, Isaac's eyes are opened to all the brutal realities of life at sea - floggings, storms, press-gangs, the deaths of fellow crewmen, and violent clashes on distant shores.

Yet Isaac also experiences the tropical beauty of Tahiti, where he becomes friends with a Tahitian girl. He sees the wonders of New Zealand. And he is there when the men of Endeavour first glimpse the east coast of Australia, anchor in Botany Bay, and run aground on the Great Barrier Reef.