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Sparkling with humor, poignancy and adventure, this story was inspired by a real boy who stowed away aboard Captain James Cook's ship Endeavour on its 1768 voyage..... Hesse's impeccable research buttresses the narrative with a wealth of detail. Age 11+
In the summer of 1768, an eleven-year-old butcher's apprentice named Nicholas Young climbed aboard a ship, hid himself from captain and crew, and waited to be carried far away from the life he hated in London.
Nick didn't know it, but the ship he chose -- H.M.S. Endeavour -- was bound for an astonishing adventure. Captained by James Cook, Endeavour was on a secret mission to discover an unknown continent at the bottom of the globe. During his three-year voyage, Nick encountered hardship and was awed by new discoveries; he weathered danger and proved himself brave when disaster struck; he earned the respect and trust of the gentlemen on board; he made a friend for life. And he made history.
An eleven-year-old boy named Nicholas Young really did stow away on Cook's Endeavour. Based on exhaustive historical research and illustrated with evocative drawings by Robert Andrew Parker, Stowaway is Newbery winner Karen Hesse's extraordinary fictional account of the real Nicholas's journey.
Chapter One
Stowaway
August 1768
SUNDAY 7th TO FRIDAY 19th [Plymouth]
With the help of Seamen Francis Haite, John Ramsay, and Samuel Evans, I have managed to keep my presence aboard Endeavour
secret. She's a small Bark, and her Company over eighty in number. It's a wonder I've not been discovered, with all the coming and going of the men aboard, but I have not. The three seamen I paid to get me on bring biscuit and water. They make certain I exercise each night during middle watch, when there are fewer hands on deck. But there is little to relieve my situation till Endeavour sails.
It's a good hiding place I've got, in the aft of what Samuel Evans calls the Pinnace, a small boat Endeavour
carries aboard her. I can look over the edge and see the deck without being noticed. But it is difficult, lying still, day and night. Sometimes the urge to cry out nearly gets the better of me. I haven't yet. It would go hard on the men who have helped me if I did. And I would be returned to ...
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Sometimes I think we're alone. Sometimes I think we're not. In either case, the thought is staggering.
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