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from the dustjacket:

"Land ho! Land ho-o-o!"

The electrifying cry brought all hands on deck. Sailors went swarming up the rigging like monkeys. James Cook stood on the quarter-deck checking the charts in his hand while a group of scientists clustered around. It was the island of Tahiti at last!

Here the British ship Endeavor was bringing the Royal Society Expedition to observe the eclipse of the sun in the year 1769. The head of the Expedition was one of the most remarkable men ever to sail under the Union Jack. James Cook, self-taught since he was twelve, was now acknowledged to be a master navigator, map-maker and scientific observer.

In Captain Cook Explores the South Seas, Armstrong Sperry tells of the explorations and amazing achievements of the former shipyard apprentice who charted many of the navigation routes of the world. It is a breath-taking story of crossing the Antarctic Circle for the first time in history, of claiming New Zealand and Australia for the British Empire, of locating that 1000-mile labrynth of coral known as the Great Barrier Reef of Australia, and of discovering and naming countless islands in the South Pacific.

Armstrong Sperry was born and broght up in Connecticut, only a stone's throw from the sea. Ever since he was a boy, ships and sailing have been one of his major interests, and he has made many trips to some of the remotest parts of the world, including many of the islands that Captain James Cook charted more than 175 years ago.