Stowaway

"This afternoon, at last, we weighed anchor. Now there are new sounds to join with the others. The wind clapping the sails, the men singing out in the rigging, the water churned by Endeavour's prow. Fine sounds. Sailing sounds."

The first thing I did this year was travel around the globe. With the help, of course, of author Karen Hesse who penned this excellent and educational young adult novel about the expedition of Captain Cook and his crew between 1768-1771.

The novel is made up of faithful journal entries written by Nicholas Young. He recorded everything from his successful feat in getting on the ship unnoticed and winning over the crew so they would let him stay on, to his feelings about his sea mates and all the work they were show more required to do in order to assist Captain Cook on his exploratory journey to map "New Holland" (Australia) and circumnavigate the world. Nick, who apparently liked pork, also included notes about the foods they ate during their trip. At one point, after he had partaken a time or two of things like sharks and turtles, he remarked, "It's a wonder what the stomach will allow the mind to accept."

Being based in fact, the author artistically composed personalities for the crew of the Endeavour. I felt pride as Samuel Evans learned to read, I smiled as I watched friendships grow (and rivalries soften). I especially enjoyed knowing the stories behind the names Captain Cook gave to areas such as Cape Farewell and Poverty Bay. Young Nick's Head, an actual place in New Zealand, was named after the main character.

Another very important featured character was Dr. Joseph Banks, a naturalist and botanist who was charged with detailing and cataloging the many plants and animals found along their voyage. Dr. Banks took a special liking to young Nick (due to his great work ethic), and asked him to contact him again in the future. Indeed he did, for they traveled by ship again together to Iceland in 1772.

I also took note of this particular commentary, which I found rather interesting and analogous to certain current situations: "These natives don't need to work hard for anything, so the things they have don't hold much value to them. Perhaps that explains the natives' thievery. If nothing has much value, why should anyone be upset at its being taken?"

Not being familiar with sea and ship terminology, I learned a couple of new words as well: scuttlebutt - a cask on a shipboard with fresh drinking water; and fearnaught - a coat made from thick canvas.

The only thing that could have made this book better would have been a more detailed map (but this is my opinion only; the simple map provided probably works fine for the book's intended audience of ages 10-14). Overall, a really nice read. show less

Stowaway pales in comparison to Carry On Mr. Bowditch by Lapham, which I read just before this. It also reads like Hesse ripped off some storyline. But while I felt Latham really researched her historical setting, Hesse sounds like she picked up some terms (i.e. from Latham) & pasted them into a kids adventure. She drops the theme of persistence & hard work--her protagonist has run away from his apprenticeship, which he was put into because he didn't want to go to school. And he has protectors onboard the ship. >>Aside: I didn't think of it when reading, since as a juvenile book there is no mention of sexuality, but you've got to wonder why a couple of sailors would be helping out a young boy when he couldn't pay his way.
2011 show more review. show less

One drawback to reading the books assigned by my daughter's curriculum is that I start to get bored with reading about the same events or the same settings. A few months back I had gotten my fill of Leonardo da Vinci, Queen Elizabeth I and the whole Renaissance. These days, as my daughter studies the age of exploration and colonization, I'm starting to tire of reading accounts of ocean voyages. If I read about seasickness, scurvy and wormy biscuits too many more times, I'm going to have to start seeking out a copy of Dune or Lawrence of Arabia or something. On the other hand, sometimes a book is so well written that one can gloss over the same old, same old and enjoy the milieu afresh. Such is the case of this book. Stowaway is the show more fictionalized tale of Nicholas Young, a young lad who journeyed around the world with Captain James Cook on his 1768 to 1771 voyage. Young's name suddenly appears in the ship's log eight months after the ship sailed from England, leading historians to speculate that he was a stowaway. Ms. Hesse has taken that idea, as well as the historical records of the voyage, and woven them together to make a great tale. She made the voyage come alive, allowing me to taste the joy and emotional hardships experienced by young Nick. I'll never complain about flight delays again... well, at least not often. Anyway, I'm really toying with the idea of hanging onto the book after the kids' school days have passed. One thing is certain, though, Stowaway is well worth checking out.
--J show less

Based on Captain Cook’s first global spanning voyage (1768 - 1771), The Stowaway] by Karen Hesse was a fabulous read. Using actual facts and written accounts, the author uses the youngest member of the crew, Nicholas Young, believed to have been a stowaway, to tell her story. Of course she has expanded on the few facts known about Nicholas but still keeps the story within the boundaries of believability. Written as his journal, she has young Nick running away from a vicious master that he was apprenticed to. With the help of three seamen he is smuggled aboard the Endeavour while the ship is at harbour. He is hidden and kept in supplies until after the ship has sailed beyond the point of return.

Nicholas upon showing himself became a show more valued member of the crew, working with the ships surgeon and also helping to look after the stock. At first he was simply the ships “boy”, but after Tahiti, he was entered into the books and eventually earned the rating of Able-bodied Seaman. Nicholas caught the eye of botanist Joseph Banks who was also on board for the purpose of discovering new life forms, both plant and animal. Nicholas is known to have sailed with Joseph Banks again on a trip to Iceland.

The story was pure adventure as the ship embarked on a journey of a lifetime. Discovering and visiting places where no man had ever been. But even sailing though the South Pacific, charting the waters around both New Zealand and parts of Australia, there was danger, sickness, famine, and storms to overcome. Although this is classed as a YA story, I think The Stowaway will appeal to anyone who loves a good adventure. show less

Book on CD read by David Cale

In the summer of 1768 Captain James Cook set sail on H.M.S. Endeavor for a major expedition to explore the possibility of a new continent. In addition to the ship’s crew he carried aboard a naturalist, Mr. Joseph Banks, and his assistants, who would record the flora and fauna encountered on the journey. He also had aboard one Nicholas Young, age 11. All this is known from the public records which have been preserved, and it’s interesting to note that Young doesn’t appear on the ship’s muster until April 18, 1769, eight months after the ship left England. Scholars have speculated about how he might have boarded Endeavor; this is Hesse’s imagined scenario.

I’ve read several of Hesse’s books for show more children, written in verse, and all based on some historical event. This book is the first prose book I’ve read by her. I was immediately drawn into the story of this boy escaping a situation he hated. (His father had apprenticed Nick to a butcher to “toughen him up.”) He had some education, so Hesse has Nick keeping his own journal of the voyage, and these journal entries are the way in which the story of Endeavor’s first three-years-long voyage is told.

It's a great adventure, and a believable coming-of-age story. Nick is bright, enthusiastic, hard-working and observant. There are crew members who are his champions, and others who are bound and determined to see him fail. He makes some friends and suffers along with others through storms, attacks by native peoples, hunger, damage to the ship and an illness that decimates the crew.

Hesse includes an afterword that explains the history behind the novel, a list of all the people aboard (taken from public records), and a glossary of terms.

David Cale does a fine job of narrating the audiobook. He really brings these characters to life. show less

It is known that in the summer of 1768, Captain James Cook sailed from England on H.M.S Endeavour, beginning a three-year voyage around the world on a secret mission to discover an unknown continent at the bottom of the globe. What is less known is that a boy by the name of Nicholas Young was a stowaway on that ship.

Newbery winner Karen Hesse re-creates Cook's momentous voyage through the eyes of this remarkable boy, creating a fictional journal filled with fierce hurricanes, warring natives, and disease, as Nick discovers new lands, incredible creatures, and lifelong friends.

Nice little exploration tale set as a diary with a young stowaway on Capt. Cook's first exploration journey in the Endeavor where they discovered N. Zealand and circled the world. Fun and sad.