My sister slept with the light on until she was 27. She rightfully blames me. I would leap out of closets with my hands made into claws. I would...
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I studied the application for a berth on His Majesty's Bark Endeavour. An Australian foundation had built a replica of Cook's first vessel and dispatched it around the globe in the navigator's path. At each port, the ship's professional crew took on volunteers to help sail the next leg and experience life as eighteenth-century sailors. This seemed the obvious place to start; if I was going to understand Cook's travels, I first had to understand how he traveled.
The application asked about my "qualifications and experience."
"Have you had any blue water ocean sailing experience?"
"Can you swim 50 meters fully clothed?"
"You will be required to work aloft, sometimes at night in heavy weather. Are you confident of being able to do this?"
I wasn't sure what was meant by "blue water ocean." Did it come in other colors? I'd never swum clothed; as for working aloft, I'd climbed ladders to scoop leaves from my gutter. I checked "yes" next to each question.
But the last query gave me pause. "Do you suffer from sea sickness?"
RGreen2006, September 10, 2006 (view all comments by RGreen2006)
I really enjoyed this book. It was informative (I never studied Cook in school) and very funny (I liked Roger the most). I like anything about the ocean or islands and I wish I could travel indefinately also. I hope all of Tony Horwitzs' books are as good because I may have to get One For The Road next.
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Blue Latitudes: Boldly Going Where Captain Cook Has Gone Before
Used Hardcover
Tony Horwitz
0 stars -
0 reviews
$8.50
In Stock
Product details
496 pages
Henry Holt & Company -
English9780805065411
Reviews:
"Staff Pick"
by Michal D.,
Blue Latitudes is an enjoyable and often hilarious journey into the amazing life and adventures of Captain James Cook and his crew. There is no better way to learn nautical history than to bring an Aussie, and a bottle of grog, along.
by Michal D.
"Synopsis"
by Netread,
In an exhilarating tale of historic adventure, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Confederates in the Attic retraces the voyages of Captain James Cook, the Yorkshire farm boy who drew the map of the modern world
Captain James Cook's three epic journeys in the 18th century were the last great voyages of discovery. His ships sailed 150,000 miles, from the Artic to the Antarctic, from Tasmania to Oregon, from Easter Island to Siberia. When Cook set off for the Pacific in 1768, a third of the globe remained blank. By the time he died in Hawaii in 1779, the map of the world was substantially complete.
Tony Horwitz vividly recounts Cook's voyages and the exotic scenes the captain encountered: tropical orgies, taboo rituals, cannibal feasts, human sacrifice. He also relives Cook's adventures by following in the captain's wake to places such as Tahiti, Savage Island, and the Great Barrier Reef to discover Cook's embattled legacy in the present day. Signing on as a working crewman aboard a replica of Cook's vessel, Horwitz experiences the thrill and terror of sailing a tall ship. He also explores Cook the man: an impoverished farmboy who broke through the barriers of his class and time to become the greatest navigator in British history.
By turns harrowing and hilarious, insightful and entertaining, BLUE LATITUDES brings to life a man whose voyages helped create the 'global village' we know today.
"Synopsis"
by Netread,
Boldly Going Where Captain Cook Has Gone Before
Two centuries after James Cook's epic voyages of discovery, Tony Horwitz takes readers on a wild ride across hemispheres and centuries to recapture the Captains adventures and explore his embattled legacy in todays Pacific. Horwitz, a Pulitzer Prize-winner and author of Confederates in the Attic, works as a sailor aboard a replica of Cooks ship, meets island kings and beauty queens, and carouses the South Seas with a hilarious and disgraceful travel companion, an Aussie named Roger. He also creates a brilliant portrait of Cook: an impoverished farmboy who became the greatest navigator in British history and forever changed the lands he touched. Poignant, probing, antic, and exhilarating, Blue Latitudes brings to life a man who helped create the global village we inhabit today.
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