Runty sized Tobias Whitechapel, fourteen and an able bodied seaman, becomes a midshipman and a hero before the end of this memorable one of Cook's voyages. In prose that dips as smoothly in and out of his tale as a bark on a balmy sea and that talks as sharply as the bark's smart captain, Borden describes a wonderful voyage as ""...with topsails and top gallants drawing..."" the ""Endeavour"" leaves England for the South Seas in 1768. With Cook's faith placed in him, Tobias must overcome the petty jealousies of fellow officers, help his captain win the confidence of Maori natives, wonder at the mysterious scientific observations being made by two passenger doctors, Bank and Solander, from the Royal Society, and is the main agent in the rescue of the ""Endeavour"" from doom on the coral of the Great Barrier Reef. An active, colorful book.