This is a thrilling story of exploration, of strange seas and coasts and new lands whose natives were not always friendly. Goerge Vancouver was only fifteen when he entered Britain's Royal Navy—at perhaps the most exciting period in the history of British sea power—but he was old enough to sail with Captain James Cook on the great explorer's last two voyages, and to taste the excitement of discovery and adventure.

Many years later when he commanded his own expedition in H.M.S. Discovery, Vancouver returned to the islands of the South Seas, and beyond to the coast of America, searching for a northwest passage and...as he searched...charting the shoreline from California to Cook's Inlet and Kodiak Island. He was the first white man to find a way between the mainland and the island which now bears his name. For four years and more, the work went on interrupted by parleyings with the Spaniards who had laid claim to the territories, by dangerous encounters with hostile Indians, and by the necessity of wintering in the South Pacific away from the bitter climate of the American coast.

This is a "great story" of a man of courage and determination devoted to duty and inspiring devotion in his men—whose own journals have supplied the essential details for Roderick Haig-Brown's exciting narrative for young readers.

From the dust jacket