In Captain Cook’s Apprentice, Anthony Hill gives the reader a faithful account of Cook’s first voyage of exploration – the one where he pitched up at Botany Bay – from the perspective of the teenage Isaac Manley. Manley had a long, albeit not very distinguished, career in the Royal Navy and when he died in 1837 he was the last survivor of the Endeavour’s crew.

Very little detail is known about Isaac’s life and normally, this would make him the perfect vehicle for the historical novelist trying to get a fresh angle on that much-explored voyage. Cook has generated a minor writing industry, and quite rightly too – he is a genuinely impressive and somewhat enigmatic character; a consummate professional seaman who was engaged in the intellectual life of the Enlightenment.

But the problem is that Isaac is a teenager, and a young one, just 13 when the voyage begins in 1768. As such, his point of view is necessarily limited and this constrains the book’s ability to explore the numerous potential themes which the voyage offers for exploration. Everything from the English class system to the ethics of first contact with Indigenous populations is seen through the eyes of a callow youth. By the time they get to Tahiti and ‘the people’ go troppo, this is a real limitation. Although comparisons are invidious, Resolution by A N Wilson is a more sophisticated and successful use of a young perspective into Cook’s next great voyage. What redeems the book is that it is an extremely accurate and accessible account of the voyage it describes, and well worth reading for that reason alone. I think Hill, who has made something of a career writing books with young protagonists, did not intend this to be a book for young adults, but it is certainly well suited for that audience.

Reviewed by Grant Hansen