"An immense treasure trove of fact-filled and highly readable fun."
--Simon Winchester, The New York Times Book Review
**
A Sunday Times (U.K.) Best Book of 2018 and Winner of the Mary Soames
Award for History**
**
An unprecedented history of the storied ship that Darwin said helped add
a hemisphere to the civilized world**
The Enlightenment was an age of endeavors, with Britain consumed by the
impulse for grand projects undertaken at speed. Endeavour was also the
name given to a collier bought by the Royal Navy in 1768. It was a
commonplace coal-carrying vessel that no one could have guessed would go
on to become the most significant ship in the chronicle of British
exploration.
The first history of its kind, Peter Moore's Endeavour: The Ship That
Changed the World is a revealing and comprehensive account of the
storied ship's role in shaping the Western world. Endeavour famously
carried James Cook on his first major voyage, charting for the first
time New Zealand and the eastern coast of Australia. Yet it was a ship
with many lives: During the battles for control of New York in 1776, she
witnessed the bloody birth of the republic. As well as carrying
botanists, a Polynesian priest, and the remains of the first kangaroo to
arrive in Britain, she transported Newcastle coal and Hessian soldiers.
NASA ultimately named a space shuttle in her honor. But to others she
would be a toxic symbol of imperialism.
Through careful research, Moore tells the story of one of history's most
important sailing ships, and in turn shines new light on the ambition
and consequences of the Age of Enlightenment.
