'Irresistibly exciting and true'
Family magazine
'What a wonderful way to learn about Cook…A quick good read for adult history lovers as well.'
The Courier Mail
'This small but eventful book brings history alive…It's an irreverent and informative charmer.' - The Sunday Age
'Ideal for younger readers.'
Weekend Gold Coast Bulletin
'What a delight to read this book! Jackie French has a style that seems effortless and totally believable.' Austral Ed Newsletter
'This is a very good story…I will definitely read the next one when it comes out.'
Tim, aged 13, YARA website
The Goat Who Sailed The World
Captain Cook's goat is the first of many historical animals to bring the past to life. the HM Bark Endeavour is sailing to tahiti to map the transit of Venus, but there are rumours that once the task is completed, Lieutenant James Cook has a set of secret orders - orders that command him to search for the Great South Land. Isaac is twelve and has joined the crew of the Endeavour as a master's servant, good for scrubbing decks and not much else. He's certainly not considered good enough to fetch hay for the Goat who will provide fresh milk for Cook and his officers. And this goat even has more experience at sea than Isaac - she has already sailed around the world once, watching the ocean and lands slip by from her spot on the quarterdeck. Over the months on board the Endeavour, a friendship grows between the Goat and Isaac, one that will last through shipwreck, bushfire and illness. A friendship that helps in the discovery of exotic new lands
Some Notes on writing the book
The Goat That Sailed the World is the true story of the very stroppy animal who sailed with James Cook on the Endeavour, on the voyage that first mapped Australia's east coast and led to the British colony there 20 years later. She gave Cook milk for the whole three years the ship had been away! This was pretty incredible for a goat - they usually don't give milk for nearly as long. Her milk was badly needed, because food on ships in those days was pretty awful.
Actually the tiny ship also carried seventy-one crew, twelve marines, eleven scientists and their servants, seventeen sheep, a small mob of cattle for meat, four ducks and five chickens for eggs, a boar, a sow and her piglets for meat too, and three cats to catch the rats that swarmed on every ship.
Ships in those days were like floating arks, small farms of animals to provide meat, milk and eggs to add to the usually stale rations. Which was why ships needed to call in to harbour often- not just for fresh water, but to find good grass that could be cut and dried for hay to feed their livestock.
The Goat was famous even before she stepped onto the Endeavour. . She had already sailed around the world with Captain Wallis, providing milk for the captain and his officers. Now she was going to face an even bigger adventure - three years finding new lands, facing wild storms and shipwrecks, and plagues that would kill a third of the crew.
But she survived it all. And by the end of the voyage she was the most famous goat in history!
The British government gave her a pension. The British Royal Society made her a member - the only animal ever to join that respected club of scientists! They gave her a silver collar too. And Captain James Cook was so fond of her that he took her home with him.
The story of the Goat is really the story of that historic voyage, too, and their adventures, mapping the transit of Venus, hunting for the Great South land, exploring the New Zealand coastline and eastern Australia, facing ship wreck, attack, and disease…
It's also the story of Isaac Manley, the boy who looked after the goat, and his rise from master's servant to midshipman, the beginning of a career that would make him an admiral, and the last surviving member of cook's crew.