A fictionalized account of the adventures of eighteen-year-old Perce Blackborow, who stowed away for the 1914 Shackleton Antarctic expedition and, after their ship Endurance was crushed by ice, endured many hardships, including the loss of his toes to frostbite, during the nearly two-year return journey across sea and ice.
Relates events of explorer Henry Hudson's final voyage in 1602 from four points of view, those of his seventeen-year-old son aboard ship, a younger son left in London, a crewmember, and a young English woman acting as a spy in Holland in hopes of restoring honor to her family's name.
The letters and thoughts of Thomas Jefferson, members of the Corps of Discovery, their guide Sacagawea, and Captain Lewis's Newfoundland dog, all tell of the historic exploratory expedition to seek a water route to the Pacific Ocean.
Describes the adventures and discoveries of early explorers to Central America, Mexico, and the Caribbean, including Christopher Columbus, Hernan Cortes, the Pinzon brothers, and others, and features a glossary, maps, and illustrations.
The adventure continues as Jack Winslow's secret expedition to the South Pole turns desperate in 1910, with mutiny and the "Mystery" stuck in the frozen Atlantic threatening the lives of his sons.
