Stephen Baines

The year is 1729. William Backas, Chief Constable of Whitby, and his wife Margaret are settling down for a cup of tea after returning from a funeral when they are disturbed by the supervisor of the Boulby Alum Works. A corpse has been found in a barrel of urine. The investigation unearths the beginnings at the Coronation and the subsequent tangled lives of a range of intriguing characters, which involves corruption, smuggling, rape and white slavery. However, with the common sense, wisdom and humour of Margaret, and some other helpers, William solves the intriguingly complex crimes. Stephen Baines, whose work has been described by the author Ronald Blythe as 'beautifully written', has had two non-fiction books previously published.

While the story of Endeavour is widely known, Captain Cook sailed with eight ships, which began their lives as merchant vessels. This detailed illustrated history tells the story of these vessels and the people who sailed in them. In placing these ships and people in the personal, political, social, financial, scientific and religious contexts of their times, this book provides a comprehensive and readable account of the ‘long eighteenth century’. Using contemporary sources, this gripping narrative fills a gap in Cook history and attempts to catch something of the exciting, violent, gossipy but largely untaught and unknown period through which these vessels and their people sailed literally and figuratively between the old world and the new.