Dead reckoning : a pirate voyage with Captain Drake
(Book)

Emmet, a fifteen-year-old orphan, learns hard lessons about survival when he sails from England in 1577 as a servant aboard the Golden Hind--the ship of his cousin, the explorer and pirate Francis Drake--on its three-year circumnavigation of the world. Upon his foster father's death, Emmet is startled by a visit from a previously unknown cousin, Francis Drake, and an invitation to be Drake's servant aboard the Pelican for a glorious trading expedition. Within days Emmet finds himself on ship, surrounded by restless sailors. As Drake's crew pursues the fabled Silver Ship, Emmet comes to see how a thirst for wealth can turn men into monsters-how it can turn him into a monster. Horrified, he plots his escape to freedom. And it is this new goal that gives him strength to withstand the greed and brutality that surrounds him aboard ship with Drake. Award-winning author Laurie Lawlor gives us a terrifying look at a pirate and a murderer-and hope that even the darkest spirits can be overcome.