Young Nick

Aboard the Endeavour

Nick’s my name. Nicholas Young. I don’t suppose you’ve ever heard of me, but I’m the sailor who discovered New Zealand in the great southern ocean. And today I’m sad. Because I have just been reading in the newspaper, the Daily Courant, about the death of my captain, Captain Cook!

How did I meet Captain Cook? Well, when I was young, about ten years ago in 1769, I became a sailor. You may think that was too young to be a sailor, because I was then just a young boy, aged 12. But I’d been appointed the personal servant of the surgeon on the Endeavour, William Monkhouse.

But I was the first boy to see the land of New Zealand when we came here. I think they have named some of New Zealand after me – Young Nick’s Head. It was an incredibly exciting moment. We had been out at sea for nearly two months and had seen no land. And then at 2pm on Saturday 7 October 1769, I was up the mast in the crow’s nest when I saw it...

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