The Voyage of the Arctic Tern - Softcover

Hugh Montgomery was brought up in Plymouth and spent most of his youth on or under the waves. A keen diver, he was part of the team that salvaged Henry VIII's flagship the Mary Rose. After completing The Voyage of The Arctic Tern, he received a number of rejections, and so decided to publish the book himself - at his own expense, remortgaging his flat in the process. The risk paid off - every single copy was sold, and The Voyage of The Arctic Tern won the Self-published Book of the Year and the Poetry Book of the Year Award 2000. When not writing epic adventure stories, Hugh works as a consultant in intensive care at University College London, as well as leading the group of researchers that discovered the first "gene for human fitness" in 1998.

The pirates now had had enough.
Lord Morgan had gone raving mad!
So while he struggled at the wheel
They gathered up what things they had
And crept away to make escape.
They dropped the longboat off the stern,
Then leaped aboard and rowed away
From Mad Dog and The Arctic Tern.

So now, alone, Lord Morgan sailed,
And with each hour, frustration grew.
Curses on The Arctic Tern!
And curses on those twelve ships too!
For if he turned, Old Bruno's boat
Would spot this and would alter course.
And if he went the other way,
Those ghostly ships would head him off.

There thus was little he could do;
He couldn't even set a course.
The way he went was not his choice,
And every turn he made was forced.
But still, alone behind the wheel,
He struggled on with little sleep.
He'd suffer anything at all -
Would rather die than face defeat.

THE VOYAGE OF THE ARCTIC TERN by Hugh Montgomery. Text copyright (c) 2000, 2002 by Hugh Montgomery. Published by Candlewick Press, Inc., Cambridge, MA.