This boys' book is for your dad as well as for you. When he was a boy he had mates, and one special mate, just as you have. So I thought I'd write of my adventures with my old mate, Dick. This is a true story, and dear old Cooktown and Lizard Island with all their historical and pioneer associations, are well on the map. Our great navigator, Captain James Cook, sailed the very waters written of here, put foot upon the very earth Dick and I so humbly trod long afterwards. And the glimpse you will get here of underwater life amongst the coral reefs is exactly as Dick and I saw it, and as anyone who sails to that sunlit sea can see it today. So come with Dick and me on this voyage of discovery. (From Author's Note)