Sail the Pacific Ocean with Captain Cook, hunt seals and otters with Russian fur traders in Alaska, beachcomb on the island of Samoa, and trace the California coast in the footsteps of Franciscan missionary Junípero Serra. In short, experience the history of the Pacific in the January issue of the online journal Common-place.

The 15 essays in this special issue bring to life personalities such as the quixotic John Ledyard, world traveler and explorer who sailed with Captain Cook and journeyed through Russia, the flamboyant Harry Moors, trader and businessman who befriended author Robert Louis Stevenson in Samoa, the Japanese fisherman John Manjiro whose life oddly paralleled Herman Melville's, and the German naturalist George Forster, who turned from Pacific exploration to political radicalism in the era of the French Revolution.

For these stories and much more, visit the web address shown below, a common place, an uncommon voice.