not oppose his wishes; but, with the consent of his parents, conducted him to Whitby, where he introduced him to Mr. John Walker, a respectable shipowner and master mariner, to whom he was bound an apprentice for three years. Mr. Sanderson and his family, of whom a son and daughter, Mr. John Sanderson and Mrs. Dodds, survived till this history was begun, continued ever after to have a friendly regard for our hero. The house and shop where he lived with Mr. Sanderson, have long ago been swept away by the sea, which has made considerable depredations on the lower part of Staiths; but the counter behind which Cook served, with its venerable till, may still be seen there, in the shop of Mr. Richard Hutton.
Our young navigator faithfully served his apprenticeship to Mr. Walker, first in the Freelove, of about 450 tons, employed in the coal trade, that great nursery for seamen; and afterwards, during his last year's service, in the Three Brothers, a fine new ship of nearly 600 tons; which, by Mr. Walker's direction, he assisted in rigging and fitting for sea. This vessel, after making two coal voyages, was engaged for several months as a transport, and employed in carrying some troops from Middleburgh to Dublin, and conveying other troops from thence to Liverpool. In the spring of 1749, the ship was paid off at Deptford; and was subsequently employed in the Norway trade, in which Cook finished his term of service in the month of July, being then nearly twenty-one years old. In the course of his apprenticeship, he spent several intervals at Whitby, chiefly in the depth of winter, when the coal vessels are usually laid up. At such times, according to a custom then general
