among Whitby shipowners, he lodged in his master's house, which was situated in Grape Lane; being the house lately occupied by Wakefield Simpson Chapman, Esq., and now by Samuel Wharton, Esq. The place where Cook slept, although it has undergone alterations, is still viewed with no small interest. Under the roof of Mr. Walker, a worthy member of the Society of Friends, the youth would naturally be confirmed in those habits of regularity and temperance in which he had been brought up, and which were eminently conducive to his future greatness. His sober deportment and studious turn of mind made him respected by all the family; and he was a particular favourite with Mary Prowd, a trusty old nurse or housekeeper, many years employed in Mr. Walker's house. In the winter evenings, she allowed him a table and a candle, that he might read or write by himself, while the other apprentices were engaged in idle talk or trifling amusements. That eagerness for knowledge, which afterwards grew so rapidly, had even then begun to take deep root in his mind; and he found it a great advantage to be in the service of a gentleman who was ready to encourage him m every thing laudable. It is probable, that during part of the winter months, he attended a day school, or evening school, to learn the first principles of navigation; according to a laudable custom, which has long prevailed among the young seamen of Whitby.
His practice as a seaman, from the close of his apprenticeship until he entered the navy, exhibits nothing memorable. He went before the mast, as the phrase is, for above two years, serving on board of various ships. In 1750, he was in the Maria,
