CHAPTER I 



LONG before the usual period at which boys begin to think 

 about the career they shall adopt, I had made up my mind 

 to go to sea and, when about fifteen, resolved to lose no 

 time in carrying out my wishes. 



Liverpool being the nearest seaport to my home, I 

 decided to try there, but failing to find a ship with a 

 captain willing to engage me, I watched my opportunity, 

 and on one dark and rainy night, stole on board a vessel, 

 bound for Newfoundland, and concealed myself in the hold. 



Having thus embarked on my adventures as a stow- 

 away, I was careful to maintain this position till the ship 

 was well out to sea when hunger and thirst, combined with 

 an insufficiency of ventilation, compelled me to make my 

 presence known. 



I had some difficulty in finding my way on to the deck, 

 but, finally, as I stepped on to it from the hatchway I was 

 promptly seized by one of the crew and haled before the 

 captain who received me with a welcome not exactly 

 calculated to impress me favourably with the seafaring 

 profession. 



Enraged at my sudden, and wholly unauthorized, ap- 

 pearance on board his vessel, he gave expression to his 

 feelings with the assistance of a rope's end an operation 

 repeated later by the mate and, at intervals during the day, 

 by various members of the crew. 



Bruised and sore, in mind as well as body, I was finally 

 handed over to the cook with orders to be at once initiated 

 in the duties of a cabin boy. The captain observing 

 angrily " that he had no use for idlers in his ship, and since 

 I had boarded her without leave, I must work my passage 

 out." 



Fortunately for me, the cook, a huge, good-natured 

 looking negro, had his own ideas as to my future education, 



7 



