“Come in here, and we will see what can be done for you, my lad,” he said.
He took me into an office or sort of shop, full of all sorts of ship’s stores. In it were seated three or four men, who were, I found, captains of vessels. My new friend having talked to them about me, one of them asked, “Would you like to go to sea with me, boy?”
“Yes, sir,” said I, for I liked the look of his face.
“You don’t ask who I am, nor where I am going,” he said.
“For that I don’t care, sir; but I think you are a good man, and will be a kind master,” I answered boldly.
“Ah, well; you must not be too sure of that,” said the captain. “I do not sail from here, but from a place on the other side of England, called Liverpool, and I am going a long, long voyage, to last two or three years, may be.”
I said that I should like that, because I should then be a good sailor before I came back again. He then told me that Liverpool, next to London, is the largest place for trade in England, and that thousands and thousands of vessels sail from it every year to all parts of the world. He was going back there in a few days, where his ship was getting ready for a voyage to the Pacific Ocean, and very likely round the world.
The Pacific, he told me, is a very large spread of water on the other side of America, many thousands of miles long and wide. First we should have to cross the Atlantic ocean, off there where the sun sets. That is also many thousands of miles long and wide. On the farther side is America. We should have to go round the south point of America, called Cape Horn, to get into the Pacific. The Pacific is full of islands, generally a number of small ones together, then a wide open space, and then more islands. A ship may sail on, though, for days together and not see land. Some of these islands are very low, only just above the water, and are made of coral, and others have high mountains in them. Some of these throw up fire and ashes, and are called volcanoes.
I was much taken with all Captain Bolton told me (for that was the gentleman’s name), and as he was not to leave Poole for two days, there was time for me to go back and see mother and brothers and sisters.
Mother and the rest cried very much when they found I was really going, but when she heard what a nice man Captain Bolton was, she cheered up a bit. One lady sent her three shirts for me, and another a pair of shoes, and Farmer Denn, who had a son who was lost overboard at sea, sent me a whole suit of the lad’s clothes. People were very kind.