Attucks may have worked as a dockworker or a merchant seaman. He definitely became a sailor and spent most of the rest of his life at sea. He often worked on whalers, which involved long trips at sea. Many historians also believe that he went by the alias "Michael Johnson" in order to avoid being caught and sent back to slavery. He may only have been temporarily in Boston in early 1770, having recently returned from a voyage to the Bahamas. He was due to leave shortly afterwards on a ship for North Carolina.