Captain Cook Memorial Museum him on as apprentice seaman for a three-year term. Cook served Walker first as apprentice, then as seaman and lastly as master’s mate until he joined the Royal Navy in 1755. He spent most of his time at sea on Walker’s colliers, mainly in the coal trade between the Tyne and London but including voyages to the Baltic and Dublin. The Whitby historian George Young, ‘Life of Cook’ 1836, stated that during Cook’s apprenticeship Walker retained Cook in Whitby on occasion and lodged him in the attic of the house in Grape Lane. There should be no difficulty in accepting
James King (Royal Navy officer) midshipman in and , King joined , Captain James Chads, on 15 March 1768 as an able seaman for service on the Newfoundland Station under Hugh Palliser, a commodore and friend and patron of James Cook, but there is no indication that Cook and King met at this time. It has been said that King served aboard in the Mediterranean under Captain John Jervis but there is no evidence of this. Having passed for lieutenant on 7 March 1769, King was promoted to this rank on 10 January 1771, serving in several ships before being placed on half pay in