James Cook grocer and haberdasher William Sanderson. Historians have speculated that this is where Cook first felt the lure of the sea while gazing out of the shop window. After 18 months, not proving suitable for shop work, Cook travelled to the nearby port town of Whitby to be introduced to friends of Sanderson's, John and Henry Walker. The Walkers, who were Quakers, were prominent local ship-owners in the coal trade. Their house is now the Captain Cook Memorial Museum. Cook was taken on as a merchant navy apprentice in their small fleet of vessels, plying coal along the English coast. His
Captain of the port captain. From the early twentieth century the equivalent appointment became staff captain (dockyard), then captain of the dockyard, and finally captain of the port from 1969. In the United States, captain of the port (COTP) is a title held by a United States Coast Guard officer, usually the commander of a United States Coast Guard sector with the rank of captain (O-6). Captain of the port duties involve enforcing within their respective areas port safety and security and marine environmental protection regulations, including regulations for the protection and security of vessels, harbors, and waterfront facilities; anchorages; security zones; safety zones;