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
F. N. Cook to Australia to command the Amphibious Training Centre at "HMAS Assault" (Port Stephens). F. N. Cook Frederick Norton Cook DSC (20 February 1905 – 1 August 1985), usually known as F. N. Cook was an officer of the Royal Australian Navy. Cook came to be regarded as an expert in the deployment of landing craft, following his experience with them in both the North West European theatre and the Pacific theatre. Cook achieved the rank of Captain. Cook was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross as a result of his commanding landing craft in the Raid on Bruneval, in German-occupied France,