There undoubtedly was a difficulty about a shilling, and Dr. Young's
version, gathered from those who knew Cook personally and lived in
Staithes and Whitby at the time, is more probable. He says that Cook had
noticed a South Sea shilling, and being struck by the unusual design (it
was only coined in 1723), changed it for one of his own. Saunderson had
also noticed it, and when he missed it, enquired for it perhaps in
somewhat unmeasured terms, but, on the matter being explained, was fully
satisfied. Afterwards, seeing that the boy was bent upon a sea life, he
obtained the father's permission, and took young James to Whitby himself,
where he introduced him to Mr. John Walker, a member of a shipping firm
of repute, to whom he was bound apprentice (not to the firm), and with
whom he never lost touch till the end of his life. The period of
apprenticeship was, on the authority of Messrs. John and Henry Walker,
three years, and not either seven or nine as is usually stated, and the
difficulty about being apprenticed to both Saunderson and Walker is, of
course, set at rest by Mrs. Dodd's explanation.

Whitby was at the time a very important centre of the coasting trade, and
possessed several shipbuilding yards of good reputation, and it was in a
Whitby-built ship, the Freelove, that Cook made his first voyage. She was
a vessel of about 450 tons (some 80 tons larger than the celebrated Bark
Endeavour), was employed in the coal trade up and down the east coast,
and no doubt Cook picked up many a wrinkle of seamanship and many a
lesson of the value of promptitude in the time of danger which would
prove of service when he came to the days of independent command: for the
North Sea has, from time immemorial, been reckoned a grand school from
which to obtain true sailormen for the Royal Service.

As usual in those days, Cook stayed in his employer's house in the
intervals between his trips, and his time ashore was longer during the