📍Captain Cook Memorial Museum, Grape Lane, Whitby YO22 4BA, UK
1746 – 1749“I was a farm labourer's son from Marton, in the North Riding of Yorkshire, and at sixteen I was sent to the fishing village of Staithes as a shop boy for a grocer and haberdasher, William Sanderson. Standing behind his counter, I watched the boats and the sea all day, and Sanderson saw where my heart was. In 1746 he introduced me to John Walker, a Quaker ship-owner in Whitby, who took me on as an apprentice. Walker's tall brick house on Grape Lane, built in 1688, stands right on the harbour, and when I was not at sea I lodged in its attic with his other apprentices, studying mathematics and navigation by candlelight after the day's work. Walker's ships were sturdy colliers — barks that carried coal from Newcastle to London — and on them I learned to handle a vessel in the treacherous North Sea. Years later, when I chose ships for my voyages around the world, I chose Whitby-built colliers like the Endeavour. I never forgot Mr Walker's kindness. His house is now the Captain Cook Memorial Museum.”
🗺️ Approximate location today
📍 Street view today