I was a younger son, with very little income.

There were then two lives between me and the estate, and the old Duke, my father, treated me like a servant.

I always loved the sea, and at fourteen--to get me out of his sight, I think largely--was apprenticed to the navy, but lost my grade in the service by a mere boyish prank.
His influence then would have saved me, but he refused to even read my letter of explanation.

I dare not return home in such disgrace, and consequently drifted into the merchant service.

It is a story quickly told." "Yet not so quickly lived." "No, it meant many hard years, on all the oceans of the world.