Evidently he did not like his work as shop apprentice, and longed to become a sailor, with the result that he was transferred as an apprentice to the employment of a coal merchant who owned or employed sailing ships to carry coals to and from Whitby. Earlier accounts of Cook's boyhood assert that he ran away to sea from the grocer-haberdasher's shop, stealing a shilling from the till as something to sustain his enterprise. There certainly was trouble about a shilling in his relations with the general-storekeeper, but it seems to have been that he saw--prophetically enough--a new South Sea shilling[68] in the till, and, fascinated with its appearance, changed it for an ordinary shilling of his own. The new bright shilling was found in his box, but his explanations apparently convinced his employer of his innocence. However, by some friendly arrangement he seems to have been relieved of his apprenticeship to the general-store dealer of Staithes, and was transferred to the employment of a Mr. John Walker, whom he served as apprentice on his ships for about three years. In between his voyages he lived at Mr. Walker's house, where he was treated very kindly and where the housekeeper gave him a table and candles in a quiet corner so that he might read and study in peace. From apprentice he became an able seaman, and at last, in the year 1752 (always working hard to acquire the science of navigation and to educate himself in every way), he became mate of a collier vessel. He was now twenty-four years of age. Three years afterwards--in 1755--Cook, as mate of the collier _Friendship_, found himself in the Thames on the eve of the outbreak of war between Britain and France, and determined to join the Royal Navy, which he did first as an able seaman; but, his qualities being soon discovered, he was not long afterwards rated as master's mate on board H.M.S. _Eagle_. Between 1755 and 1762 he was employed mainly in American waters, and distinguished himself there, not only by his gallantry in action and his many hairbreadth escapes, but by his careful surveying work round the coasts of Newfoundland.