Mike Laycock visits an exhibition in Whitby about the perilous lives of boys at sea in Captain Cook's day.

Would you have sent your son to sea at the age of just ten or even 13? To risk shipwreck, drowning, illness, warfare and capture by pirates, not to mention the dubious joys of a bottle or two of rum?

Those are the sorts of unsettling questions posed by the new Boys At Sea exhibition at the Captain Cook Memorial Museum in Whitby.

The summer exhibition features documents, costumes, instruments and paintings which throw new light on the huge number of very young boys who went to sea in the 18th century.

It reveals, for example, that more than 1,200 boys aged between 13 and 19 were registered on the muster rolls of Whitby ships in 1747.

The National Maritime Museum has lent several paintings, not previously shown together outside Greenwich, to illustrate what life was like on the ocean and in a midshipman's berth, and also a print showing Prince William Henry serving as a somewhat cosseted midshipman in 1786.

James Cook, who of course went on to become one of the world's greatest navigators, was 17 when he went to sea, and it is fitting that the exhibition should be staged in the attic of the house in Grape Lane where Cook lodged while serving his seaman's apprenticeship.

Whitby is one of my favourite destinations for a day out, but I had never been before to the 17th-century building, which overlooks the harbour.

The museum celebrates Cook's years at Whitby and his achievements during three great voyages of discovery, with a collection that includes maps and manuscripts, artefacts from the voyages and models of the ships he sailed in.

A half-million pound extension at the museum was completed last year, with the aid of £350,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund. You can now see the original kitchen where the young Cook was befriended by the housekeeper, two feet below the modern floor level.

On emerging into bright sunshine, we decided it was time to head for the beach, and my daughter was delighted to find the attractions at low tide now included trampolining as well as traditional donkey rides, and the afternoon ended with an energetic hour on the sands.

Fact file:

Captain Cook Memorial Museum, Grape Lane, Whitby.

Open daily until October, 9.45am-5pm.

Admission: adults: £3, children £2, OAPs £2.50. Family ticket: £8.50.

Disabled access: yes.

Further information: 01947 601900, or www.cookmuseumwhitby.co.uk

Updated: 15:38 Friday, July 18, 2003