Arg, mateys, what do ye expect of a poor young lad, barely fourteen and on his first voyage, just a few months away from the sheepfolds and green hills and woods of East Anglia?

When we weighed I didn't know a maintopgallant from a marlinspike or a bilge from a bight. But the Second Mate taught me, aye he did that! With the end of a tarred rope strokin' me bum I'd run the riggin', and I got to be able to outwork the best of 'em in any weather. When that Kraken attacked I had already learned the use o' the sextant, the mysteries o' gunnery, and secrets o' the Sea! 'Twas the Captain himself who said, just afore the squid took 'im, that I'd probably be the youngest ever ta be ten times 'round the Horn, and Captain each time at that!

But that's a might have been, laddies, a might have been. It was a great shame and loss that I was killed saving me ship from the squid, but it was a wonderful bit of sacrifice now, warn't it? And ta show ye all that I'm not just a drink cadjer, I'd buy a round for all if me pounds and pence hadn't been torn from me grip by the explosion that saved me ship. Aye, it's hard to fly on one wing or to tell the truth when your throat's so dry....