‘To the Editor of The ColonistDear Sir As you have asked me to give you some idea of the knocking about in my boyhood days and the things I saw, then I will do my best but of course I can't give days and dates Anyway as a boy I had no use for the shores of this dear little Island home of mine. As I was quite young only about 11 years and not much taller than the pin rail, I was just dying to get to sea. Capt. Fred. G. Virtue, Pilot, Article written about 1920 to The Royal Gazette and Colonist Daily, Bermuda.'Given its unavoidable presence as the backyard of Bermuda, many young men over the decades have been much taken by the sea, but few perhaps can have equaled the enthusiasm of Fred Virtue, who at the age of 11 ‘had no use' for the life of a landlubber and was determined to go oceanic as soon as possible. Clearing his first decade in the middle of the period of the American Civil War, young Fred was no doubt captivated by the dozens of Confederate blockade-runners that were at anchor in St. George's Harbour, awaiting transshipment of cargo to be run into the Southern States. “Many times”, he wrote to a local newspaper six decades later, he attempted to ship out on one of those sleek, blockade-busting vessels, perhaps from as early as his eighth year of land residence, but received: ‘The same answers I always had to swallowMy boy, you are too young for our use'.Rejected by the officers of those ships of war, the virtuous Fred managed to get a berth at the age of 11 on the schooner Harkaway, illustrated here in a painting by Deryck Foster from the collections of Bank of Bermuda Foundation, now on display at the National Museum. In that illustration, the vessel looks of an average size, until one considers the height of the masts compared to the human figure at the base of one. It was indeed a rather large schooner, with Fred possible the smallest person on board. He told the tale of signing on the ship, and signing off with his unsuspecting mother in the following words (modern punctuation and spelling tipped in).“I was looking all the time for a ship. And it was in May 1864 when the Schooner Harkaway was reported to be fitting out for Cuba (and) wanted three men and a boy before the Mast. Thinks I to myself: if Mother will only let me go. This was another trouble. How can I get Mother to say yes for I had no excuse to make as I always had enough to eat (and was) never short of clothing? Money was plentiful at that time and a boy 11 or 12 years old if he could not make Thirty or Forty shillings a week, he was too slow.“Of course you want to know how I got on with Mother and the Schooner Harkaway. Well I arrived home, Mother was in a hurry for a message from the town: I thought now is my chance. When she told me what she wanted: “I said Mother can I go in the Harkaway to Cuba?” “Alright, my Boy make haste [and] come back.” Now Mother never thought [about] what she was saying and I knew it. Oh I was quick, made haste too, slammed the parcel down and [ran] off. I wanted to see Mr. McC[allan] and the master of the Schooner Harkaway, Captain Schultz. It was his first voyage [as] master from Bermuda. I talked business with them about my size and age. The Captain would make me feel a bit sick [worried] at times, when he'd eye me and say to the owner: “He is a bit too young.” I heard the old Gentleman say: “He is big enough to eat his hash”.'‘Capt. says to me, “Well boy what wages do you expect?”. “Six dollars and a half-month's advance [said I]”. Capt smiled and said to the Owner: “He talks salt, don't he”. “Oh yes”, says the owner with a smile, “Come and sign your name, Boy, for the Captain will fix you up when he gets you on board. Here take this $3 bill and get home quick. Fetch your Donkey [seaman's bag] and Donkey's Breakfast [mattress] down and get to work”.'‘Now come a Mother humbug, [as] I had sprung this little job on Mother kind of quick. What is Mother going to say when I tell her I am shipped [on] the Harkaway for six months? I have drawn half a month's pay in advance and [been] ordered on board, bag and baggage today. I just made up my mind if I want to be a sailor, I had to take the Bull by the horns: in the kitchen I walks and planks down my advance.“Here you are Mother and I am wanted on board Bag and Baggage, so as to go to work after dinner” I think I can see my dear Mother now: “What is this twelve shillings for?”. “That is my advance: I am shipped in the Harkaway, bound to Havana with onions and back with a cargo of sugar and the Captain is a nice man; he used to be mate on the Harvest Queen.”‘Of course she wanted to know who gave me leave to ship and a thousand other things. Then she fixes herself up and away we go down to the Wharf; she had me trotting by her side all the way. She calls for Captain S and Mr. McC the owner. Now the Captain did not feel too good about then, for he had just lost seven or eight Doubloons from his pocket overboard. The owner said, ‘Oh let him go, it will do him good'. Of course the Captain said he would take care of the Boy and fetch him back alright, if I did not get sick of him before I got to sea. I fancy the Captain, having the loss of so much money, softened Mother's heart and [she] said: “Well, Captain, my boy may go with you but be good to him”. So after dinner I was allowed to go on board and turn too. The Captain tried to make me sick of sea life, pulling and hauling, scraping and greasing, all kinds of dirty work that he could find it was no use for him to try for I done everything, just as I was ordered.'Loaded with onions and potatoes, the Harkaway was taken out of Ferry Reach to the open ocean by way of the ‘Sea Venture Channel', by the venerable Pilot Jacob Minors, setting sail for Havana. Bearing the brunt, as the youngest member of the crew, of a number of practical jokes, Fred returned to Bermuda on the Harkaway, which was loaded with sugar: ‘The morning we sighted land, I was in the scuppers cleaning myself when we sighted a gig Boat with a Pilot from Tucker's Town, John Smith, so by breakfast we were in the little harbour of St. George's', after a voyage of several weeks.Virtue continued at sea until he was 28 when he returned to Bermuda for a few years before setting off again on short voyages. He qualified as a Pilot and served at the Pilot Station for 25 years. On shore, he owned and operated the Globe Hotel (Bermuda's second Government House), and then the St. George Hotel, passing away in 1936 at the age of 84. Gone with the virtuous Captain are the days when 11 year-olds can fetch down to the dock and get away to sea, though one of his great-great-grandsons plies a maritime profession in modern times.Edward Cecil Harris, MBE, JP, PHD, FSA is Executive Director of the National Museum of Bermuda, incorporating the Bermuda Maritime Museum. Comments may be made to director[AT]bmm.bm or 704-5480.