That's a good point Jim. The young, more so from the poorer class, were exposed at earlier ages on the need to do something to survive. That's for the most part, why we read of children working in the factory setting in almost any industrialized nation. England had a large share of child labor issues. We are not alone it that. The maritime interest quite possibly was one of the really interesting outs for a kid needing to get a paycheck but young enough to be drawn into the adventure part. I've seen a couple of cases just in my family tree searches where the individual soldier is listed as 18 when they join up only to find later on a birth record or a death record that shows they would have to have been much younger. My own Granddaddy left the hills of Georgia to join the Navy a couple of days after he turned 15. He was tall, and smart, so they believed him on the age thing. It wasn't easy to check those facts back then or they didn't put a lot of effort into it. The movie Master and Commander, shows a good example of the young serving on a ship and all of the work and worry that entailed.

Pam