Sea Adventure: The boy captain (colour litho)

The boy captain. The manhood that the old sail training system produced in lads still in their teens was shown by Apprentice William Shotton of the Trafalgar in 1893. The captain died of Java fever and was buried in the East Indies, but the infection was on board and when the Trafalgar sailed it broke out, until both officers and half the crew were dying or helplessly ill. Shotton, himself stricken, was senior apprentice at the age of 18; with a handful of men wearied to mutiny he sailed her all the way to Melbourne, to the admiration of the whole world. Illustration for one of a set of 50 cigarette cards on the subject of Sea Adventure, issued by Hignett Brothers in 1939.