The long room was lined on both sides with iron bedsteads and Gus saw that some of them where wide enough to accommodate three mattresses. They were so close together that the only way to get onto them was by climbing over the foot and crawling up. Already boys were pulling off shirts and breeches and scrambling into their narrow places.

‘There’s room for you there,’ Will said, indicating a bed where one of the three mattresses was unoccupied.

‘Where are you?’ Gus asked.

‘Over here, next to the door. I had to bribe the fellow who slept there to swap, but it was worth it. It’s draughty but at least there’s a breath of fresh air.’ He gave Gus a slightly twisted grin. ‘Goodnight.’

‘’Night,’ Gus murmured. He pulled off his outer clothing and crawled into bed. The mattress smelt, but at least it was dry and there was a thin blanket to cover himself with. The other occupants of the bed were either already asleep or pretending to be, because neither of them made any attempt to acknowledge his presence. Briefly Gus thought of the dormitory at the workhouse. It had been crowded, but at least it was clean and the other boys were friendly. But he was too tired to care about that and within minutes he was asleep.

In the weeks that followed Gus experienced the extremes of euphoric excitement and total exhaustion. He was excited because everything he was learning seemed to bring him closer to his dream of going to sea; but his body was ill-prepared for the demands he was making on it. The food at the workhouse had been adequate but not designed to build muscle and there had been little opportunity for any kind of vigorous physical activity. He had played with the other boys in the yard, kicking a makeshift ball or running races, but that was a long way from the effort required to follow Captain Thomas’s orders. He fell into bed each night aching in every muscle. But slowly, as the weeks passed, he grew stronger. He was not as fast up the rope ladder as some of the older boys, but he could make it to the top without stopping, and the blisters that had developed on his hands hardened into callouses.