About this story
He is ill, one son already lost to a soldier's danger, and he offers the middle station instead: a trade, a household, neighbours who know your name. If you go against him, he says, sorrow will overtake you without assistance. You play Robinson, who will not promise to stay. Weeks later a friend offers a free berth out of Hull, and the last wagon leaves tonight, while the house is quiet.
Who you’ll meet
The shipowner's son with a free berth and no doubts, holding his hand out from the step of the last wagon to Hull, while the ill father who forbade it raises a lamp in the window above the gate — the friend who talks you into the voyage and the man you are leaving.
How it opens
Crusoe's FatherEven York receives sea wind in wool and wagon canvas.
Yet every merchant's tale turned your thoughts toward Hull and its crowded masts.
Crusoe's FatherShut the chamber door, Robin. We must settle this hunger for voyages.
Illness kept your father in his chair, though it had not weakened his attention.
Crusoe's FatherYou will find no maps here to assist this illness.
Choose
I only wish to see one foreign coast.
A merchant can prosper by traveling.
I cannot promise to abandon the sea.