gave himself over to the pleasures common to the seamen of his day. He returned in December 1743. Home for just a few months, he was pressed into the service of the Royal Navy in March 1744 and forced to serve aboard a man-of-war.
The philosophy of the navy at that time was to break new recruits through hunger, weariness and corporal punishment. In his personal memoirs Newton recalls the voyage as one of misery, pain and fear. In April 1745 Newton deserted, trying to reach his father at Dartmouth to appeal
