Here' a passage from his book about going with his father to join the Navy

I left the old home in Jersey the following week, amid the tears of my mother and sisters, and the smiles of the governess and maids who evidently much appreciated the departure of that terror and torment ‘Master Dick’, bound for London with my father, as he had to meet his old military friend and secure for me my uniform, sword and outfit.
The trip across the Channel was to me a particularly rough one, so I did not appreciate my first baptism in salt water. My heart was very sore, and my buoyant spirits for once depressed. Fortunately my father fell in with another old friend of his, a Naval Captain, who gave him the tip how we were to proceed, for, Dad being an army man knew very little of the sister service.
A week was sufficient for my stay in London, and we went to Sheerness via Chatham by train and steamer, in due course we found ourselves on board H.M. Ship Minotaur (hulk), a line-of-battle ship which acted as wet-nurse for my future home, the old Howe whilst the latter was in the throes of ‘refitting’.