ABSTRACT
Only a few months after he joined the Royal Institution as Humphry Davy’s ‘chemical assistant’, young Michael Faraday was presented with a wonderful and unlooked for opportunity that was to add immeasurably to his education and bring him into contact with some of the foremost scientists in Europe. Young Michael’s first sea voyage gave him the opportunity to observe the phosphorescence of the waves at night and to try out his resistance to sea sickness on the rough sea: Monday 18th. While the travel and customs arrangements were being made at Morlaix, Michael absorbed impressions of his first French town: what he saw did not please him, though he was inclined to give the benefit of the doubt to French cooking: Thursday 21st. With the trip nearing its end, two letters to his family give touching glimpses of Michael’s feelings, first for his younger sister Margaret, and finally, for his mother.
