[1] In 1878 Armitage enlisted as a cadet aboard the Royal Navy's training ship, HMS Worcester, which was moored at the time in the River Thames near Greenhithe.

At the conclusion of basic training he attempted to resign from the Navy and seek a position with the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company (P&O), but was prevented from doing so by his father.

Instead, Armitage was signed on as an apprentice aboard the former Indian Navy frigate Punjaub, now owned by the East India Company.

The other members were Ernest Shackleton, George Mulock, Edward Adrian Wilson, Charles Royds, Frank Wild, Koettlitz, Skelton, Heald, Barne, Plumley, Quartley, Weller, Hare, Allen, Evans, Ferrar, Hodgson, Louis Bernacchi, Vince.

However, he later fell out with Scott and claimed that he and Markham failed to honour a number of promises they had made and on his return to Britain Armitage was paid off by the expedition and it took him nearly nine months to find an appointment with P & O.

This was the story of his life until retirement, carrying passengers and mails on "little ferry boats" across the Mediterranean and later, in command of the "Salsette" between Bombay and Aden, living for many years away from England with his family in Brindisi and Malta.