[3] In the book History of the Liverpool Privateers the author wrote that Boats was a waif found in a boat and enrolled in a Blue Coat School.
It claims that he was apprenticed to the sea and rose to be a commander of a slave ship, becoming "one of the leading merchants and shipowners of Liverpool".
Continuing, it says he married Ms. Brideson and captured a Spanish ship rich in gold and treasure.
A Liverpool paper[vague] which announced his death at the age of 78, called him a "most useful member of society".
[4] Boats was the first slaver to have his ships sheathed in copper to prevent infestations of wood-boring parasites.