 As a boy, he went to sea as a volunteer in the frigate in 1808 and took part in the destruction of batteries on the Spanish coast.In the following year, he was involved in combat in the Bay of Biscay, until he was captured by the French.Back remained a prisoner at Verdun until the peace of early 1814; during this time he studied French and mathematics and practised his skills as an artist, which he later put to use in recording his travels through the Canadian Arctic.