FISHERMAN'S LUCK 149 



doubtedly affected the saving or loss of many a whale, and good 

 harpooners and boat-steerers were obviously important. Be- 

 yond this, however, whaling was, and we may suppose it al- 

 ways will be, subject to fisherman's luck. 



There was, for instance, never an unluckier vessel than the 

 ship Franklin, George Prince, master, which sailed from Nan- 

 tucket on June 27, 1831. About the time she got to sea, a man 

 fell from aloft and was so badly injured that for two months he 

 could do no work. On November 15, 1831, another man 

 fell from the "mizzen-top-gallant-head and broke both legs." 

 On touching at Callao, they left the man with the broken legs 

 on board the Falmouth, sloop-of-war, and landed a Negro far 

 gone with consumption, who shortly died. In February, 



1833, a Sandwich Islander fell from aloft and was killed. In 

 May, 1833, when the ship touched at Callao, Captain Prince 

 shipped a Yankee, John Robson by name, who died of scurvy 

 in four months, and a boat-steerer who got caught in a whale 

 line on August 12, 1833, and was carried out of the boat and 

 drowned. The mate strained himself at Hood's Island, where 

 the ship stopped for terrapin, and died off Cape Horn on June 3, 



1834. The captain and steward both died of scurvy about 

 five days later, and four days after that, the sailor died who 

 had fallen from aloft at the beginning of the voyage. Scurvy 

 ran riot. A few days later an Irishman died of it, on June 30th 

 a Negro, and on July 3d, when the ship succeeded in anchoring 

 at the mouth of the River Plate, still another sailor died. 



The crew was so exhausted that the Franklin had to call for 

 help, and the crew of a French ship, coming on board, helped 

 furl the sails, and later helped take the ship up to Montevideo, 

 where she lay until August 12th. With a new mate and a 

 new crew she put to sea, but ran into rough weather and early 

 in September was wrecked on a reef on the coast of Brazil. 

 No lives were lost in the wreck, and the crew saved about a 

 third of the cargo; but the luckless Franklin, after her three 

 laborious, tragic years at sea, went to pieces on Diego Roderi- 

 guez. 



Then, on the other hand, some fellows have all the luck. A 



