HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN WHALE FISHERY. 55 



mate, who was in irons, and aid in recapturing tbe vessel, they would 

 endeavor to have hiiu cleared from the penalties of the law, and they 

 prudently intimated to him that there was a man-of-war within two 

 hours' sail from which they could obtain force enough to overpower his 

 associates. As a further act of prudence they told him they would set 

 a certain signal when they had secured help from the ship of war. 



The boatswain not returning according to the agreement made, one 

 sloop weighed anchor and stood toward the pirate-ship as though to 

 pass on one side of her. As she approached the mutineers shifted 

 their guns over to the side which it seemed apparent she would pass 

 and trained them so as to sink her as she sailed by. But those who 

 navigated the sloop were fully alive to these purposes, and as she neared 

 the ship her course was suddenly changed and she swept by on the other 

 side and was out of range of the guns before the buccaneers could 

 recover from their surprise and reshift and retrain their cannon. On the 

 sloop stocJd upon her course till they were out of sight of the ship, then 

 tacking, the signal agreed with the boatswain was set and she was 

 steered boldly for the corsair. As she hove in sight, the pirates, recog- 

 nizing the sign, and believing an armed force from the man-of-war was 

 on board the whaling-vessel, fled precipitately to the shore, where they 

 were speedily apprehended on their character being known. The whale- 

 men immediately boarded their prize, released the mate, and carried the 

 ship to New Providence, where a bounty of $2,500 was allowed them for 

 the capture and where the chief of the mutineers was hanged.* 



About this time Dr. Benjamin Franklin, being in Loudon, was ques- 

 tioned by the merchants there respecting the difference in time between 

 the voyages of the merchantmen to Rhode Island and the English pack- 

 ets to New York. The variation, which was something like fourteen 

 days, was a source of much annoyance to the English merchants, and 

 believing the place of destination might have something to do with it, 

 they seriously contemplated withdrawing the packets from New York 

 and dispatching them to Rhode Island. In this dilemma they consulted 

 Br. Franklin. A Nantucket captain named Folger,t who was a relative 

 of the doctor's, being then in London, Franklin sought his opinion. 

 Captain Folger told him that the merchantmen were commanded by 

 men from Rhode Island who were acquainted with the Gulf Stream and 

 the effect of its currents, and in the passage to America made use of 

 this knowledge. Of this the English captains were ignorant, not from 

 lack of repeated warnings, for they had been often told that they were 

 stemming a current which was running at the rate of three miles an 

 hour, and that if the wind was light the stream would set them back 

 faster than the breeze would send them ahead, but they were too wise 

 to be advised by simple American fishermen, and so i^ersevered in their 

 own course at a loss of from two to three weeks on every trip. By 



* Boston News-Letter. 



t Works of Franklin, iii, p. 353. Probably Capt. Timothy Folger, a man who was 

 prominent for many years in the history of Nantucket. 



