"Whaler Luck"

THE E D W A R D C A R Y LOGBOOK

25

Joseph E. Ray, upon his return to Nantucket, shipped out again on another whaleship, the Meteor, of Mystic, Connecticut. While working aloft, during a tempest, he fell from the foremast yard into the sea, and was lost. This promising young man was the son of Benjamin and Judith Ray, and his birthplace on Mill Street still stands. He was one of four brothers, and they all met death as young men - Charles died in California, James H. and Alfred C. were both victims of a drowning accident when the whaleboat from their ship was capsized in the surf while attempting a landing on the coast of Chile, South America, near Tombez.

A whaler from Nantucket town

He had the worst o' luck; He sailed far south around the Horn

But not a whale he struck.

Three years he cruised, north, east, and west,

From pole to torrid zone And when he laid his cruise for home,

He'd neither oil nor bone.

Yet as he sailed around Brant Point,

He set his pennant high, And when he tied up to the wharf

He lustily did cry: "We've come home clean as we went out,

And we didn't raise a whale, An' we ain't got a ber'l o' ile

But we've had a d-d fine sail."