A tragic incident which illustrates the precarious nature of life on a whaling vessel.
Poor "Hyderabad."
First mate Thomas Graham and a small party of men were aboard one of the boats with a whale held fast to its side, without warning, another whale stove in their boat by biting it. The crew were consequently thrown into the water and submerged, one of them, named John Cannooard, known by the sobriquet "Hyderabad" could not swim and was drowned immediately despite the efforts
of the first mate to save him. In his attempt to save Cannooard, Graham almost drowned himself. The remainder of the crew were rescued after being in the water for about half an hour.
Floundering in the water near a bleeding dead whale would have been a frightening ordeal. The possibility of being attacked by sharks attracted by the smell was very real. Once a whale was brought alongside a vessel, crews had to work quickly to strip the valuable blubber off the carcass before sharks could do to much damage.
No further information is has been found on this incident. It was quite common for sailors to be buried at sea, or taken to the nearest land for burial as ships didn't have the facility to store a body for any length of time.
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