LIFE   OP   SIR   JOHN   FRANKLIN.        297
heart burned as it never did before, to trace its boundaries and explore its mysteries.
His father, thinking his son carried away by a boyish romance, and that he had no idea of the unpoet-ical shade of a sailor's life, hoped that a little experience of its hardships and discomforts would break the charm, and cure him of his folly. Accordingly he gave John permission to make a voyage in a merchant vessel to Lisbon. But the experiment proved an unfortunate one, so far as the father's wishes were concerned, for it only served to intensify the boy's passion for a sea-faring life. Mr. Franklin, becoming convinced that it was useless to attempt any longer to change the propensity of his son, yielded to his wishes, and procured for him a position in the navy as a midshipman, at the age of fourteen. He was placed on board the Polyphemus, a ship of the line, and served in her at the battle of Copenhagen, April 2d, 1801. During the engagement, a young midshipman and comrade was shot dead standing by his side.
In the ensuing summer he was more pleasantly employed on board the Investigator, a government ship commanded by his cousin, Captain Flinders, who was commissioned to explore the coasts of Australia. After nearly two years spent in this service, which was an excellent preparatory school to qualify him for future pursuits, he with the officers and crew sailed for home in the Porpoise, a store-ship—the Investigator having been condemned as unseaworthy. But the Porpoise, shortly after leaving port, was wrecked upon a reef about two hundred miles from Australia. Here he and his companions remained fifty days, upon a small sand-bank, until relief came to them from Port Jackson.     The crew was now dis-