The man, thinking him an ordinary laborer, called out from his horse:
"Say, good fellow, can you tell if the Honorable Samuel Tucker lives here or hereabouts?"
The workman looked up with a quizzical glance from under the brim of his tarpaulin and replied:
"Honorable, honorable! There's none of that name in Marblehead. He must be one of the Salem Tuckers. I'm the only Samuel Tucker in this town."
"Anyhow, this is where I was told to stop. A house standing alone, with its gable-end to the sea. This is the only place I've seen that looks like that."
"Then I must be the Tucker you want, honorable or not. What is it you have got to say to him?"
He soon learned, and was glad to receive the news. Early the next morning he had left home for the port where the Franklin lay, and not many days passed before he was out at sea.
The Franklin, under his command proved one of the most active ships afloat. She sent in prizes in numbers. More than thirty were taken in 1776—ships, brigs, and smaller vessels, including "a brigantine from Scotland worth fifteen thousand pounds."
These were not all captured without fighting. Two British brigs were taken so near Marblehead that the captain's wife and sister, hearing the sound of cannon, went up on a high hill close by and saw the fight through a spy-glass.
The next year Captain Tucker was put in command of the frigate Boston, and in 1778 he took John Adams to France as envoy from the United States.