"Of course, it is only a stroke of bad fortune, and we could neither fly nor defend ourselves.
Still one hates arriving home with the story that one has lost the ship." "Yes," the captain agreed.

"Messer Polani is a just man, yet no one cares to employ men who are unlucky; and the worst of it is that the last ship I commanded was wrecked.

Many men would not have employed me again, although it wasn't my fault.

But after this second affair, in a few months' time, I shall get the name of being an unlucky man, and no one in his senses would employ a man who is always losing his ships." "Do you think that there is any chance of our recapturing it, captain ?" "Not the least in the world," the captain replied.

"Even supposing that we could get on board, and overpower the Genoese without being heard, and get her out of the port without being seen, we should not get away.
Laden as she is with grain, she will sail very slowly, and the Genoese would overtake her in a few hours; and I needn't tell you that then there would be very little mercy shown to any on board." "That is true enough," Francis said.