FALCONER, William, an ingenious Scots sailor, who, about the year 1762, came up to London with a pretty pathetic poem, called the Shipwreck, founded on a disaster of his own experience. The publication of this piece recommended him to the late duke of York; and he would in all probability have been suitably preferred, if a second shipwreck, as may be supposed, had not proved fatal to him, and to many gentlemen of rank and fortune with whom he sailed. In 1770, he went out a volunteer in the Aurora frigate, sent to carry Messrs Vanfittart, Seraison, and Ford, the supervisors appointed to regulate our East India settlements; which vessel, after it had touched at the Cape of Good Hope, was never more heard of. Before his departure, he published a very useful Marine Dictionary, in one volume 4to.