diff --git a/brozzler/browser.py b/brozzler/browser.py
index 4db78ed..474afd7 100644
--- a/brozzler/browser.py
+++ b/brozzler/browser.py
@@ -131,13 +131,18 @@ class Browser:
             # these can raise exceptions
             self.chrome_port = self._find_available_port()
             self._work_dir = tempfile.TemporaryDirectory()
-            self._chrome_instance = Chrome(port=self.chrome_port,
-                    executable=self.chrome_exe,
+            self._chrome_instance = Chrome(
+                    port=self.chrome_port, executable=self.chrome_exe,
                     user_home_dir=self._work_dir.name,
-                    user_data_dir=os.sep.join([self._work_dir.name, "chrome-user-data"]),
+                    user_data_dir=os.sep.join([
+                        self._work_dir.name, "chrome-user-data"]),
                     ignore_cert_errors=self.ignore_cert_errors,
                     proxy=proxy or self.proxy)
-            self._websocket_url = self._chrome_instance.start()
+            try:
+                self._websocket_url = self._chrome_instance.start()
+            except:
+                self._chrome_instance = None
+                raise
 
     def stop(self):
         try:
diff --git a/brozzler/worker.py b/brozzler/worker.py
index 74701d2..9d1b6c0 100644
--- a/brozzler/worker.py
+++ b/brozzler/worker.py
@@ -288,9 +288,8 @@ class BrozzlerWorker:
             while (not self._shutdown_requested.is_set()
                    and time.time() - start < 7 * 60):
                 self._frontier.honor_stop_request(site.job_id)
-                page = self._frontier.claim_page(site,
-                        "{}:{}".format(
-                            socket.gethostname(), browser.chrome_port))
+                page = self._frontier.claim_page(site, "%s:%s" % (
+                    socket.gethostname(), browser.chrome_port))
                 outlinks = self.brozzle_page(browser, site, page)
                 self._frontier.completed_page(site, page)
                 self._frontier.scope_and_schedule_outlinks(site, page, outlinks)
@@ -338,7 +337,11 @@ class BrozzlerWorker:
         try:
             latest_state = None
             while not self._shutdown_requested.is_set():
-                if self._service_registry and (not hasattr(self, "status_info") or (rethinkstuff.utcnow() - self.status_info["last_heartbeat"]).total_seconds() > self.HEARTBEAT_INTERVAL):
+                if self._service_registry and (
+                        not hasattr(self, "status_info")
+                        or (rethinkstuff.utcnow() -
+                            self.status_info["last_heartbeat"]).total_seconds()
+                        > self.HEARTBEAT_INTERVAL):
                     self._service_heartbeat()
 
                 try:
@@ -358,7 +361,8 @@ class BrozzlerWorker:
                         raise
                 except brozzler.browser.NoBrowsersAvailable:
                     if latest_state != "browsers-busy":
-                        self.logger.info("all %s browsers are busy", self._max_browsers)
+                        self.logger.info(
+                                "all %s browsers are busy", self._max_browsers)
                         latest_state = "browsers-busy"
                 except brozzler.NothingToClaim:
                     if latest_state != "no-unclaimed-sites":
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 8fc5085..6d8f422 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -21,7 +21,7 @@ import setuptools
 
 setuptools.setup(
         name='brozzler',
-        version='1.1.dev35',
+        version='1.1.dev36',
         description='Distributed web crawling with browsers',
         url='https://github.com/internetarchive/brozzler',
         author='Noah Levitt',