FOUR YEARSABOARD THEWHALESHIP.CHAPTER I.
FOUR YEARSABOARD THEWHALESHIP.
In June, 1855, having decided upon embarking on a whaling voyage, I took the steamboat from Philadelphia to Tacony, thence by railway to New York, where, after a delay of a few hours, I boarded the steamer Metropolis, and after a fine run of twelve hours, landed in Fall River; there I entered the cars, and at five o’clock of the morning of June 20, I took up my quarters in the city of New Bedford.
I immediately instituted inquiries as to the preliminaries attendant on the preparation for such a voyage. I soon acquired this information, and was consigned to the tender mercies of one of that class known by seafaring men as Land-sharks, a description of whom I shall attempt hereafter.
This person treated me with much urbanity, desiring me to leave my hotel to reside at a hoarding-house of his selection, stating to me at the same time that numbers of whalemen, outward and homeward bound, were located there. My suspicions were slightlyaroused regarding the accommodations of this boarding-house, by the earnestness with which he urged my locating in it; but no other inducement was requisite for me to coincide with his wishes than the one he last named; I being desirous, before going afloat, to mingle and converse with the initiated, to learn, if possible, something concerning the profession in which I was about to embark. So, without more ado, I proceeded to this domicile, which was located on South Water Street. It was kept by a widow lady, who, for the moderate sum of four dollars per week, for each, furnished just such edibles as you do not get at the Girard, in Philadelphia, or the Metropolitan, in New York. The meat was, in nine cases out of ten, salted; she wishing, in the abundance of her forethought, to render the salt junk, which she knew would form the principal article of our diet when at sea, agreeable to our palates; or, on the other hand, desiring to give us a predisposition to scurvy ere yet we were aboard ship. These motives were variously assigned by we tyros as the cause for the over-proportion of the saline in our food; as for those who had been at sea before, they appeared to relish the old lady’s corned pork and beef, and if we made any remark to them in reference to its profusion, they would answer us pertinently, “You will eat worse grub than that, old fellow, before you have done with whaling;” and these prophetic words ofttimes recurred to my memory months, ay, years, afterward. Do not think, kind reader, that I was rendered fastidious by former indulgence; far from it. I had made up my mind to a change of diet, but not to so great a one; for in thefour weeks that I remained in this house, we never had but one meal of fresh meat—it was fried beefsteak; and even that the cook and a supernumerary, who had been engaged to assist him, with the aid of a jug of New England rum, managed to burn to a cinder, so that we were compelled to resort to our old provender.
As soon as my companion and myself had become members of this household, we, with our assiduous friend the Shark, proceeded to the agent’s, with whom he wished us to engage, and after being approved by the Captain, and having made inquiries as to the character of the vessel and her commander, we enrolled our names upon the articles of the Barque Pacific, of New Bedford, Captain John W. Sherman, bound to the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans, to cruise for sperm and right whales. The vessel was of three hundred and eighty tons burthen, capable of carrying three thousand barrels of oil, and fitted out for forty months; she was then undergoing thorough repairs, having but two months previously returned from a voyage of thirty months’ duration, in which she had been very successful; and this, with several previous very remunerative voyages, had given her the name of a lucky ship, which insured her a good crew; seamen, as a class, being superstitious, are always eager to sail in a ship with which some favorable omen is, or has been, connected, auguring from such data her subsequent success.
As she would not be ready for sea for about three weeks after I had joined her, I had plenty of leisure time to look around me. The principal objects in my eyes were, of course, thewharves and shipping; and, indeed, the scene there presented was one of interest to any observer; bustle and activity was everywhere apparent; ships loading, discharging, repairing, &c., in every direction. Here one might be seen hove on her beam-ends, receiving a new copper jacket; another totally dismantled, preparatory to receiving new spars; on another the riggers were aloft at work, with their merry song; below, still another might be seen weather-beaten and shabby, her copper covered with moss and barnacles, she having returned but a few hours before from a long voyage, and the casks being hoisted from her hold contain part of her cargo of oil, gleaned, during her four years of cruising, from the monsters of the Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, Arctic, and Antarctic Oceans. Alongside this weatherworn ship, and in strong contrast with her whole appearance, lies a smart, trim-looking vessel, such a one as makes Jack Tar’s heart bound to look at; her hull is perfect in model, her spars all rake jauntily aft, her yards are squared by the lifts and braces, whilst the fresh appearance of her paint gives her a coquettish look and bespeaks her ready for sea. They are now putting aboard of her the remnant of her provisions not yet stowed; and as we pass up the gangway we come in contact with a sailor’s chest being conveyed aboard under the Argus eyes of its hardy owner, who forms one of her crew.
On the wharves hundreds of coopers are employed coopering oil casks. Their continual strokes of hammer upon driver, united with the heavy rolling of the oil trucks, creating a Babel-like confusion from which a stranger is glad to escape.
Whichever way we cast an eye we see oil casks or whalebone, harpoons or lances, or some one or other of the various et ceteras belonging to the whaleman’s pursuit; in fact, the yield of the whale supports New Bedford, and is the nucleus around which clusters all the manufactures of the city; and its vitality as a community must ever depend upon the number of vessels it sends out in pursuit of the whale. After gazing again and again at these objects, to me so interesting, I diverted myself by walking through the town, with no other object but to kill time—hours seeming days, and days months, that intervened between this time and the day fixed for our departure; in fact, I had become so infatuated with the idea of going to sea, that I viewed everything through a glass whose tint was blue—blue water always dancing and rippling before my mind’s eye. In my perambulations through this city of whalemen I found that it was laid out with something like care—the streets, like those of Philadelphia, at right angles; many of the houses neat and well built, and, with the exception of a part of one street near the river, wear a quiet and respectable aspect. One street is an exception to the rule, it being occupied by houses of ill-fame, where many a dollar, earned by exposure to the storm on a long voyage, has been filched from the hardy mariner by the harpies who occupy its tenements; and after what I had always read and heard of the puritanical exactness of our New England brethren, I confess that I was astonished that such a sink was permitted by the citizens of the Bay State to remain in existence for the unsophisticated seaman to be entrapped by. A liquor law had beenpassed by the legislature of the State of Massachusetts, and whilst I was in New Bedford was professedly in operation—but only professedly, as numbers of houses existed wherein liquor was sold, which, from their public location, must have been known to the authorities.
At my boarding-house, arrivals were continually occurring of young men, from various parts of the Union, to embark on board whale-ships. I viewed with regret the extreme youth of many of them. There is a systematized mode of procedure carried on in our larger Atlantic and Lake cities, for the purpose of recruiting this service. Shipping agents engage young men, taking advantage of their inexperience or necessities, paint whaling and its appurtenances in vivid colors, induce them to sign their names, and then convey them to New Bedford; and when they come to review their outfit bills, they will find a charge of from ten to fourteen dollars for the agent’s services. Among the arrivals at our house was one from Western Pennsylvania, who talked sailor, walked sailor, and dressed sailor, rolling when he walked so as almost to take in a pocketful of sand on each side, and wore an immense kedge anchor on his neckerchief; he was looked at by the inexperienced as a prodigy, but by old sailors with a contemptuous expression, always accompanied by the remark, “Too much salt water there.” This individual was afterward the most miserable poltroon in our ship, and despite his vauntings of personal qualifications as a seaman, lashed himself with a yard arm gasket to the main topgallant rigging whilst engaged in furling the main topgallant sail. Suchis generally the case—men who talk loudly of their ability ashore are apt to be inefficient at sea.
And now, after remaining until wearied out, our ship is ready to sail to-morrow. As is customary on the day before sailing, each man proceeds to his outfitter and procures his clothing; the owners usually allow to the foremast hands an advance of seventy-five dollars, for which the foremast hand gives the outfitter an order, and receives his clothing. The Shark, or outfitter, charges double the price of good, for worthless articles, which must be taken at his prices, as there is no redress. By the time the foremast hands’ board-bill and pocket-money are deducted from his advance, the wardrobe he is able to procure is slender and insufficient, so that in the course of a few months he will be compelled to resort to the slop-chest, where, if the ship has been successful, he will be eagerly welcomed—the more so, as the Captain is often interested in the profits of the slop-chest; if unsuccessful, and he has a liberal Captain, his necessities will be supplied; if, on the other hand, he should be parsimonious, scowling looks will be all the relief he gets, and he will be forced to beg from his shipmates, who will not allow him to suffer, although the prudent are cautious, as in a three years’ voyage every man must be careful of his effects, as they constitute his capital.
Having procured our outfits about three o’clock in the afternoon of Monday, July 23d, we went aboard, desiring to pass one night on the vessel before she sailed. Soon after we hauled out into the stream, and were towed by a steamboat down to Clarke’s Point, where we let go our larboard anchor. Duringthe afternoon others of the crew arrived, amongst them a fine-looking old tar who knew the ropes, and had a three gallon jug of New England rum stowed away in his chest, which, as soon as carried into the forecastle, he produced and passed around time after time, until all those who would imbibe were more than half seas over, making night hideous with their discordant clang. At noon the next day the Captain and others came aboard in the pilot boat. The sails were loosed, windlass manned, anchor hove up to the inspiriting chant. We are bound to the Western Ocean, and soon the old Pacific was aweigh and off to sea again, leaving the land of her flag far in the distance.
All was bustle and confusion aboard the ship, we having no less than fourteen green hands, and the few foremast hands who had before followed the sea were so overcome by the ardent that they were useless; so that the officers were obliged in almost every case to execute their own orders. We were blessed with a head wind, and were obliged to beat out of the bay, and, with the consequent hurry and excitement attendant on tacking ship, little leisure was left to us for reflection; but as the sun sank low in the horizon, and the blue hills of the land of my birth, and love, and veneration—the home of me and mine—were gradually becoming more and more indistinct—as I looked around me on the expanse of water, extending on every side, I felt alone; and then, and not till then, did I feel the momentous character of what I had undertaken; then I bethought me of the thousand little comforts of home, the many kindnesses I had received from relatives andfriends, and I leaned my head on the bulwarks, and felt as if I knew what desolation and heart-sickness were for the first time. This state of affairs could not last long, so I rallied and attempted to look brave and careless; but the effort was vain, for if any person had taken the trouble to look at my lugubrious countenance, they could have seen, that under an attempted careless exterior I carried an aching breast; but all hands were too fully occupied by their personal feelings to notice me, and so it passed unremarked.
Towards evening, that most annoying and distressing of all petty maladies—viz., sea-sickness, made its appearance amongst our green hands; having experienced it before, I escaped with but little annoyance; not so with some other poor fellows, and amongst those I noticed the person I mentioned before, who claimed so intimate an acquaintance with the sea, utterly prostrated; a few hours previous he was the blithest of the party, and was singing with great zest—
“A life on the ocean wave,And a home on the rolling deep.”
but now, alas! he was tuneless, and almost breathless; but I imagined that had he been able to sing, the burden of his lay would have been—
“The sea, the sea, the horrid sea.”
This individual, from a circumstance which I have before alluded to, had received the appellation of Kedge Anchor, or Cage Anchor, or it was sometimes abbreviated to Cage; and as he will figure repeatedlyas I proceed, I may as well at the outset give him the cognomen by which he was known during his stay aboard with us. His sickness, and ludicrous exclamations of “I wish I was on the steam-wagon again” (he had formerly been brakeman on the New York and Erie Railroad), and pathetic entreaties to be allowed to die in peace, when desired to do anything, excited the mirth of all, no sympathy being tendered to him except in one instance, when one of the seamen offered him a pint of salt water, assuring him it was a cordial; a mouthful was sufficient to undeceive him, he spat out the nauseating draught, and the queer expression he wore on his phiz, and no less queer entreaty to take the darned thing away, were so humorous as to shock his auditors into merriment, and secured him against farther molestation.
The reason that so many green hands are shipped in vessels engaged in this trade, is, that they are to be engaged for a trifling proportion of the vessel’s earnings, and the great difficulty of procuring those who have before been to sea, to go before the mast a second time; no man whomsoever, if he can make any pretensions to mediocrity, being obliged a second time to go before the mast; he is always qualified for the post of boat-steerer, and can attain it without any trouble; and those who are not disgusted with their first voyage and have a particle of energy or ambition in their composition, invariably do so; and from boatsteerer gradually ascend to be captains. Whaling is, in fact, a progressive service, and although the probation comprises the best part of a man’s life, yet the pinnacle of their fame is anhonorable one; and as the boys who are educated in New Bedford are brought up with the idea that to be a whaling skipper is thene plus ultraof all stations in life, so they consider it as the acme of all their ambitious hopes.
At dusk the captain called the ship’s company aft, and addressed them to the effect, that we were all together bound on a long voyage, in all probability to last for years, and he considered it as necessary that we should at the outset fully understand each other. He then went on to say that all hands should receive a sufficient supply of such provision as was in the ship, so long as it was not wasted. He stated that none of the crew forward should be misused or imposed upon by the officers. He then told us, that if there were any rascals in the crew he should detect them; and concluded by stating that as long as we used him well, he should return the compliment, and vice versa. This was plane sailing, and all understood him. Immediately afterward the watches, chosen from the boatsteerers and crew by the chief mate and second mate, were set; the chief mate had the first choice; the second mate, who heads the captain’s watch, succeeded him: at the same time the boats’ crews were chosen by the officers, as before, the chief mate having the first choice, and so in succession according to rank, until the fourth mate had chosen. In many ships that carry four boats the captain heads his own; but most, like us, have a fourth mate, who supplies his place. But to return to setting the watches, which took place at seven o’clock, P.M.; the starboard, or captain’s watch, headed by the second, assisted bythe fourth mate, comprising half the foremast hands and two boatsteerers, had the first turn in. On being ushered into the steerage or forecastle, those who had been in the habit of having soft beds and comfortable bedding provided for them by the hands of affectionate mothers, although somewhat prepared for a difference, were surprised at their sleeping accommodations—rude boxes, or rather berths, built to the sides of the ship, about five feet long, and two and a half in width, furnished with a pair of blankets, a quilt, and a bed, which, according to the amount of attention paid to the outfit of the occupant, varied from a hair mattress in one case, to the common corn husk or straw tick. However, this was no time to soliloquize over past comforts, so all bundled in without ceremony; and in a short time, from the unusual exercise of the day, to judge from the nasal organism floating through the air, profound slumber reigned throughout the between-decks of the ship. And now, that one half the ship’s company are enclosed in the embraces of Morpheus, we will glance round and take a peep at our vessel and crew. The vessel, as I before mentioned, is an old fashioned barque, built to ply as a packet between New York and Liverpool, which duty she performed with faithfulness and satisfaction to her owners; and in her palmiest days bore the reputation of being the fastest ship out of New York; but the improvements in ship-building necessitated her owners to dispose of an old and faithful servant, and replace her with a modern modelled craft—safer could not be. She was bought by a New Bedford merchant, who, after altering her for the purpose, put her into the whaling trade, wherefor years she maintained her reputation as a swift sailer, until clippers were introduced to compete with her, when, of course, she was obliged to succumb. From this port she made many successful voyages, enriching her owners and increasing her good name, until 1855, at which time she was fifty-three years old, and with the exception of being new topped and coppered, the latter at the completion of each voyage, she had undergone no repairs. Her great age attests to her staunchness and seaworthiness, and by all who had sailed in her the greatest confidence was ever expressed.
On board of her was every article for the maintenance of men whose principal resources for forty months lay in her cargo. There was, in the iron implement line, everything that is used at sea, from a needle to an anchor; clothing of all kinds and sizes; provisions, muskets, ammunition; tawdry articles to trade with the semi-civilized natives of the East India and Madagascar Isles; tin ware, soap, shoes, tobacco, and saddles for the inhabitants of Australia; also sails, rigging, spare boats, and all other necessaries to equip and enable her to sustain herself for three years. Whalers, unless some serious accident befalls, do not usually enter ports where their necessities can be supplied at other than exorbitant prices, except the last one, where they always calculate to dispose of surplus provisions, boats, and rigging: being in a hurry to get home, they make some port of note so as to be detained as short a time as possible in getting rid of them. The reason for touching at obscure places, is the great danger of losing men by desertion, which always occurs in commercial ports.
Besides all these she carried outboard four boats pendant from davits, resting on cranes; one on the starboard quarter, which gives it its name; one on the port quarter, called the larboard boat, is the chief mate’s; directly forward of it, on the larboard side, are the waist and bow boats—the former headed by the second, the latter by the third mate; the starboard boat is headed by the Captain or fourth mate, as the case may be. Each boat has a crew of four men, beside the boatsteerer and officer, and carries two tubs of line, harpoons, lances, boat spade, hatchet, knives, keg with water, keg containing lantern, matches, candles, tobacco, pipes, bread, and a drug. Having now pretty closely analyzed our vessel and her cargo, we will glance over the inmates. The Captain, a large, powerful man, with a face apparently expressive of frankness and good nature. The chief mate, J. B. H., a young man of twenty-six, rather below the medium height, with an eye like a hawk, quick to think and quick to act—a first-rate officer. D. E., the second mate, a corpulent man, below the average height, with an excellent mind and noble heart. The third mate, J. D., formerly boatsteerer in this ship on her preceding voyage, and the fourth mate, C. A., both powerful, hearty fellows, energetic and pushing, putting their shoulders to the wheel on all occasions where strong hands and brave hearts are wanted; these, with the steward, inhabited the cabin or after part of the between decks of the ship. All were Massachusetts men; none of them had ever learned trades, or been employed in business ashore, but had pursued their perilous profession from boyhood up, in every oceanand in every clime, from the frozen north to the frozen south, and, hitherto, had always been successful.
The boatsteerers were four in number, two of whom had before steered boats and made voyages in that position; the remaining two had each sailed one voyage before the mast—one of them in this same good old barque, to the frozen realms of the Ice king, in the Arctic Ocean, whence the vessel returned, in the course of thirty months, with four thousand five hundred barrels of oil; these four, with the cooper, occupied the steerage, an apartment directly forward of the cabin.
The foremast hands, eighteen in number, of whom but four had ever been to sea before, were a youthful, reckless, merry set, from all over the Union. We had but two foreigners, Germans, in the ship—the cook, and one of the crew. Many of the youngsters were New Bedford boys, performing this voyage as apprentices. With the exception of the Captain and old Jack Miller, as hardy an old tar as ever stepped a ratline, and who could spin a yarn to order that would put Baron Munchausen to the blush, there was not a married man, or one who was over twenty-six years of age aboard the ship. To attempt, with the exception of the Massachusetts men, to assign a reason for any of our shipmates’ choosing whaling as a profession, would be mere conjecture. Any one could see at a glance they were neither poverty-stricken nor indolent; but on examining their features, a roving unsettled expression might be detected by a close observer, on the lineaments of each—a certain love of change, so all-absorbing with most youngmen; nor were they on the whole ignorant, as I found by conversation—all being thoroughly conversant with the leading topics of the day, and each, like every true American, had his individual opinion of the merits of newspaper notorieties, politics, and other matters that engross the American mind; but we left them fast asleep, and as I, in the interim, have spun a long yarn, it is time to conclude, as the helmsman sings out “Eight bells.” A hoarse call is now heard at the forecastle of “Starbowlines, ahoy!” and as the breeze has freshened and the vessel is gently pitching, we will step into the forecastle and criticise the appearance of our green hands. Part of them are out of their bunks indulging in the most lachrymose expressions, scarce able to dress, for fear the vessel’s motion will destroy their equilibrium—and “I wish I was at home,” is the general cry; some cannot muster resolution enough to get out of their berths, others have thus far succeeded, but only to resume a recumbent position on their chests, whilst a few with set teeth and praiseworthy resolution, manage to get upon deck, and grasp the rigging on the fife rail enclosing the foremast; there they stand, incapable of altering their position, hanging on with a pertinacity worthy of a better cause, staring in stupid vacancy at all around them, and when receiving an officer’s order, acknowledging it by a sickly, unmeaning grin, to express their willingness, but inability to perform. Officers are required to exercise the utmost patience and forbearance in the management of such a crew; instead of an active, able ship’s company, such as they have been accustomed to sail with, here they have an assortment ofmen, ignorant of a single rope in the ship, who are just as much acquainted with the rigging as with Greek and Hebrew, knowing as much about the cook’s leg as the cook’s nose, and more about the boy than the buoy, and as like as not when ordered to heave the buoy overboard to heave the boy. I have seen many laughable mistakes occur amongst our boys when first out; do not think I take a sailor’s privilege and draw a long bow, as I am at the same time included with these worthies—I being, at the time of leaving home, as verdant as any of the rest. I have seen them when ordered to haul down the flying jib, grasp the spanker halyards, and spend any quantity of pulling and hauling upon it, wondering at the same time why the darned thing did not come down; their only mistake in this case was hoisting the aftermost sail in the ship instead of lowering the foremost. With our officers, as a general thing, these errors passed off good humoredly; but, as I said before, they were required to use all their forbearance to repress their anger at our lubberly mistakes; nor would it have been surprising, all things taken into consideration, had they let out at us occasionally, and I doubt much if Job, who, by the Book of books, is spoken of as the most patient man of antiquity, were he afloat with a green crew, who misunderstood all he said to them, and who in the multiplicity of their ideas would attempt to haul up the mainsail with the spanker vang, or clew down a topsail with the slab line—I say, I doubt whether even he, the said Job, would not find his stock of patience, noted as he was for that virtue, oozing out at his fingers ends, and be tempted to anathematizetheir lubberly eyes in a heartfelt and seamanlike manner. In a short time, however, things began to wear a totally different aspect; improvement was the order of the day—each tried to excel the other. This spirit of emulation was productive of the most beneficial results to everybody, and in a short time we had an efficient crew, perfectly competent to battle with the combined forces of Boreas and Neptune.
When three days out, we spoke the ship Monmouth, of Bath; she was a fine-looking ship, running free, with the wind on her quarter, and everything alow and aloft drawing, presenting a beautiful sight.
On the fourth day out, whilst crossing the Gulf Stream, we were struck by a squall, prevalent in that latitude. All hands were called, and as this was our first trip aloft, we ascended the rigging with fear and trembling—holding on to the shrouds as if it was our intention to squeeze all the tar out of the rigging. When on the yards we were of little use, carrying out the landlubbers’ motto to the letter, of both hands for yourself and the rest for the owners. We all hung on like good fellows, and if it had depended upon us to reef the sail it would not have been done till now.
The first Sunday intervening after our departure from home, proved a bright, beautiful day, the sun rising in gorgeous splendor. After breakfast the chief mate went throughout the crew, and gave to all who were not already provided, a Bible or Testament, also tracts and religious papers. These books, I believe, were supplied by a Tract Society, in New Bedford, who customarily place the word of God aboard every ship that leaves the harbor. The bookswere all received with thankfulness; and I will here take occasion to state that I never heard a sailor speak irreverently of the Bible. Men aboard ship I have heard do so, but only in three instances, and in those cases they were neither sailors nor landsmen—incapable of filling a respectable position on either element; therefore their opinions were of little weight.
Directly after we got outside, the peculiarity of the great Yankee nation began to manifest itself, and divers trades and speculations were set afloat; the ship’s company having been transformed into an Israelite assemblage worthy of South Street, Philadelphia, or Chatham Street, New York, bartering for and exchanging old and new clothes. Money is not a medium aboard a whale-ship, and the possessor of it usually stows it away in the corner of his chest as so much dross, of no value to him. Tobacco takes its place and is the currency; an article being valued, not at so many dollars, but at so many pounds and plugs of tobacco—thus substituting a vegetable for a metallic currency; and as most men coming to sea, whether they use the weed or not, provide themselves with a considerable quantity of it, some of the old hands accumulated quite a stock; several of them numbering their acquisitions by the hundred pounds. As they did not assign a motive for hoarding it, I wondered at the propensity, but was not enlightened until we made an Australian port, where, on account of the inferior article imported, and the high duty, making the price per pound treble of the best tobacco in the States, theirs,by smuggling it ashore, was readily disposable at a good return.
Gambling, too, soon developed itself, and after a hard day’s work, or when the gale was piping through the ringing, and the waves surging and hissing in ocean’s cauldron, rendering the vessel’s motion unsteady, so that the participators in the game could scarce retain their seats, I have seen a half-dozen seated around a chest (or, in sailor’s parlance, donkey), a pile of tobacco in the centre, shuffling a pack of dirty, greasy cards, playing bluff or all-fours, and watching the game as if their very existence depended on the winning or losing a few pounds of tobacco. By this operation the green hands were the losers, of course; those who had been to sea before working together, and always making the game profitable to themselves; therefore, those who had not strength of mind to refrain, were soon stripped of all their tobacco; and I remember, one evening, seeing a man, after losing all his stock, pull his shirt off his back and sell it for tobacco to continue the game. This being speedily dissipated, his under-shirt was disposed of in the same way. We, who did not take part in the game, stood it as long as we could, as the usual attendants to a game of chance, high words and quarrelling were rife; we finally began to complain, when the captain, to avoid disturbance, offered a pound of tobacco for every pack of cards that should be brought to him. This had the desired effect, and we had the satisfaction of seeing the cards hove overboard and lightly floating astern. We congratulated ourselves on this amelioration of discomfort; but an inventive genius from New Jersey, becoming,as he said, oppressed with ennui, manufactured a set of dominoes from a sperm whale’s jaw; another contrived dice; whilst a third made a checker-board; a fourth originated a sweat-table; and thus we were attended by this evil throughout the voyage—the only intermission being Sundays and the time occupied in capturing and taking care of whales.
When a week out from home a false alarm was raised of “There she blows! There she blows!” continued for some twenty or thirty times in succession, at intervals of about thirty seconds. The boatsteerer on the maintopgallant crosstrees, on being asked “Where away,” by the captain, answered, “Two points on the lee bow, about two miles off.” All hands were called, the lines put into the boats; they were then hoisted, swung and lowered, the crew following the boats down the sides of the ship, and leaping in the moment they touched the water; then shoving off and pulling in the direction of the fish. Soon the boatsteerer was ordered to stand up, then to give it to him, then to give him the other iron; and then we found that there had been no whales seen, but that the whole affair was arranged to familiarize us with boat duty, so that we might be acquainted with the rigmarole when occasion required. At first but little order or regulation was observed, each one pulling on his own hook; but after some little instruction we managed to make the boat go ahead without describing half a dozen circles before starting. As we became warm with the exercise, the old hands grew excited, and gave their short, quick orders of “Give it to him! Stern, stern all—hard! Stern, men, for your lives!” with as much enthusiasmas if a sperm whale was in reality spouting under the head of the boat. The day being fine all hands were delighted with the sport, particularly so our New Bedford boys; and after coming aboard and hoisting our boats to a merry song, no doubt more than one aspirant to the heading of a boat, went to his pillow to dream of future successes, and turn up whales in imagination by scores. Their ambition is pardonable, too, as, in the section of country in which they reside, a successful whaling skipper is looked upon as a much more important personage in the community than is a member of Congress; and I do not doubt that if the choice of the appellations Honorable and Captain were tendered to the youths of New Bedford and its vicinity, nine-tenths of them would prefer the latter; nor does he, in thus devoting himself to whaling as a profession, embrace an easy mode of gaining a livelihood. He must be no mere carpet knight, but must stand prepared to give and receive hard knocks; and combat, not only with the winds and waves (the task of ordinary sailors), but with the monarch of the seas—the great sperm whale; nor must he betray, no matter how perilous his position may hap to be during an encounter with leviathan, the slightest evidence of fear, as such a symptom would make him a butt for rude personal jokes, which would drive him, by their pointedness and sarcasm, out of the service; but he must view every position into which he is thrown, and every peril to which he may be subjected, with as much indifference as if it were of no importance to him, and he will acquire a reputation for fearlessness and coolness, which invariably, no matter what hisfaults may be, will gain him respect both from officers and crew; sailors, as a class, admiring reckless courage, and although they will always follow where an officer in whom they have confidence leads, the slightest suspicion of their leader’s capability or courage is sufficient to damp their ardor, and cause them to act with lukewarm efforts. I do not mean to cast a stigma on the well-won reputation of seamen for courage, but from the discipline of a well-regulated ship, the seaman is taught to look up to his officers, who, in his eyes, bear all the responsibility, and thus in a measure he regulates all his motions by that of his superior, and if anything goes wrong, imputes the error to its proper source. They possess an old and familiar proverb—viz., “Obey orders if you break owners,” and nine-tenths of seafaring men adopt it to the letter, and thus avoid blame.
Two weeks after leaving home we were startled at about six o’clock A. M., by the look-outs at the fore and maintopgallant cross-trees singing out, “There blows! there blows! there blows!” continuously, at intervals of about thirty seconds. After about ten minutes of vocal execution, they cried out, “There goes flukes,” emphasizing with great force the second word in the sentence. This was confirmatory of the presence of sperm whales, and as their yield is by far greater in value than that obtained from any other fish, we of course were anxious to capture one or more of them. After considerable manœuvring on our part, attended by excitement and bustle, three boats were lowered away. Several hours were fruitlessly spent in pulling and sailing, when the chase was given up as hopeless, the whales going fasterto windward than we could pursue them. The weather was threatening, the sea boisterous, and therefore our seats in the boat were neither pleasant nor dry; consequently, at the expiration of three and a half hours, we returned to the ship. As I stepped aboard of her I felt that I had reached home, and ever after that, as long as I belonged to her, home and the old barkey were to me synonymous terms.
Whilst in the boats I saw a whale breach or leap bodily into the air, his vast bulk appearing in bas relief, suspended for a moment in mid air—the sky above, the sea beneath—and although it was not so perfect a display of the creature’s immensity and power as I often afterwards witnessed, still I was struck with the greatness of the Creator’s works in this, to us, almost unknown element.
Soon after our incursion on the sperm whale territory we lowered for blackfish, but were unsuccessful. This is not our legitimate pursuit, but is always done in good weather when a ship has a green crew; and in many instances the captain makes it a point to lower for and capture them whenever the opportunity presents itself. This is a beautiful fish, from twelve to twenty-five feet in length; always seen in immense numbers herding together, as if for mutual protection; they have a jet black, smooth, and shining skin, unmarred by a wrinkle, which in the sun presents a beautiful appearance, and from it they derive their name. The shape of their head reminds me of a pug-nosed dog. Unlike the sperm whale they have both jaws furnished with teeth. A full grown fish yields from two to five barrels of oil. Their meat is palatable to my taste, although I could not recommend it to anepicure ashore; nor would I, I think, partake of it anywhere but on board ship, when long deprivation from fresh food makes anything, not saturated by salt, a luxury. It is in appearance somewhat like beef, but coarser; it is minced with pork and fried in balls about the size of the sausage exposed for sale in our markets, and in this state its advent is hailed by all aboard with great gusto.
Their oil is very little inferior to that of the sperm whale; indeed, although I have never analyzed it, and speak merely from observation, I think if the same care and attention were paid to trying out the blackfish oil as is accorded to the preparation of sperm oil, it would be found that the oil of the former possesses all the good qualities of the latter. At least the experiment is worthy a trial.
On the 12th of August, 1855, we novices saw for the first time a foreign shore. Its appearance was detected by an experienced hand long before our eyes could discern it, and when, finally, they were pointed out to us, it was with no little difficulty that we could be led to believe the two islands other than clouds. They proved to be Corvo and Flores, of the Azore group, or as they are familiarly known, the Western Islands. They belong to Portugal, which rules them with an iron hand, carrying away the flower of the youth born here to support the throne in Europe. The next day we made land, and signaled the barque Henry Taber, that left New Bedford on the same day as ourselves. We passed her and stood close in to the Island of Flores. When within about ten miles of the land, a boat containing a dozen swarthy, grinning, chattering Portuguese, boarded us, who,immediately on touching deck, made for the forecastle, and dove into the bread barge, devouring all it contained and greedily inquiring for more. This modest demand not being complied with, they offered for sale fruits, comprising apples, oranges, lemons, limes, figs, melons, grapes and tomatoes; also straw hats, milk, and aguardiente. They brought us, amongst other edibles, an anomaly known to sailors as jackass cheese; it is in round cakes, about three inches in diameter, and of the color of cheese made from cow’s milk, although totally dissimilar in taste to any other cheese I have eaten. As regards its origin, whether produced from John Horse, goat, or cow’s milk, I cannot aver, neither do I care; but its general good taste and appetizing qualities I can vouch for from having partaken of it. After a short time another boat appeared, bringing us eggs and fowls (and knowing a sailor’s preference for potables), aguardiente and sour wine. These additions to our usual sea fare, made us an excellent meal. For all these dainties these people were willing to receive tobacco, which, on account of the monopoly of the trade in that article by the government, commands a high price. They are obliged to smuggle it ashore, but from the careless manner in which they stowed it away I should think that little surveillance is exercised towards the inhabitants by the excise officers; whilst an American or European is pretty thoroughly searched on landing, to see that he does not carry the contraband article.
At about ten A. M. the captain went ashore with a boat’s crew, for the purpose of purchasing stores for the ship, excellent potatoes and onions beingproduced in this genial climate, and from the little intercourse these people hold with the rest of mankind, can be obtained at a mere nominal price. On nearing the shore we found the coast rocky and precipitous, covered with herbage of the richest green; a heavy surf was beating on the rocks, but we landed by the assistance of the Portuguese, who fearlessly plunged into the water and hauled our boat ashore. We found on the beach a concourse of dark and light, young and old, male and female, assembled to meet us; all shoeless, and many of them hatless; all making a noise and bounding from cliff to cliff with little less agility than the goats, of which great numbers are kept for the sake of their milk and skins. On proceeding to the town, the name of which I never could discover, not having seen an American who knew, or a Portuguese who could tell me what it was, although I have asked the question frequently, always with the same result, we found that it was built without regard to order or regularity—the buildings of stone. Many plats of ground were surrounded by immense stone walls; some of these plats are not more than sixteen feet square, but are enclosed by walls two feet thick, reminding one of the masonry in the German castles of romance. At the town we saw little to attract except the merry appearance of the female, and scowling expression of the male inhabitants; the men looking upon us, it seemed, as intruders, and desiring but little intercourse with us; the women, although barefooted and with hair unkempt, their negligent dress exposing rather more of their persons than accordant with modesty, were more than affable; every article of ourapparel that was exposed to their view being made by them a price for which they were willing to prostitute themselves; and so pertinacious were they, that it was with difficulty a sheath knife was wrested from one of them by a blushing boy of our party to whom their immodest offers (having but three weeks previously left the bosom of a virtuous family of mother and sisters), sounded like sacrilege, and, as he afterwards expressed himself, absolutely appalled him. We saw little evidence of cultivation in the town; but upon inquiry were informed, as well as their broken English could enlighten us, that the produce grew higher up—in the mountains. To scale these we were not adventurous enough; so we sat down, and, after some bargaining, procured boiled eggs, fruit, bread, and sour wine, on which we made a hearty repast. I observed about the town cows, pigs, and dogs, but neither jackass nor donkey; so I do not think the aforesaid long-eared gentleman possesses the right or title to claim the paternity of the world-renowned jackass cheese; although seamen, in a spirit of vagary, have given to it the appellation of that intellectual animal.
In the afternoon we went off to the ship, got our onions and potatoes aboard, and carried with us two Portuguese boys, about seventeen years of age—one of whom goes into the forecastle to do duty as a foremast hand, the other, into the steerage as steerage boy. Great numbers of young men are carried off from these islands annually, by American whaleships, the government demanding of each young man, born in the islands, a certain amount of military duty in Europe. To emancipate themselves from thisirksome service they join whalers, as after an absence on the part of one, during which he has acquired the English language, he is exempted from military duty. Whether the government does this to encourage the development of knowledge, or that, after a tarry on his part amongst the republican Americans, they think him too liberal in sentiment to mingle with other servants of their despotic rule, I cannot say. When these people first come aboard the ship they are indifferently dressed, and invariably barefooted; when those we shipped were supplied with an outfit of sea clothes, they were greatly astonished and delighted. They are a very economical people, and by dint of washing for others, patching, at which in a short time they become adepts, and other little jobs, they soon become possessed of a large amount of clothing, which they hoard up and gloat over as a miser would his gold. They are shipped for little or nothing as regards remuneration, scarcely anything being said about a lay on either side; but the captain, if generous, will always make them a liberal allowance on the ship’s arriving at New Bedford. They are generally strong and able-bodied, and make good working-hands to pull and haul, but, except in rare instances, do not rise in position above steering a boat; although there are several ships at present sailing out of New Bedford whose masters are Portuguese by birth, yet in each instance, I am informed by good authority, they were taken from the islands at a very early age, and sent to school in America between voyages. When they first come aboard they look thin and cadaverous, probably from their almost entire diet being vegetable; but in a short time,from prodigious indulgence of their appetites for flesh, they become round and sleek. Their attenuated appearance has led to the standing joke amongst sailors, that if you want a Portuguese crew, all you have to do is to run close in to one of the Western Islands, heave a hook and line overboard baited with fat pork, and in a few minutes you will catch as many as you want. To tell the Portuguese this is considered by them as a bitter affront, they always magnifying their position ashore, I do not know how many times, making everythinggrand, as they express it. To illustrate their passion for meat, I shall not go into figures as regards the consumption, as few, if any, would credit my bare assertion; but I will state that one of the boys gained sixty pounds in weight during the first five months he was with us.
If there be only one or two of this race aboard, and they are separated in different parts of the ship, and not allowed too frequently to converse with each other, they soon acquire English and become useful; but if there are half a dozen together in the forecastle, they jabber and chatter their unmusical jargon from morning until night, and will go a three years’ voyage, knowing at the end of it little more English than is embraced in the technical terms of the service, which, being impressed on their memory with a kick or blow by way of injunction, they are apt to retain.
These people are, or profess to be, devoted to their padres or fathers in the church, and from my light observation of them and their peculiarities, I should be inclined to give it as my opinion that they are totally under the sway of their Jesuitical advisers; but I must about ship and resume the thread of my narrative.
Whilst lying here off and on shore we gammoned the ship E. L. Jones, of New Bedford; the barque Sea Flower, of same port, and schooner Antarctic, of Provincetown. This is an excellent whaling-ground—numbers of large and small craft are continually cruising here, and in the course of a voyage generally do well. Gammoning at sea is the term for an interchange of civilities between two or more ships, and is much in vogue amongst whalemen, who have so much time that hangs heavy on their hands, and are glad to vary the monotony by the sight of a stranger, or, if a later arrival, receiving intelligence from home. When a ship wishes to gammon another, or, as it is pronounced at sea, gam’, the second syllable being dispensed with, theleeship hauls aback her mainyard, or sets a signal signifying her wish, theweathercraft squares her yards, puts her helm up, runs across the other’s stern and speaks her. Then the captain of one lowers away and boards the other, the mate returns in the boat with a fresh crew, the officers resort to the cabin, the boatsteerers to the steerage, and the crew to the forecastle. As soon as breathing time is allowed to the visitors they are beset by a dozen querists, who, all at once, want to know how long they are from home, what success they have had, and the birth-place, or place of residence of each. For instance, here one steps up and inquires, “Any New Yorkers here,” or “Any Philadelphia, New Bedford, or Boston chaps,” whichever place to him is best known; and if, perchance, he finds a townsman, in a few minutes they are as thick as lovers, and as far advanced in friendship as an acquaintance of twenty years ashore would warrant; and ere they part chests are thrown open, with theinjunction to help yourself added, and do not be backward about it either. Soon after some one calls for a song, and in a short time, after some pressing and coaxing, which is as necessary here as in more select circles, the time-worn, but sweet melodies of the sea are sung, if not with artistic correctness, with spirit—all hands joining in the chorus, till the old ship rings again. Meantime, the officers in the cabin are rehearsing old memories of whaling, telling of the largest, wickedest and quietest whales which they have borne a hand at taking; dire and wonderful are thefishstories that in this manner receive birth. These relations, assisted by the genial influence of the bottle and the pipe, soon while away the time, and ere one would have thought it, the signal is up for returning. The boatsteerers are killing time in much the same manner, lacking only the ardent; whilst the crew, if a merry set of fellows, have, ere this, got the fiddle or accordeon player, if one is aboard, on deck (providing that it is good weather, and the ship on an even keel), and are breaking down in the waist at a rate that would set a French dancing-master crazy; but it is all the same to them—they enjoy, and are bound to make sport of it. The signal for returning being set, books are exchanged, tobacco, pipes, and in cases of need, articles of clothing are freely presented, and the visitors go over the rail into their boats, with “God bless you.Greasyluck to you. Take care of yourself, my hearties,” or some other equally expressive and kindly wish following them; and the two ships resume their courses in different directions to different quarters of the globe.