234 HISTORY AND METHODS OF THE FISHERIES. 



When making her passage, a whaling vessel may readily be distinguished by her large wooden 

 davits and the unusual display of boats suspended over her side, as well as by the square set, 

 bulky try-works on the forward part of her deck, and by the presence of the large number of men 

 comprising her crew. When cruising for whales, in addition to the above-mentioned peculiarities, 

 she is rendered conspicuous by having her sails shortened, and men at her mast-heads on the look- 

 out for whales ; or perhaps by the absence of a topmast which may have been sent below ; or she 

 may have "grease alongside," or boiling out the oil, which last are unmistakable signs of her pro- 

 fession. Going aboard such a craft when she is outward bound, or even on her home passage, you 

 may be somewhat surprised to find her deck so free from oil, and that she is as clean and as ship- 

 shape as the average merchantman. It is only when the whale is being cut in, or when the oil is 

 cooking, that we find her decks objectionable. After these processes, the first duty of the whale- 

 men is to scrub the deck and wash the bulwarks, and between catches she is as clean as any other 

 vessel. I have seen the decks of some whalers that had been scrubbed until they were, as the 

 whalemeu expressed it, " as white as chalk." As might be expected, her rigging, spars, and sails 

 may be somewhat begrimed with smoke from the try-works, or perhaps her mainmast and cutting- 

 falls may have a greasy appearance, or probably be coated with pieces of black skin. On the home 

 passage, however, the ship is painted, masts are scraped, rigging overhauled, and a new suit of sails 

 bent; for the average captain takes pride in going into his home port with all the becoming honors 

 and dignity appropriate to the occasion. 



The main hatch is used as a temporary store-room for the blubber; and the fore, main, and 

 after hatches for stowing away provisions and supplies at the beginning of the voyage and oil dur- 

 ing the voyage. A long, stout wooden strip extends fore and aft inside the bulwarks on either 

 side of the vessel. This is called the " lash rail," and is peculiar to whaling vessels. When cooling 

 the oil to be stowed away in the hold, the casks are rolled to the side of the vessel out of the way 

 of the bustling and hurrying gangs of men, and lashed to this rail to prevent them from rolling 

 in heavy weather. The main deck is always sheathed ; an after house on barks and ships is built 

 over the quarter-deck for the transportation of spare boats, and sometimes a forward house is 

 erected over the try-works. 



The terms "blubber hunter" and "whaler," sometimes applied erroneously to the men 

 employed in this fishery by landsmen, are the legitimate titles of the whaling vessel. The vessel 

 also has a name, peculiar to whalemen, which she derives from the number of boats carried on her 

 cranes, such as a "three boater," or " four boater," and some of the old Nantucket whalemen used 

 the name '' hooker." 



The quarters of both the officers and men on the larger vessels are as cleanly as it, is possible 

 to keep them during a voyage of three or four years' duration. The ventilation being defective, 

 we mast expect an odor more or less mephitic, to which, however, the men become accustomed 

 through the remarkable power of association. The quarters of some of the schooners, however, 

 that I have seen, more especially the forecastles, which are filled by the most degraded types of 

 man, were fairly reeking with filth, and the most abominable stench fairly arose through the com- 

 panionway in a cloud of putrid vapor. This should not condemn all the small vessels, for the 

 quarters on many of those I visited, more especially in the fleet hailing from Provincetown, were 

 as cleanly, comfortable, and home-like as on most of the larger vessels of New Bedford. 



Formerly all the oil obtained by any one vessel during her vuyagr, more especially when she 

 cruised beyond the Western Islands, was conveyed to this country in her own bottom. Later, 

 however, it was found more profitable for the vessel to ship her cargo by returning whalers or by 



