92 THE AMERICAN WHALEMAN 



they were marshalled into groups and placed in charge of one 

 of the agent's henchmen, who was responsible for their arrival 

 and who guarded them jealously. Jacob A. Hazen, sent from 

 Philadelphia to New York in company with some twenty 

 "drunken, desperate-looking characters," described one such 

 journey, made in 1837, in "Five Years Before the Mast." 

 The human units of this labor consignment were closely 

 watched all the way, and upon their arrival were marched 

 through the streets of New York to the shipping office in 

 column of two's. The agent was determined to prevent the 

 loss of a single fee. 



Upon reaching the journey's end, the whaling neophytes 

 were turned over to the resident shipping-master or outfitter. 

 This functionary sent them at once to a sailors' boarding-house, 

 where they might secure board and lodging while awaiting 

 their sailing dates. And he was also responsible for finding 

 outward-bound vessels which were in need of men, as well 

 as for arranging for his proteges to be on board when the ves- 

 sels weighed anchor. 



This last task was by no means an easy one, and often re- 

 quired the exercise of ingenuity, tact, cunning, or force. Men 

 who had been cajoled into undertaking a voyage were likely 

 to exhibit, when sober, a strong desire to slip away. Enthu- 

 siastic green hands who had been over-persuaded by the agents' 

 alluring promises were harshly disillusioned by the atmos- 

 phere of the boarding-houses. Unsophisticated youths were 

 pursued and rescued by irate or tearful parents. And the 

 general air of psychological deflation about the activities of the 

 waterfront brought such strong last-minute misgivings that 

 many others sought to escape the final entrance into a fore- 

 castle. 



Still other prospects, though they themselves failed to in- 

 itiate attempts to escape, were "stolen" or enticed away by 

 rival shipping firms. In Sag Harbor this practice became so 

 common and so inconvenient that the shippers were compelled 

 to place restrictions upon their own activities. In 1837, for 

 instance, they were operating under an agreement which spec- 

 ified that any signer who shipped hands belonging to another 

 agent should be compelled to pay a fine of $100 for each of- 



