THE WHALEMAN ASHORE 91 



successful only with persons who were both credulous and in- 

 experienced. No man who had ever been to sea could have 

 been deceived for a moment by such manifest falsehoods. 

 Consequently the shipping-agents never spoke to an old tar 

 about a whaling voyage. Seamen who had been in the navy or 

 in the merchant service sometimes attempted to bait an agent 

 by pretending to be simple and gullible yokels. But the ex- 

 perienced eye of the shipper invariably detected their ruse and 

 passed on in search of less sophisticated forecastle-fodder. 



The ideal whaling candidate, from the standpoint of the 

 procurer of labor, was a green hand who knew nothing of the 

 sea and its ways. Such hands were favored not only because 

 they were more easily impressed and persuaded, but also be- 

 cause they involved less financial risk. The agents received 

 a fee for every man sent to the whaling ports 3 but if a given 

 hand did not actually go on a voyage, part or all of the fee 

 was forfeited. Consequently all prospective whalemen were 

 carefully watched until they were finally established in the 

 forecastle of an outward-bound vessel. And green hands, be- 

 cause of inexperience and timidity, were less likely to take 

 French leave than the more sophisticated men. 



The fees received by the shippers varied with general busi- 

 ness conditions and with the needs of the industry. When 

 men were plentiful, as during a period of unemployment, they 

 went downj and in times of labor scarcity they rose in an ef- 

 fort to induce the agents to adopt stronger methods of per- 

 suasion. In the panic year 1837 the payment for men sent 

 from New York to Sag Harbor was only three dollars j 

 whereas in 1880 the price of hands delivered in New Bedford 

 was sixteen dollars per head. The representative figure 

 changed from about ten dollars per head for the two decades 

 preceding the Civil War to a point between ten and twenty 

 dollars per head for the war and post-war years. 



If an aspirant proved to be particularly unsophisticated and 

 really anxious to engage in whaling, he might be provided with 

 a ticket and allowed to make the journey to the port alone. 

 But such instances were exceptional. Whenever convenient, 

 new men were sent on by boat, so that they could be turned 

 over to the regular ofiicers of the vessel for surveillance. Or 



