90 THE AMERICAN WHALEMAN 



volved in this effort consisted largely of cheap, untruthful 

 posters which set forth in glowing terms the joys, comforts, 

 and benefits to be derived from a whaling voyage. Many 

 notices not unlike the following were tacked up both in the 

 larger cities and in the country villages.^ 



LANDSMEN WANTED 



One thousand stout young men, Americans, wanted for the fleet 

 of whaleships, now fitting out for the North and South Pacific Fish- 

 eries. Extra chances given to Coopers, Carpenters, and Blacksmiths. 

 None but industrious young men with good recommendations, taken. 

 Such will have superior chances for advancement. Outfits, to the 

 amount of Seventy-Five Dollars furnished to each individual before 

 proceeding to sea. Persons desirous to avail themselves of the pres- 

 ent splendid opportunity of seeing the world and at the same time ac- 

 quiring a profitable business, will do well to make early application to 

 the undersigned. 



"The undersigned" was in most instances a shipping-agent 

 in some Atlantic or Great Lakes port who conducted his af- 

 fairs in a poorly furnished room divided into unequal portions 

 by a low railing. The larger space served as a reception room 

 for prospective hands, while the smaller area, equipped with 

 a desk and stool, was honored in being termed an office. Here 

 the candidates for whaling berths were collected, preparatory 

 to sending them on to a central shipping-master in New Bed- 

 ford, Sag Harbor, or New London. It was a funnel-like 

 system in which men from all parts of the country flowed into 

 the forecastles, with the whaling ports at the receptive end. 



These shipping-agents were marvels of suave deceit and 

 shameless misrepresentation, if contemporary accounts of their 

 methods may be credited. False promises and fluent mendac- 

 ity were resorted to whenever it seemed advisable j and bland- 

 ishments and exaggerated inducements formed part of their 

 regular stock in trade. The benefits and delights of whaling, 

 when not created out of whole cloth, were pictured with every 

 embellishment 5 while the darker aspects of the fishery were 

 scrupulously ignored. 



Obviously, these campaigns of misrepresentation could be 



6 See Nordhoff, Charles, "Life on the Ocean," p. ii, 



