14 THE AMERICAN WHALEMAN 



what was possible, without undue effort or expense, to ameli- 

 orate these conditions. Others, however, (and they consti- 

 tuted a good percentage of the whole) aggravated the inevi- 

 table evils many-fold and then added others of their own 

 contriving. Discipline was too often mistaken for tyran- 

 nical license by irascible officers who enforced bullying orders 

 with heavy sea-boots and a steady flow of profanity and vitu- 

 peration. In the effort to save money both food and quarters 

 were made far worse than was necessary. Clothing and sup- 

 plies were furnished through the slop-chest at more than gen- 

 erous prices. Deductions were made from the lay on every 

 possible pretext, reasonable and unreasonable j and as a result it 

 happened often that a man would return from a three or four 

 years* voyage to find himself actually in debt to the firm for 

 which he had been working! 



Worst of all was the practice, fortunately not universal, of 

 driving the crews to the limit of human endurance by system- 

 atic beating, hazing, flogging, "working up," and general mal- 

 treatment, not excluding various ingenious forms of cruel and 

 abusive indignity. It should be stated, in partial extenuation, 

 that the character of the men in the forecastle often suggested, 

 if it did not necessitate, stern and rigorous treatment. The 

 deck of a whaler at sea was no place for soft words or an ap- 

 pearance of timidity. Rigid and unquestioning discipline was 

 imperative in order to insure both success and safety j and the 

 human scourings which comprised a large percentage of the 

 mid-century whaling crews were not amenable to subtle sug- 

 gestion. The criminal and unscrupulous elements, in partic- 

 ular, could be impressed only by strong words backed by the 

 threat of stronger fists or belaying-pins. 



But in spite of these facts, extenuating under certain cir- 

 cumstances, it remained true that many officers bullied and 

 abused their crews needlessly and shamelessly. Such treat- 

 ment was rendered both safe and easy by the fact that the legal 

 status of whalemen at sea, like that of seamen in general, was 

 strongly reminiscent of mediaeval serfdom. In part this un- 

 free status resulted from the inevitable demands of discipline. 

 But it was due also to political weakness on the part of seamen 

 as a class, which made it difficult to secure protective legis- 



