APPENDIX G 



List of Articles Required to Outfit a Vessel for a Whaling Voyage ^ 



Division I. — Slop-Chest Supplies. 43 Separate Kinds of Articles, including: 

 Twilled Kersev Shirts, Striped Cotton Shirts, Calico Full Bosom Shirts, 

 Calico Plain Shirts, All Wool Drawers, Cotton & Wool Drawers, Guernsey 

 Frocks, Duck Frocks, Denim Frocks, Thick Trousers, Duck Trousers, Denim 

 Trousers, Short Jackets, Pea Jackets, Reefing Jackets, Monkey Jackets, 

 Tarpaulin Hats, Palmleaf Hats, Scotch Caps, Russian Caps, Bed Com- 

 forters, Neck Comforters, Mittens, Stockings, Southwesters, Blankets, Linen 

 Thread, Yarn, Braces, Sheath Knives, Jack Knives, Sheaths & Belts, Iron 

 Spoons, Tin Pots, Tin Pans, Needles, Shoes, Pumps, Boots, Brogans, 

 Vests, Mounted Palms. 



Division IL — Recruiting Supplies. 27 Separate Kinds of Articles, includ- 

 ing: Tobacco, Pipes, Cigars, Powder, Muskets, Flints, Narrow Axes, 

 Hatchets, Axe Hatchets, Axe Handles, Hardware, Bleached Cottons, Un- 

 bleached Cottons, Blue Cottons, Blue Denims, Boots, Shoes, Pumps, Paints, 

 Oil Soap, Bar Soap, Furniture Prints, Fancy Prints, White Lead, Linseed 

 Oil, Sperm Candles, Naval Stores. 



1 This list comprises a synopsis of the contents of a 48-page pamphlet, en- 

 titled "Outfits for a Whaling Voj'age," which was issued by H. S. Kirby, a ship- 

 chandler situated at No. 8 Commercial Wharf, New Bedford. Such long 

 pamphlet lists were checked over by owners or officers as a convenient means 

 of assuring themselves that all of the multifarious articles required for a 

 whaling voyage were actually on board before sailing. This particular 

 pamphlet is included in that part of the Daniel B. Fearing Collection which 

 is now in the Treasure Room of Widener Library, Harvard University; but 

 similar lists may be found both in the same collection and in the New Bedford 

 Public Library. The one here reproduced was not dated, but from the nature 

 and variety of the articles mentioned it is evident that it was issued during or 

 after the mid-century decades of greatest whaling activity. The thousands of 

 individual articles carried by a whaler, comprising more than one thousand 

 different kinds of goods, were classified under twenty-five major divisions, or 

 groups. For purposes of concrete illustration, the lists included under the 

 first three divisions are reproduced in toto. For the remaining divisions, how- 

 ever, only the number of separate kinds of articles is given. Not every whaler, 

 of course, set out with all the supplies listed under these twenty-five headings. 

 The "plum-pud'ners" and other small Atlantic craft managed to complete their 

 cruises with a smaller number of commodities. But the larger sperm and right 

 whalers, setting out for long Pacific voyages, could dispense with very few of 

 them. Checking and stowing away supplies for a world-girdling whaling 

 voyage of forty to fifty months was no sinecure ! 



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