62 THE AMERICAN WHALEMAN 



the free land of the Westj but more probably It was due to 

 inertia, custom, and a canny realization that a more advanta- 

 geous wage bargain could be driven with men who were alien, 

 inexperienced, reckless, or dissipated. 



In fact, the attitude assumed toward the green hand, at 

 least, was one of definite encouragement. The shipping- 

 agent preferred to deal with men ignorant of the actual con- 

 ditions of the industry because they were more easily imposed 

 upon, and also because they were more dependable in observ- 

 ing their contracts. And the owners were content to ship 

 such hands because they could be hired for "longer lays" 

 (lower rates of pay), and because capable and brutally aggres- 

 sive mates could train them during the long months at sea. 

 This training, though crude and unsystematic, was so vigor- 

 ous and strenuous that when the whaling grounds were 

 reached, after several months on passage, the erstwhile green 

 hands were able to play an effective part in any of the re- 

 quired operations. 



The thorough disillusionment of these neophytes, the 

 chronic discontent of the sophisticated and unprincipled sea- 

 men, and the chafing resentment of all hands against brutality, 

 poor food, and miserable living conditions, — all these fac- 

 tors combined to create a dominant unrest which resulted in 

 an embarrassing number of desertions. This practice of deser- 

 tion, in fact, added to changes caused by death and discharge, 

 brought about a labor turnover so heavy that it constituted one 

 of the chief problems of the industry. 



A shifting personnel came to be a commonplace on board 

 American whalers. Only in the rarest instances did a vessel 

 return from a voyage with substantially the same crew with 

 which she sailed. It was not unusual for a whaleship which 

 never carried more than thirty-five men at any one time to 

 come into port with several times that number of names in 

 her account-books. At times the manning process for a single 

 cruise required the hiring and discharge of the equivalent of 

 three, four, or even five complete crews. During her fifth 

 voyage the ship James Maury presented the unedifying spec- 

 tacle of having two mates and three boatsteerers join a large 

 number of foremast hands in deserting j while the fourth and 



