100 THE AMERICAN WHALEMAN 



rates charged for similar goods in ordinary stores j but in count- 

 less instances the discrepancy rose to one hundred per cent 

 and more. In general, the coarsest and cheapest materials 

 were provided for amounts which would have been more than 

 sufficient, elsewhere, to purchase goods of excellent quality and 

 workmanship. 



So lucrative was the outfitting business that strenuous com- 

 petition developed between rival firms. When the bark 

 Minerva weighed anchor in 1836 she had on board eighteen 

 hands who had been furnished by seven different New Bedford 

 outfitters. Such cutthroat rivalry led to the gradual establish- 

 ment of certain customary rules of the game. Thus in the 

 post-war years, at least, it was understood that if an outfitter 

 furnished a captain or first mate for a given vessel, he was en- 

 titled to provide, in addition, four foremast hands. If he 

 secured a second mate, he was privileged to fill three bunks in 

 the forecastle j if a third mate, two bunks 5 and if a fourth 

 mate, boatsteerer, steward, or cook, one bunk.^^ 



Most of the contemporary writers who actually made voy- 

 ages as foremast hands were unsparing in their criticism of the 

 average outfitter.^^ They charged that he was heartless, un- 

 scrupulous, and avaricious J that he was guilty of flagrant mis- 

 representation j that he demanded extortionate prices for in- 

 adequate outfits J and that he was sometimes guilty of delibe- 

 rate dishonesty. "This system, from its novel and somewhat 

 singular operation," said one author, "is like the vine, which 

 entwines itself around the huge and gigantic oak, and thus it 

 grows and expands according to the height and dimensions of 

 its support." ^* Perhaps the most generous contemporary 

 judgment of the outfitters was that they were honest enough 

 when dealing with intelligent, experienced men who knew 

 what they wanted and who were able to pay for their pur- 

 chases. But, it was added, the green hands were "so glaringly 

 ignorant and so vastly gullible," and many of the experienced 

 men were so recklessly improvident and so drunkenly be- 



12 Brown, J. T., writing in "Fisheries and Fishery Industries of the United 

 States," VII, p. 225. 



12 See almost any of the narratives and accounts of whaling life mentioned 

 in the bibliography. 



1* See Holmes, Lewis, "The Arctic Whaleman," p. 276. 



