FORECASTLE AND CABIN 8i 



Consequently most consuls were obliged to supplement 

 their official earnings in some other manner. This was com- 

 monly done by engaging in one or more of the regular chan- 

 nels of international trade or by undertaking to fulfill many 

 of the functions of a ship-chandler. If he chose the former 

 course his attitude inevitably became that of the merchant 

 rather than of the seaman j while if he adopted the latter 

 alternative the merchant-customer relationship between him- 

 self and the captains of visiting vessels caused him to refrain 

 from displeasing his customers by unfavorable decisions. The 

 masters, on the other hand, realized full well that the pur- 

 chase of needed supplies from the consul was likely to induce 

 an official predisposition to look with favor upon their side 

 of any dispute. 



The notorious consular tendency to advance the interests 

 of masters and owners in preference to those of seamen was 

 particularly marked in the case of whaling vessels. Although 

 due in part to national and racial prejudices aroused by the 

 polyglot nature of the crews, this fact was due primarily to 

 the environment of the consuls who commonly dealt with 

 whalemen. For reasons which were inherent in the nature of 

 the industry, whalers touched customarily at the smaller, more 

 remote ports of the world. Because the fees to be secured in 

 such places were limited and the opportunities for trading cor- 

 respondingly restricted, the resident consuls found themselves 

 largely dependent for their custom upon the whaling captains 

 who were their most frequent visitors. As a result the good- 

 will of these masters was cultivated even more assiduously, 

 and decisions adverse to the crews rendered even more fre- 

 quently, than in the larger ports where a more varied mer- 

 chant marine prevented such an intimate intermingling of 

 financial and personal relationships. 



The shortcomings of such underpaid consuls were plain 

 enough to unbiased contemporary observers j and these men 

 realized, too, that the foremast hands were not the only losers 

 under the system. At times the interests of the industry as 

 a whole suffered appreciably through the lack of dignity and 

 prestige attaching to these hireling, eager-for-personal-busi- 

 ness officials. Said one writer, after intimate observation: 



