FORECASTLE AND CABIN 6i 



therefore, was maintained because of the very fact that these 

 same qualities were allowed to decline in the case of the fore- 

 mast hands. 



The deterioration of the crews was due partly to the opera- 

 tion of forces which were outside the industry, and partly to 

 the acquiescence or only half-hearted resistance of the whal- 

 ing merchants. The rapid expansion of the opportunities 

 for exploiting natural resources, which came with the middle 

 of the century, meant that both native American and immi- 

 grant found greater chances for advancement and indepen- 

 dence on shore than at sea. A farm in Ohio or Illinois was 

 more attractive to the normally ambitious individual than a 

 whaleboat in the Pacific. And particularly so because whaling 

 presented not only relative disadvantages, but also positive 

 evils of the grossest and most unmistakable kind. Such were 

 the wretched working and living conditions on board the aver- 

 age whalerj the brutalizing and cruel abuse often called dis- 

 cipline j the uncertain but in most cases pitiably low earnings j 

 the countless privations, hardships, and dangers of the in- 

 dustry 3 the long absences from home, which made a normal 

 family life impossible j and the deplorable system of shipping 

 crews through agents and outfitters, which involved much mis- 

 representation, deceit, and fraud. 



It was an unfortunate coincidence that the expansion of the 

 industry demanded an enlarged labor supply during the very 

 period when the best young blood of New England was sim- 

 ultaneously attracted by the potential wealth of the West and 

 repelled by the barbaric, underpaid hardships of whaling. 

 Only one result was possible. So many of the most prom- 

 ising young men heeded Horace Greeley's advice to "Go 

 West" that the whaling forecastles had to be filled with the 

 inferior human material already described. 



Instead of attempting to compete for an adequate supply of 

 labor by making the conditions of whaling life as attractive 

 as possible, however, the whaling merchants sought to adjust 

 the industry to the changing conditions by condoning the new 

 elements. This may have been due to a recognition of the 

 fact that whaling could not offer inducements to compare with 



