FORECASTLE AND CABIN 51 



ashore between voyages. The Martha's Vineyard whaling 

 merchants, too, deliberately kept the Indians in debt, and thus 

 forced them to ship for many successive voyages. 



During the first two decades of the nineteenth century the 

 whaling crews contained a much higher percentage of both 

 negroes and Indians than in later years. About 1807 crews 

 of sixteen to twenty-one men often included seven to nine ne- 

 groes. And in 1820 it was estimated that about one-eighth 

 of all Nantucket whalemen were pure Indians, while from 

 two-eighths to three-eighths were negroes and Indian half- 

 breeds. 



But in spite of this inclusion of alien elements during the 

 earlier decades of the industry, the size of the crews did not 

 increase to the same degree as the tonnage of the vessels. 

 About 1750 the typical Nantucket whaler was a small sloop of 

 fifty to eighty tons, manned by some thirteen menj while 

 about 1825 there were ships and barks of three hundred tons 

 which carried crews of twenty-five hands. At the earlier date 

 there was one man for every five or six tons of the vessel in 

 which he sailedj but by 1825 this proportion had fallen to one 

 hand for every twelve to fourteen tons. Roughly speaking, 

 the tonnage of the typical whaler was quadrupled during the 

 same period in which the size of the crew was doubled. And 

 since tonnage bore a definite relationship to invested capital, 

 it followed also that the amount of capital devoted to the in- 

 dustry had increased about twice as rapidly as the size of the 

 labor force. 



During the heyday and decline of American whaling, cov- 

 ering the second great period which began about 1825-30, 

 the outstanding change in the crews was again not one of size, 

 but of composition. Provincialism and homogeneity gave way 

 to cosmopolitanism and heterogeneity. The neighborly, 

 like-minded groups of the earlier days disappeared j and in 

 their places were whole worlds of humanity in microcosm. 

 Seldom have so many widely assorted specimens of the human 

 family been packed into such small spaces as the forecastles of 

 the latter-day whaleships. The mere enumeration of the di- 

 verse elements constitutes a list of formidable length. There 

 were Americans from every part of the United States, Portu- 



