AT SEA: ON PASSAGE 127 



guarding. Their chief recreation, however, was quarreling, 

 at which they were incessantly engaged. Nor was it confined 

 to week-days, for not the slightest attention was paid to the 

 Sabbath. The most horrible profanity was indulged in, and 

 to an excess that was truly revolting." ^ 



Elsewhere in his narrative the same author said: "The 

 forecastle was black and slimy with filth, very small, and as 

 hot as an oven. It was filled with a compound of foul air, 

 smoke, sea-chests, soap-kegs, greasy pans, tainted meat, Portu- 

 guese rufiians, and sea-sick Americans. The Portuguese 

 were smoking, laughing, chattering, and cursing the green 

 hands who were sick. With groans on one side, and yells, 

 oaths, laughter, and smoke on the other, it . . . did not im- 

 press W and myself as a very pleasant home for the 



next year or two." ^ 



Another description of forecastle life contained this sen- 

 tence: "Here, with no possibility of classification and sep- 

 arate quarters, with few or no books, or opportunity to use 

 them if they were possessed, with the constant din of royster- 

 ing disorder, superabundant profanity, and teeming lascivi- 

 ousness of conversation and songs . . . three-fourths of their 

 forty months' absence are passed." '^ In the same passage 

 the author stated that he had visited all of the principal prisons 

 in more than half of the United States, and insisted that at 

 the time he wrote (1850) the cells in these prisons were 

 preferable to the average forecastle with respect to roominess, 

 light, ventilation, and possibility of privacy. This picture of 

 forecastle life would not be complete without the statement 

 that many of the older vessels were infested with vermin — 

 a source of endless torment which became particularly acute in 

 the sickening heat of the tropics. 



As an offset to such an array of scathing criticisms, at least 

 one instance may be cited in which a forecastle was described 

 as being decently clean and roomy. It boasted of a table, a 

 lamp, and a library of about two hundred volumes. And 

 {mirabile dictu) it was scrubbed out every morning! ^ 



^ Browne, J. R., "Etchings of a Whaling Cruse," p. 43. 



^ Ibid., p. 24. > 



^ Cheever, H. W., "The Whale and His Captors," pp. 305-306. 



8 Olmsted, F. A., "Incidents of a Whaling Voyage," p. 52. 



