THE WHALEMAN ASHORE 107 



ashore had to pay his own bill or be content with the heartless 

 neglect of the boarding-houses. 



Religious and temperance societies made certain abortive 

 efforts, largely negative in purpose, to reach the sailor through 

 a form of condescending philanthropy. Marine Bible So- 

 cieties distributed Bibles and religious tracts amongst the crews 

 of outgoing vessels j and an occasional minister sought to in- 

 terest himself in the religious welfare of the foremast hands. 

 In general, however, the orthodox churches, ministers and 

 members alike, regarded the sailor as a moral pariah, and re- 

 mained comfortably aloof from the forecastles and the water- 

 front. In some instances they even repulsed the hesitant in- 

 clination of some lone seaman to attend their services. The 

 only ecclesiastical doors definitely and invitingly open to the 

 whaleman were those of the Seamen's Bethel, half-church, 

 half-mission, where there was a strong tang of salt water in 

 the discourses of the preacher and in the whole atmosphere 

 of services and building. These Seamen's Bethels, in con- 

 junction with the neighboring Mariners' Homes, or supposedly 

 model boarding-houses, formed the centers of the better type 

 of waterfront life. And together they comprised the only 

 religious and philanthropic activities which reached the whal- 

 ing crews in any vital manner. 



Here and there an isolated voice was raised in behalf of bet- 

 ter treatment and conditions. Thus a certain Mr. J. Gird- 

 wood, of New Bedford, wrote in 1857: "When the extent 

 and value of the interests involved are thought of, it seems 

 surprising that efforts are not made to improve the character 

 and condition of the sailor. Millions of property are en- 

 trusted to his care. Thousands of precious lives are in his 

 hands for weeks and months j yet many sailors are the refuse 

 of jails, penitentiaries, and state prisons. The sentiment often 

 prevails that the worse man makes the better sailor. Hence 

 we may easily account for many shipwrecks, vessels cast away, 

 sunk, and burned. This is becoming too expensive." ^^ And 

 Lieutenant Wilkes, writing of the morals of seamen during 

 the forties, said: "The field for improvement is wide, and those 



23 These sentences form part of the introduction to the volume by Holmes, 

 Lewis, "The Arctic Whaleman." 



