112 THE AMERICAN WHALEMAN 



with scores of whalers fitting out and recruiting for their next 

 season — in March preparing for a summer in Behring^s 

 Straits or the Sea of Okhotsk, and in November and December 

 getting ready for several months of sperm whaling in tropical 

 and sub-tropical waters. This close proximity of so many 

 vessels in one of the world's fairest harbors, still relatively 

 untouched by the materialism of an industrial age, afforded an 

 unexampled opportunity for boisterous debauchery and volup- 

 tuous dissipation on the part of the reckless and pleasure- 

 starved crews. Amidst the languorous, tropical surroundings 

 and amongst the comely, ingenuous natives the sensual abandon 

 of the sailor ashore reached its full fruition. 



But not, if contemporary accounts may be credited, without 

 some opposition from the forces of law and order. In at- 

 tempting to cope with such large numbers of hard-fisted, reck- 

 less, and intoxicated seamen, the police force of the port found 

 an unenviable task which was none too well accomplished. 

 But, partly because of this very laxity of enforcement, a copy 

 of the regulations supposedly in force at Honolulu during the 

 forties presents an illuminating suggestion of the social and 

 moral conditions which prevailed in the port. The offenses 

 and penalties applying to seamen are reproduced in full.^^ 



Hanging, as a murderer, for knowingly and maliciously violating 

 those laws whereby a contagious disease is communicated on shore. 



$60.00 fine on any captain who leaves on shore any men without 

 written leave from the Government. 



$10.00 for coming ashore with a knife, sword-cane, or any other 

 dangerous weapon. 



$2.00 for every seaman seized ashore after 9:30 P. M., at firing of 

 second gun from fort. 



$1.00 to $5.00 for hallooing or making a noise in the streets at 

 night. 



$6.00 for striking another in a quarrel. 



$5.00 for racing or swift riding in the streets or frequented roads. 



81 These regulations were printed in the "Honolulu Friend" in September, 

 1844, when they were included in an article on Hawaiian conditions written 

 by a certain Mr. R. C. Wyllie. They are reproduced in Browne, J. R., "Etch- 

 ings of a Whaling Cruise," p. 546. The King of Hawaii encouraged the 

 whalemen to visit the islands, since they purchased large quantities of food- 

 stuflFs from the natives. But evidently his police force was instructed to draw 

 the line between encouragement and license! 



