248 THE AMERICAN WHALEMAN 



and pans, cups, blankets, cotton handkerchiefs, axes, axe han- 

 dles, beads, brogans, yarn, bed comforters, neck comforters, 

 round top hats, palm leaf hats, and whatnot. On the whole, a 

 rather narrow range of prosaic commodities. Just such a col- 

 lection of goods, in fact, as would suffice to meet the restricted 

 needs and even more restricted purchasing power of a whaler's 

 crew, and at the same time make some appeal to the untutored 

 natives from whom provisions would have to be secured. The 

 exact number and variety of articles on any given vessel varied, 

 of course, with the nature of the cruise, the parts of the world to 

 be visited, and the fancy and shrewdness of the owners. In 

 essentials, however, one slop-chest was much like another j and 

 the following list, given in its entirety, is a representative sam- 

 ple.^ Especially noteworthy are the differences between cost 

 prices and sale prices j the great yardage of cheap cloth (six 

 different kinds, comprising 4855 yards) j and the enormous 

 quantity of tobacco (4329 pounds). 



Invoice of Slop Clothing and Merchandise put on board ship Canton, George 



White, Master, (bound to the Indian Ocean and elsewhere on a Whaling 



Voyage) for the supply of the Crew and to Recruit the Ship. 



In Cask No. i 



Charge Cost 



Creio 



$1.50 50 prs. Pumps 



1.50 35 prs. Thick Shoes 



1.75 27 prs. Thick Shoes 

 6.00 8 Cadet Salt Monkey Jackets 



5.00 12 Black Salt Reefing Jackets 



3XX) 15 prs. Cadet Salt Trowsers 



2.00 15 prs. Black Salt Trowsers 



2.00 18 Heavy Stripe Kersey Shirts 



2.00 18 Blue Twill Flannel Shirts 



1.50 18 Stripe Kersey Undershirts 



1.50 12 pr. Stripe Kersey Drawers 



1.50 12 pr. Mixed Kersey Drawers 

 2.50 2 Reefing Jackets 



1.00 I Calico Shirt 



I.OO 21 Stripe Cotton Shirts 



.50 2 %2 Doz. Jack Knives 



.25 %2 Doz. Sheath Knives 



2 This list of slop-chest articles was taken aboard by the ship Canton at New 

 Bedford on November 30, 1858. It was found in an original Invoice-Book 

 (now in the New Bedford Public Library) of Chas. R. Tucker & Co., of New 

 Bedford. This invoice-book, covering the period 1857 to 1875, contains some 

 30 complete invoices of goods carried on as many different voyages "to recruit 

 the ship and for sale to the crew." The list here reproduced is typical of the 

 others. 



