252 THE AMERICAN WHALEMAN 



or even years afterward j entering a charge in the buyer's ac- 

 count for a larger amount than the price quoted j and general 

 arbitrary and autocratic treatment from one who was both cap- 

 tain and monopolist. 



These sharp practices, where they existed, were much en- 

 couraged by the prevailing custom of giving the master a share 

 in the proceeds of the slop-chest. Virtually every captain was 

 allowed a percentage of the total sales or of the net profits j 

 and under either method he frequently secured an appreciable 

 sum. In the case of the four voyages cited in a preceding 

 paragraph, for instance, the master of the Montreal received 

 one-half of the profits, or $1574.785 the captain of the Adeline 

 was given 10% of the total sales, or $266,335 the owners of 

 the Fabius allowed 7>4% of the total sales, or $184,375 and 

 the master of the James Maury ^ entitled to one-half of the 

 profits, received $200.16. 



But even this mid-century system of slop-chest manage- 

 ment, however inadequate, was a real advance over the condi- 

 tions of the preceding decades, when it was customary for the 

 captain to conduct the slop-chest as his own private perquisite, 

 and to pocket the entire sum extracted from it. With no re- 

 straints except those imposed by his own judgment, the grasp- 

 ing and unscrupulous captain resorted to extortionate abuses 

 which filled his pocketbook at the expense of his crews. 



Lieutenant Charles Wilkes, U.S.N. , who commanded an ex- 

 ploring expedition which brought him into intimate contact 

 with whaling conditions in the Pacific, was unsparing in his 

 criticisms of this early system. He cited an instance in which 

 the master of a crew of thirty men made $1800 during a single 

 voyage, and asserted that such personal profits sometimes ran 

 up to $2000 or $3000. He was so impressed by the gravity 

 of the abuses that he recommended that all slops be supplied 

 to whaling crews at an advance over cost just sufficient to cover 

 the expenses of handling and of storage, and that the captains 

 be deprived of all interest in the greatly reduced receipts.* 

 Unfortunately, however, these admirable recommendations 

 were supplanted by milder reforms. In the end the captains 



* See Wilkes, Charles, "Narrative of the United States Exploring Expedition," 

 V, pp. 496-502. 



