21 8 THE AMERICAN WHALEMAN 



factors as experience, skill, courage, length of voyage, policy 

 of agents or owners, and the port from which the vessel was 

 sailing. Still other fluctuations aflFected all ranks, though 

 commonly in minor degree. Such changes were due to the 

 scarcity or oversupply of hands j the relationship between the 

 prospect of return from a whaling voyage and the rate of 

 wages prevailing in the merchant marine and among unskilled 

 shore workers j and the quantity, quality, and price of whaling 

 products. 



Obviously the amount of earnings represented by a given lay 

 could not be definitely calculated until the close of an entire 

 voyage, which often extended over a period of forty months 

 and frequently over forty-five to forty-eight months. To 

 determine the exact amount of wages due to the various mem- 

 bers of a crew therefore involved a large amount of bookkeep- 

 ing. The gross value of a cargo was computed at the current 

 market prices for the various qualities of oil and bone, regard- 

 less of whether it was sold at once or held for future sale by 

 the owners. The net proceeds were then obtained by sub- 

 tracting from this gross value a number of charges which in- 

 cluded pilotage, wharfage, gauging, commissions for the sale 

 and handling of the cargo, coopering, the expenses of watch- 

 men, and, upon occasion, insurance premiums, as well as special 

 guarantees to cover a sale made on credit. Each man's earn- 

 ings then consisted of that fractional share of this net sum 

 which was specified in his lay. 



Thus at the close of the fourth whaling voyage of the ship 

 Benjamin Tucker, of New Bedford, in 1851, the cargo con- 

 sisted of 73,707 gallons of whale oil, 5,348 gallons of sperm 

 oil, and 30,012 pounds of whalebone. At the current market 

 prices of 43^ per gallon for whale oil, $1.25 per gallon for 

 sperm oil, and 31^ per pound for whalebone, the gross value 

 of this cargo was found to be $47,682.73. Subtracting from 

 this a series of charges which amounted to $2,362.73, the net 

 proceeds were fixed at $45,320.00. A green hand with a lay 

 of Vioo was then entitled to $226.60 as his gross earnings for 

 the entire voyage j while a seaman with a lay of /leo was 

 credited with $283.25. 



But the amount of a man's lay was only one of many items 



