178 THE AMERICAN WHALEMAN 



Most whaling log-books contained an interesting pictorial 

 record of all whales encountered during the course of a voy- 

 age. Small ink drawings of various portions of a whale's 

 anatomy were placed in the margin of the log according to a 

 scheme which was as significant to the initiated as it was mean- 

 ingless to the casual reader. If a victim had been killed and 

 tried-out, a representation of the whole animal, with a space 

 for the initials of the victorious boat and the number of barrels 

 of oil obtained, was given in the margin opposite the appro- 

 priate date. If one or more mammals had been raised but 

 not captured, a vertical pair of flukes, suggestive of the act of 

 sounding, was shown for each individual. If a prize had been 

 killed, but subsequently lost through sinking, the word "sunk-" 

 was printed beside the pair of flukes j and certain other re- 

 finements of pictorial representation were sometimes em- 

 ployed. Some mates of artistic pretensions sketched their 

 figures by handj but in most instances the regular, standardized 

 outlines betrayed the use of stamping-pad outfits. 



Under such circumstances whales were pursued whenever 

 they chanced to be encountered, Sundays and holidays included. 

 After weeks of barren search and unrequited hopes even the 

 foremast hands were eager to forego their Sabbath pseudo- 

 holiday if gam.e were sighted on that day. If, on the other 

 hand, the crew had been tired and overworked for a long 

 period, it was the captain, representing the owners, who in- 

 sisted upon sending out the boats at every possible opportunity. 

 For every potential prize which was sighted but unpursued and 

 uncaptured increased by an appreciable margin the length of 

 already overlong voyages. Consequently a Sunday on the 

 whaling grounds was in actual practice a work-day whenever 

 there was anything to be done. 



There were, it is true, a few so-called "Sunday whalers," 

 whose pious captains refused to lower for whales on Sunday. 

 Now and then, too, a faint and isolated voice of protest was 

 raised against a practice which the rigid, ecclesiastical thought 



Treasure Room of Widener Library, Harvard University. Tv70 of the largest 

 and most accessible collections of whaling log-books, however, are to be found 

 in the Whaling Museum and in the Public Library at New Bedford, Massachu- 

 setts. 



