DEBITS AND CREDITS 259 



out these same years the captain of the ship Adeline was also 

 charging 50% per voyage, though in one instance he outdid 

 himself by increasing the rate to 60%. Nor did these vessels 

 monopolize the excessive interest charges. Small wonder 

 that interest and insurance payments were significant items on 

 the debit side of crew account-books! 



In addition to slop-chest purchases, cash advances, and in- 

 terest charges, certain minor but interesting items often found 

 their way into the debit columns. Among such entries were 

 orders assigning given sums to third parties. Petty financial 

 obligations, arising in various ways during the course of a long 

 voyage, could not always be settled to the mutual satisfaction 

 of the bargainers. In such cases, if the creditor was insistent, 

 it was common to make out an order directing the agents, at the 

 time of the final settlement, to pay the required sum to the 

 person specified and to subtract a like amount from the lay of 

 the debtor. These orders often found their way into the 

 hands of the captain, who incorporated their terms into the ac- 

 counts of the two men concerned. Because of the extra book- 

 keeping and the danger of numerous complications, however, 

 the agents sought to restrict this practice to the officers and the 

 more responsible foremast hands. 



Desertion, too, caused extra charges. If a whaleman es- 

 caped from his vessel, his account was usually debited with the 

 expenses involved in hiring another man to take his place, 

 with the wages of any shore labor necessitated by his absence, 

 and with the fees connected with his apprehension and arrest 

 (if, as often occurred, he was discovered and returned to his 

 captain). In the crew accounts of the ship William C. Nye, 

 for instance, is to be found this receipt, strikingly suggestive 

 of a large number of similar transactions: 



Ship Wm. C. Nye To Port of Honolulu Dr. 



For Arrest of Manuel Laurence $20 



Honolulu Novr. 29, 1853. 



Received Payment, 



W. C. Parke. 



For those deserters who were able to escape recapture, how- 

 ever, debit entries were of no practical effect. For on the one 



