226 THE AMERICAN WHALEMAN 



earned by the regular members of the crew, were payable at 

 the time and place of discharge. For the recruits such dis- 

 charge normally came at the end of the stipulated period of 

 service: for the others, shipped for the duration of an entire 

 voyage, it commonly followed sickness, accident, disability, or 

 a consular order, elicited through representations of particularly 

 brutal treatment or shocking conditions. 



In both instances the same methods of payment were em- 

 ployed. The amount of the lay was calculated by taking the 

 required fraction of the oil and bone which had been captured 

 while the given man was on board. This quantity was then 

 translated into dollars and cents at the current prices for oil 

 and bone — or rather by using the latest price quotations (usu- 

 ally weeks and sometimes months behind time) which had 

 reached the port at which payment was being made. The dif- 

 ference between this gross money lay and the total of his debit 

 items constituted the man's net earnings, which he might re- 

 ceive in one of three main ways. If small, the sum was paid 

 in cash. If an appreciable amount was called for, it was often 

 paid, in part at least, by means of an order on the owners. 

 And not infrequently dollars and cents were reconverted into 

 gallons of oil and the obligation liquidated by taking the re- 

 quired number of gallons from the hold and sending them 

 ashore with the discharged hand. The accounts of the ship 

 Canton, for example, show that during the years 1842 to 1853 

 many of her hands left the vessel with such payments in kind, 

 ranging from 74 gallons to 393 gallons of sperm or whale oil 

 per man. 



But whether payment was made at the time of discharge or, 

 as in the normal case, at the conclusion of a cruise, the great 

 majority of whalemen failed to secure the full value of the 

 sums called for by their fractional shares. So completely did 

 the whaling merchants insist upon dividing the risks of the in- 

 dustry with their crews that they refused to pay outright to 

 anyone a single cent of his earnings until vessel and cargo were 

 safe in port. Consequently the only way a seaman might ob- 

 tain even the smallest sum in cash was to secure it in the form 

 of a loan extended by the owners through the captain j and 

 such loans bore interest at rates which were by no means nomi- 



