232 THE AMERICAN WHALEMAN 



a grand total of $37,661.02. After allowing for certain in- 

 cidental expenses, $24,252.74 was apportioned amongst the 

 owners, while the remaining $13,045.53 went to the crew. 

 The captain received $2052.13; the first mate, $1381.41; the 

 second mate, $1008.06; the two boatsteerers, each $777.05; 

 the cooper, $621.64; the boy, $310.82; and the seamen, in- 

 cluding several "blacks" and temporary hands, from $108.36 

 to $497.31 each. 



The turn of the century which marked the interval between 

 the voyages of the Lydia and the Lion saw the beginning of a 

 drop in the fractional lay which was not arrested for some fifty 

 years. The seamen who sailed on the Lydia in 1795 received 

 shares which were greater than those paid during any subse- 

 quent period in the history of the industry. Only a decade 

 later, when the Lion left the shallow waters of Nantucket Har- 

 bor and stood out to sea, the downward tendency of the lay 

 was unmistakable in the forecastle, though it was barely dis- 

 cernible in the steerage and quite invisible in the cabin. Dur- 

 ing the following years the decline was slowly accelerated until 

 the Minerva y shipping hands in 1836, was enabled to obtain 

 seamen at half the rates prevailing in 1795, and boatsteerers 

 for something more than half. Captain and mates, however, 

 still exacted the same fractions. The distance between the 

 forecastle and the cabin had been materially increased. 



Another full decade was required to bring the descending 

 lay to a halt. The wages called for by the crew-account of 

 the Brighton when she sailed in 1847, "^^^ the almost identical 

 shares distributed by the Fabius when she reached port early 

 in January, 1849, were markedly lower than those offered by 

 the Alinerva. Masters and mates had again succeeded in main- 

 taining their positions; but all other ranks had been forced to 

 accept reductions. The Brighton paid her green hands from 



cella were taken from the manuscript account-books now in the New Bedford 

 Public Library. Those for the Lydia were also taken from the original manu- 

 script, now in the museum of the Old Dartmouth Historical Society. An ac- 

 count of the voyage of the Lion is given in an article by James Freeman, called 

 "Notes on Nantucket, August ist, 1807," in the Massachusetts Historical So- 

 ciety Collections, Series 2, Volume HI, pp. 19-38. The lays normally paid at 

 New Bedford during the early eighties were set down by Brown, J. T'., in 

 "Fisheries and Fishery Industries of the United States" (Goode, G. B., Ed- 

 itor), VII, p. 292. 



