236 THE AMERICAN WHALEMAN 



keeping capable and responsible men in the positions of com- 

 mand in order to cope with the increasing difficulties of super- 

 vision which accompanied the deterioration of the crews. 



But in point of fact, what were the average monthly earn- 

 ings of American whalemen during the mid-century decades 

 of greatest whaling prosperity? An accurate and precise an- 

 swer to this question, unfortunately, would involve a statistical 

 cleaning of the Augean stables. Not only were there notor- 

 iously wide variations between individual seamen, voyages, ves- 

 sels, and seasons, but the contemporary literature and account- 

 ing systems were couched entirely in terms of the fractional 

 lay rather than of daily or monthly wages. Great quantities 

 of records and account-books have been defaced, lost, or de- 

 stroyed j and many of those which still remain have been mu- 

 tilated or contain only fragmentary entries. But average earn- 

 ings based upon considerable bodies of representative material 

 may be discovered j and if accepted as being broadly suggestive 

 rather than precisely conclusive, these averages possess both 

 validity and significance. 



The accounts of three typical and well-known whalers yield 

 the following results.' 



9 



Average Length of Voyage and Average Earnings of 83 Fore- 

 mast Hands Carried by the Ship James Maury During Six Con- 

 secutive Voyages, 1 845-1 868. 



Average Length of Voyage 1218 Days 



Average Lay per Voyage $321.21 



Average Earnings per Month $ 7.92 



Average Earnings per Day $ .264 



Average Length of Voyage and Average Earnings of 70 Foremast 

 Hands Carried by the Bark Marcella During Four Consecutive Voy- 

 ages, 1845-1856. 



Average Length of Voyage 935 Days 



Average Lay per Voyage $97.60 



Average Earnings per Month $ 3-^^ 



Average Earnings per Day $ .104 



^ The figures entering into these averages were obtained through an examina- 

 tion of the original manuscript account-books, now in the New Bedford Public 

 Library. Almost two hundred accounts, taken from thirteen voyages made by 

 three representative vessels during the greatest period of American whaling, 

 are included. 



