238 THE AMERICAN WHALEMAN 



had carried the Enderby house-flag into every corner of the 

 world, he compiled these figures: ^^ 



Average Monthly Earnings of Seamen in the English Sperm Whale 

 Fishery, 1801-1845. 



£ s 



1801-1810 2 II 



1811-1815 3 o 



1816-1820 3 2 



1821-1825 I 14 



1826-1830 2 3 



1831-1835 I 16 



1836-1842 2 2 



1843 1 7 



1844 I 9 



1845 I 7 



In sum, during the middle decades of the nineteenth cen- 

 tury, the average wage of the whaling foremast hand would 

 seem to have centered about a range of three to eight dollars 

 per month. These amounts, however, were in addition to food 

 and bunk space, which were provided without charge on board 

 all whaling vessels. On the other hand, a large proportion of 

 a man's earnings was required to pay for outfit and slop-chest 

 articles and to meet heavy interest charges upon advances. 

 Since prices were commonly exorbitant and interest rates more 

 than generous, real wages were largely reduced by such pay- 

 ment in kind. These two opposing qualifications, together with 

 the lack of comprehensive wage data, render it impossible to 

 fix upon any definite figure for real wages which would avoid 

 a misleading air of exactness. Similarly the average money 

 wage must be regarded as a rough approximation rather than as 

 precise truth. 



Even after allowing for a generous margin of error, how- 



1^ Enderby, Charles, "A Proposal for Re-Establishing the British Southern 

 Whale Fishery," London, 1847. While this material applies only to the Eng- 

 lish branch of the industry, it serves in part, at least, as a means of filling the 

 gap caused by the absence of any collected American figures of equal scope and 

 authenticity. Mr. Enderby, because of family tradition and long personal ex- 

 perience, was peculiarly well fitted for the task of securing and interpreting 

 such a mass of data. The differences between English and American whaling 

 were not great enough to obscure a fundamental similarity which rendered 

 the conditions prevailing under the Union Jack strongly suggestive of those 

 existing under the Stars and Stripes. 



