240 THE AMERICAN WHALEMAN 



Average Daily Wages (Without Room and Board) of Unskilled 

 Labor in Massachusetts, 1 831-1860, and in the United States, 1841— 

 i860. 



Massachusetts United States United States 

 (Mass. Bureau (Aldrich (Tenth 

 of Labor Report- Census- 

 Statistics) Abbott) Abbott) 



Decade Ending 1840 $ .872 



Decade Ending 1850 $ .852 $ .879 $ .837 



Decade Ending i860 $ .975 $ .985 $ .976 



1840-1860, Inclusive $ .913 $ .932 $ .906 



Contrast these amounts, paid on shore between 1840 and 

 i860, with the money lays received by whaling foremast hands 

 during the same period: 



Average Length of Voyage and Average Daily Earnings of 156 

 Foremast Hands Carried by the Vessels James Maury , MarcelUy and 

 Minerva during Ten Voyages Made Between 1840 and i860. 



Average Length of Voyage 937 Days 



Average Lay per Voyage $180.54 



Average Earnings per Day $ -193 



In round terms, the average whaleman was receiving about 

 twenty cents per day, plus food and bunk space, at a time when 

 the average unskilled shore worker was being paid about ninety 

 cents per day without room and board. Since wages paid in 

 addition to board and room were from 33% to 50% lower 

 than ordinary money wages, these same shore laborers would 

 have received from forty-five cents to sixty cents per day if 

 they had been living with their employers. That is, when av- 

 erage earnings were reckoned on a comparable basis, the lowest 

 grade of landlubber could sell his untrained strength for an 

 amount two to three times as great as that obained by the oc- 

 cupant of a whaling forecastle. ^^ 



L4 



i*This general conclusion is subject to qualification by a series of factors 

 which do not lend themselves readily to numerical analysis. In extenuation of 

 the low whaling earnings were the desperately low caliber of the crews, the 

 lack of interested efficiency, the large percentage of untrained and exploitable 

 Portuguese and South Sea Islanders, and the fact that the higher ranks of 

 shipboard life were omitted from the calculations. On the other hand, green 

 hands, "seasoners," and all abnormal cases were also omitted, so that the aver- 

 age figures represent the earnings of only the more steady foremast hands. 



