242 THE AMERICAN WHALEMAN 



brothel, and from the brothel to a ship again — watched and 

 guarded at every stage, and his fetters unrelaxed — glad to 

 escape, though with injured health, and the loss of all his 

 earnings, to take refuge amidst the perils of the sea from the 

 greater perils of the land." ^^ Thus did the industry entice 

 and retain a significant proportion of its labor supply. 



Another important element in that supply, actuated by non- 

 pecuniary motives, entered the forecastles voluntarily. In the 

 larger whaling ports, where tradition, ambition, and social 

 esteem combined to make whaling the most acceptable means 

 of livelihood, and where the families of the leading merchants 

 constituted a virtual aristocracy, every boy of spirit sought a 

 berth on an outgoing whaler. Other youths, coming from in- 

 land towns and farms as well as from the seaboard, were 

 driven to offer themselves to the shipping-agents by a real or 

 fancied love of the sea, by the lure of foreign travel, or by a 

 dominant spirit of adventure and of wanderlust. And some 

 dare-devil hands, fascinated by the fortunes of the chase and 

 by the sporting element involved in the capture of such gigantic 

 and spirited game, found it impossible to break away from the 

 industry, in spite of the accompanying monotony, brutality, and 

 danger. 



Still other types of men found it convenient to ship on a 

 whaler without inquiring too closely into the amount of earn- 

 ings. Escaped convicts, unapprehended criminals, and that 

 ever mysterious personage, "the man with a past," were alike 

 attracted by the prospect of spending several years in out-of- 

 the-way corners of the globe. Certain lascivious wretches 

 chose a whaling voyage as the most convenient route to the 

 carnal paradise of the South Seas. And the well-known slo- 

 gan, "No Sundays off soundings," held out welcome promises 

 to those unprincipled and maladjusted individuals who were 

 sprinting away from the Ten Commandments. 



As a result of these voluntary enlistments and of the un- 

 scrupulous recruiting practices, the number of foremast hands 

 remained sufficient to meet the needs of the industry. In 



15 Harris, John, "Zebulon; or, The Moral Claims of Seamen Stated and En- 

 forced," p. 63. This work (the first American edition of which was published 

 at Boston in 1837) won for its author a prize of £50. 



