DEBITS AND CREDITS 265 



existence of serious need and of the dependability of the 

 whaleman whose account was to be debited. At times, how- 

 ever, it was impossible to escape some degree of obligation j 

 and in such rare instances the transaction gave rise to the last 

 of the long list of debits charged against the crews while away 

 at sea. 



Credits, by contrast, were few in number. In many in- 

 stances one lone entry, consisting of the amount of the lay, 

 was left in single-handed opposition to its smaller, but numer- 

 ous, antagonists. Normally the strength of the lay was suffi- 

 cient to prevail against its crowding adversaries j but fre- 

 quently it was dragged down to defeat. And every defeat 

 meant that some whaleman actually found himself in debt to 

 the owners for whom he had been working throughout many 

 months.^ 



Occasionally, however, the lonesome lay was joined by two 

 small and not-too-valiant brothers-in-arms. One of these was 

 the entry for bounties and rewards. In order to stimulate 

 alertness on the part of the look-outs, balanced precariously 

 on the cross-trees high above the deck, whaling captains some- 

 times offered rewards to those hands who "sang out" long 

 and often. The terms of these awards, varying widely, were 

 determined at the pleasure of the respective masters. The 

 winner might be the man who sighted the first whale of the 

 voyage, or the hand who announced the greatest number of 

 "Blo-o-o-ws" during the entire cruise, or the seaman whose 

 victims yielded the largest quantity of oil. Actual capture 

 and stowing away of the oil was usually insisted upon : the man 

 who sighted a whale which escaped was seldom honored. 



The prizes were limited both in amount and in variety. 

 The more penurious captains sought to induce watchfulness 

 by offering a few pounds of tobacco, a handful of cigars, or 

 an article of clothing from the slop-chest. More commonly, 

 however, the rewards consisted of cashj and occasionally these 

 cash payments were placed upon a steady and business-like 

 basis. During a voyage extending from 1842 to 1845, for 

 instance, the bark Canton had a standing offer of four dollars 



^ See Chapter X for a detailed account of the lay system. 



