DEBITS AND CREDITS 267 



consisted of sums due from third parties. At times the petty 

 obligations between various members of a crew found their 

 way into the accounts of the men concerned. Among the 

 figures pertaining to the eleventh voyage of the bark Mar- 

 cella, for instance, is a notation to the effect that a certain sea- 

 man had been doing the mate's washing for an entire year, 

 and that he asked to have his wages as a laundryman added to 

 his earnings as a whaleman. Other men, on other vessels, 

 became creditors through the performance of personal serv- 

 ices, through the sale of belongings, or through the produc- 

 tion of elaborate scrimshaw work. Whatever the occasion for 

 the debt, the deferred receipt of payment sometimes gave rise 

 to this last and least important of the credits. 



But there were also several "credits in kind," consisting of 

 goods or utilities for which no monetary equivalent was ex- 

 acted by the owners. -Witness the opportunities for visiting 

 strange lands, gratification of a love of the sea, and a plentiful 

 supply of whalebone for the monotony-routing scrimshaw 

 work. Such matters, comprising inevitable and incidental by- 

 products, and involving no additional outlay, would scarcely 

 deserve even passing mention were it not that they did add to 

 the scanty list of satisfactions offered by a whaling cruise, and 

 as such were not to be entirely overlooked. 



A similar item was that of "free room," including a bunk in 

 the forecastle or steerage. Obviously living quarters for the 

 crew constituted a sine qua non of any whaling voyage, to be 

 provided by the owners as a matter of course. It would have 

 been both absurd and impossible to attempt to determine the 

 value of the forecastle to the various foremast hands, and to 

 collect appropriate sums in rent. But the agents might have 

 levied purely arbitrary charges for the use of the bunks, just as 

 they did for providing a medicine-chest, for advances of cash, 

 and for fitting and discharging their vessels. Their failure to 

 take advantage of such a conceivable rent-charge left the crews 

 with the maritime equivalent of "free rent." 



By far the most important of the "credits in kind," how- 

 ever, was food. It was customary on board all American 

 whalers for the owners to provide all meals throughout the 

 duration of a voyage. Due in part to the limitations of ship-. 



