268 THE AMERICAN WHALEMAN 



board space and to the lack of refrigeration, and in part to the 

 thrift and parsimony of agents and owners, the coarse, staple 

 foods taken to sea were surprisingly inexpensive. But even 

 after allowing for the execrable fare that was commonly fur- 

 nished, "free board" for a period of two to four years was an 

 important matter to the men in the forecastles/*^ 



Just how important it was, however, in accurate terms of 

 dollars and cents, no one seems to have taken the trouble to 

 ascertain. Figures showing the food cost per whaleman, 

 either by the voyage or by the year, are signally lacking 5 but 

 a helpful approximation may be reached by determining the 

 cost of the food consumed during the course of a voyage and 

 then dividing by the number of men in the crew. 



If, then, the sperm whaler and the combined sperm and 

 right whalers are taken as the most significant types, and if 

 thirty is regarded as the average number of men per vessel, it 

 would seem that during the middle decades of the nineteenth 

 century the food cost per individual ranged from a minimum 

 of about $150 to a maximum of about $300 per voyage. If 

 three years is used as a convenient figure for the average length 

 of voyage, the annual food bill per whaleman varied from 

 $50 to $iOOj while the same individual cost, calculated on a 

 daily basis, reached the surprisingly low figure of fourteen 

 cents to twenty-eight cents. Three meals provided at a total 

 outlay of fourteen to twenty-eight cents — from a trifle less 

 than five cents to somewhat more than nine cents per meal! 

 And if (as was actually true during many seasons) the average 

 time at sea of all returning sperm whalers was forty months 

 and more, instead of three years, these annual and daily figures 

 would be still further reduced. ^^ 



The maximum figure of $300 per man per voyage was de- 



^'^ See Chapter VII for a description of whaling food and dining etiquette. 



11 These figures make no distinction between officers and men. To attempt 

 to do so would necessitate raising the food cost per officer and lowering it per 

 foremast hand; for all of the choicest and most expensive articles of food were 

 reserved for the officers or for the entertainment of guests by the captain and 

 mates. It must be borne in mind, too, that these sums are mere approximations, 

 used because of the lack of more precise information; and that in every phase 

 of whaling the variations from normal were legion. Nevertheless, there is 

 valid ground for believing that the majority of large, long-cruising vessels fell 

 between these minimum and maximum figures. 



