262 FOLLOW THE WHALE 



Amerindians. One British vessel had a Russian captain, Dutch purser, 

 Arab first mate, Nigerian boatswain, and ten other nationalities 

 among its crew. 



In almost all crews the Negro African figured very prominently, 

 and those from Portuguese West Africa proved particularly out- 

 standing as whalemen. They usually far surpassed all others of what- 

 ever racial or national origin in this art, and many of them settled 

 along the New England coast, where they became known, and still 

 are known, as "Bravas," which, for once, is more a term of endear- 

 ment than of opprobrium. They are hard-working, honest seamen, 

 and when all others abandoned the old sailing ships, they not only 

 clung to them, but kept patching them up with loving care, and mak- 

 ing payments out of their earnings on the rotting hulks on a sort of 

 primitive installment plan. Eventually they came to own almost all 

 that remained of the fleet, either by purchase or by default of others. 

 In some cases even, they obtained the ships as outright gifts and they 

 sailed them all over the earth with their own crews and made a 

 modest profit by whaling in the old and tried manner while the rest 

 of the world slugged it out with submarines, dreadnoughts, and even 

 the first airplanes. The last of the grand old whalers foundered on 

 Cape Hatteras in 1924 with a full hold. Today, only the proud 

 Charles W. Morgan remains partly entombed in concrete at the 

 Marine Historical Society's beautifully reconstructed whaling port at 

 Mystic, Connecticut. 



But we have run ahead of our story in order to complete the his- 

 tory of the last American whaling effort. Actually, this came to an 

 end as a really effective enterprise about 1870 when other peoples 

 with new techniques started operations upon an entirely new group 

 of whales in hitherto untouched sea-countries. Thereafter, the effort 

 was merely a relic of a former glory, although it presents some ex- 

 traordinarily interesting side lights to any who regard themselves as 

 "students." Quite apart from this, these remnants are strangely in- 

 triguing. 



There are also certain aspects of the "golden age" itself which are 

 tacitly omitted from most accounts, but which are of enormous im- 

 portance to a proper understanding of the industry. One is the be- 

 havior of the sperm whales; the other, that of the human beings in- 

 volved in their pursuit. 



