192 WHALING 



West; but it contains also the following significant passage: 

 '' Carpenter's wages here are $12 to $14 per day; laborer's, $5 to 

 $8. Captain's $500 per month; mates $300; seamen $150. The 

 very mischief will be to pay among the whalemen." 



That concluding statement was mild. Early in 1849 the 

 Whaleman's Shipping List printed a letter from Captain Perry 

 of the barque Minerva, written off the coast of Peru in October, 

 1848, when the Minerva was bound to Valparaiso, which ran 

 as follows: "After the season on the Off Shore I went to San 

 Francisco to recruit, intending to go into the Bays for elephant 

 oil, but the excitement there in relation to the discovery of gold, 

 made it impossible to prevent the crew from running away. 

 Three of the crew in attempting to swim ashore were drowned, 

 and the ship's company soon became too much reduced to con- 

 tinue the whaling voyage. A charter was offered me to go to 

 Valparaiso and back, at $1500 per month, which I of course 

 took, and shall take another, if offered, on my return. If not, 

 I intend to proceed to the Sandwich Islands, complete my crew, 

 and continue the voyage." In almost no time at all there was, 

 from the point of view of master whalemen, not mischief merely, 

 but the devil himself to pay. 



Whaling vessels had long been in the habit of visiting Pacific 

 ports for wood and water, and for refitting; but another letter, 

 this from a seaman on board the whaleship Massachusetts, of 

 Nantucket, published in the issue of the same paper for August 

 7, 1849, gives still another graphic picture of what the gold fever 

 was beginning to do to the whahng industry: ''Our Captain has 

 concluded to go to the mines instead of proceeding on a whaling 

 voyage. He intends to take all hands with him, and give us two- 

 thirds of the gold we procure." The crews of vessels that touched 

 even at South American ports, learning of the gold strike, de- 

 serted and bent every effort on getting to San Francisco. Other 

 vessels, touching at Panama, took on board hordes of passengers 

 for California, and, ''our fare is very common indeed, even in the 

 cabin," one of them wrote, " — the steerage passengers live like 

 dogs." At the Isthmus, whither extravagant accounts of 

 the gold fields were coming by way of Callao, there were, on 



