22 KEDGE ANCHOR. 



as I proceed, I may as well at the outset give him 

 the cognomen by which he was known during his 

 stay aboard with us. His sickness, and ludicrous 

 exclamations of " I wish I was on the steam-waofon 

 again " (he had formerly been brakeman on the i^ew 

 York and Erie Railroad), and pathetic entreaties to 

 be allowed to die in peace, when desired to do any- 

 thing, excited the mirth of all, no sympathy being 

 tendered to him except in one instance, when one 

 of the seamen oflered him a pint of salt water, 

 assuring him it was a cordial ; a mouthful was suifi- 

 cient to undeceive him, he spat out the nauseating 

 draught, and the queer expression he wore on his 

 phiz, and no less queer entreaty to take the darned 

 thing away, were so humorous as to shock his 

 auditors into merriment, and secured him against 

 farther molestation. 



The reason that so many green hands are shipped 

 in vessels engaged in this trade, is, that they are to 

 be engaged for a trifling proportion of the vessel's 

 earnings, and the great difliculty of procuring those 

 who have before been to sea, to go before the mast a 

 second time ; no man whomsoever, if he can make any 

 pretensions to mediocrity, being obliged a second 

 time to go before the mast; he is always qualified for 

 the post of boat-steerer, and can attain it without 

 any trouble; and those who are not disgusted with 

 their first voyage and have a particle of energy or 

 ambition in their composition, invariably do so ; and 

 from boatsteerer gradually ascend to be captains. 

 Whaling is, in fact, a progressive service, and 

 although the probation comprises the best part of a 

 man's life, yet the pinnacle of their fame is an 



