JACK CHEATED IN HIS OUTFIT. 409 



My shipmates, I said before, looked different from 

 what they did aboard ship ; but some of them were 

 exceptions to this rule. Several had nothing coming 

 to them, and could get neither clothing nor money ; 

 pretty hard, was it not, after over three years hard 

 work at sea for one employer, to land without the 

 wherewithal to purchase a meal's victuals. 



There is a dark side to the whaling service, and I 

 shall endeavor to place it before the community in 

 its true character, and I hope that it may discourage 

 those young men from embarking in it who think that 

 money can be saved on a whaling voyage, because 

 there is so little opportunity to spend it. 



In the first place, when a green hand engages to 

 perform a voyage, he knows nothing at all about 

 what clothing he requires. The shark, perhaps, 

 tells him that the ship, being bound to the Indian 

 Ocean, there is no necessity for him providing woolen 

 clothing, and palms off upon him an assortment of 

 blue dungaree raiment, precisely like the summer 

 suits of the population our city supports at the 

 Elockley almshouse. One of these suits will last him 

 about a week; but as he gets into high southern 

 latitudes he finds that he requires woolen clothing, 

 and goes to the slop-chest, imagining that he can get 

 what he wants at a reasonable price. If he inquires 

 how much such an article is valued at, the captain 

 will tell him that he does not know ; but, neverthe- 

 less, he must have the clothes, and therefore takes 

 them, and thus his account goes on increasing during 

 the voyage. Just before the ship returns home, his 

 bill is handed to him by the captain, and what is his 

 dismay to discover that he is indebted to the owners 

 35 



