SABBATH FOR A WHALE SHIP. 223 



abouts, there were employed in the whale fish- 

 ery, from the ports of the United States, six 

 hundred and seventy-four vessels, five hundred 

 and ninety- three of them then at sea, chiefly 

 from New Bedford, Nan tucket, Sag Harbor, 

 New London, Stonington, and Newport. 



Allowing, for the average, thirty souls to a 

 ship, which is a moderate computation, there 

 were then more than twenty thousand persons 

 prosecuting this trade. The number has not 

 diminished since, but has rather increased, until 

 the year 1849; and it is an estimate much 

 within bounds, that there are now actually em- 

 ployed in this business, from the ports of the 

 United States, eighteen or twenty thousand men. 

 Among them are men of divers trades and 

 nations, but a large majority are citizens of the 

 United States from remote inland and sea-port 

 towns. 



Their characters and relative degrees of in- 

 telligence and moral worth are different, as are 

 their origin and education. Some are of vicious 

 low stock, vicious education, and an incurable 

 addictedness to vice. Others are of good fami- 



