70 WHALING AND FISHING. 



ficien cy to satisfy the appetites of all being at all 

 times furnished. In several matters, however, 

 whaleships are better provided than either the 

 naval or merchant service. 



In the first place, as on such long voyages, 

 where, too, the vessel is for many months at a time 

 cruising about at sea, men are very liable to attacks 

 of scurvy, captains and owners take care to have 

 constantly, so long as they can be procured, a 

 plentiful supply of potatoes a luxury which is 

 unknown in the navy, and not always found in 

 the merchant service. Again, as everything is 

 tightly stowed away in large, well made casks, 

 provisions of all kinds are much better preserved 

 than on any other voyages. This is particularly 

 the case with the bread or biscuit, which will be 

 found of excellent quality in a whaleship three or 

 four years from home, while in a naval vessel it is 

 often worm-eaten worthless trash when but a few 

 months out. 



But if the provisions are good, the cooks are as 

 a general thing execrable realizing the old pro- 

 verb, which ascribes a totally opposite origin to 

 the victuals and those who prepare them. Our 

 cook was a negro, whose only virtue was cleanli- 

 ness. His cooking stove was always bright and 

 polished, and the copper-sheathed floor of his 

 galley served excellently as a mirror, wherein his 

 shining black face was reflected in a hundred 

 different attitudes and contortions. He changed 

 bis linen much oftener than the captain, and 



