Early Days on Nantucket 59 



and enterprise were encouraged, with the result that 

 American shipping increased at a marvellous pace. 

 Most interesting is a comparison of the oppor- 

 tunities of the men in the various kinds of ships 

 during the early (eighteenth century) days of the 

 colonies. The average captain of the average 

 slaver certainly made much more money than the 

 average whaler captain. Even when the owners 

 of cod-fishing vessels took one-half the catch, the 

 crews received a greater per cent on the sale of the 

 fare than the crews of whalers secured from their 

 lays. If the fact that a slave ship was a floating 

 cesspool kept Nantucket men from the slave trade, 

 there was no such objection to the cod fishery. 

 Even the cargo-carrying trade afforded, on the 

 average, more money to the crews than the whale 

 fishery. Hull paid his captains 4 a month and 

 his best seamen 2 los. The average whaler 

 did not get as much as that. Thus in 1730 the 

 twenty-five vessels that brought in 3200 worth 

 of product had only 128 each. The captains with 

 a lay of one-eighteenth received for that year less 

 on the average than 8, where one of Hull's 

 captains earned 48. 



