62 The Story of the New England Whalers 



It is a curious fact, worth mentioning here, 

 that in the seventeenth century employers on land 

 were sometimes fined for paying, and workmen 

 were publicly flogged for accepting, higher wages 

 than the law prescribed. The whalemen who 

 went to sea for a "lay" were not subject to any 

 such law. 



If the owners be considered by themselves, it is 

 found that they were doing pretty well even on 

 the average. Their income compared very well 

 with Mayhew's "twenty od pounds" profit on a 

 voyage to the Bermudas. This is of interest be- 

 cause the increasing wealth of the owners was 

 not a matter that excited, at that time, the envy 

 of the forecastle men. It excited, rather, their 

 emulation, because every ambitious forecastle 

 man had opportunity to become an owner to 

 hold shares in ships. Ownership followed easily 

 on the lay system of paying the crew. At the end 

 of every "greasy" voyage the men drew more 

 money than they needed for home and personal 

 supplies (they drew it "in a lump," too), and it 

 was the natural and usual thing for them to invest 

 the surplus in the business wherein they had made 



