Sketches Afloat with the Whalers 247 



It was an advertisement something like one of 

 those that drew to the sea J. Ross Brown, whose 

 Etchings of a Whaling Cruise was once a "best- 

 seller" among sea stories. He had grown tired 

 of the work of a Washington reporter, and on 

 coming to New York thought to see the world 

 from the deck of a whale ship. 



"You think we'll do?" he asked timidly after 

 he and a companion had applied to a crimp. 



"Oh, no doubt about it," replied the crimp. 

 "I'm willing to risk you though I may lose some- 

 thing by it. If you are determined to make a voy- 

 age, I'll put you in the way of shipping in a most 

 elegant vessel, well fitted, that's the great well- 

 fitted Vigilana, and activity will insure your 

 rapid promotion. I haven't the last doubt but 

 you will come home boat steerers. I sent off six 

 college students a few days ago, and a poor fel- 

 low who had been flogged away from home by 

 a vicious wife. A whaler, gentlemen, a whaler 

 is a place of refuge for the distressed and perse- 

 cuted, a school for the dissipated, an asylum 

 for the needy. There's nothing like it. You can 

 see the world you can see something of life." 



