282 The Story of the New England Whalers 



The bark Java, that sailed from New Bedford 

 on Octobers, 1872, carried a donkey engine on 

 deck for use in all hoisting work, and especially 

 when cutting in. The modern steam whalers 

 have steam winches for the same purpose. 



"Scrimshawing" and "gamming" alone remain 

 to be considered in the life of whaler crews. 

 "Gamming" was simply visiting from ship to 

 ship whenever opportunity offered. A boat from 

 each of two ships meeting in fair weather would 

 be lowered to carry parties to and fro. It was 

 a hard ship indeed where the crew was not al- 

 lowed such a bit of recreation, and the men 

 who thus got together told stories, sang, and 

 danced to their hearts' content. "Scrimshaw- 

 ing" was the work of the whaler artists. In 

 all but the worst ships the men were allowed 

 at least half of each twenty-four-hour day to 

 themselves. On some ships they had more than 

 half. This leisure was allowed, of course, only 

 when there was no whale in sight or alongside. 

 The men could not sleep all of their watches 

 below and there were no circulating or other 

 libraries on whale ships. To pass away the 



