X 



SKETCHES AFLOAT WITH THE 

 WHALERS 



THAT the original deep-water whaling ves- 

 sels were manned by the men who had 

 built and owned them has already been 

 noted. On the return of such a ship to port the 

 crew received lays or shares, in proportion to the 

 work each had done, and then the remainder 

 of the catch was divided in proportion to the 

 share each owned in the ship. When oil was 

 at its lowest such a crew could live by their fishing, 

 and when it was high they might grow rich. The 

 energetic and ambitious poor man never had a 

 better chance to get on in the world than in the 

 early days of the American whale fishery. Nat- 

 urally the ambitious poor flocked to the whaling 

 ports, and the population of those ports grew in 

 more ways than one with the growth of the fishery. 

 Thus the ships were then supplied with excellent 



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