232 THE WHALE AND 



The Whale-ship Law. Whale-ship Sabbath breaking. 



But what is the law to which they are all 

 alike subjected in whale ships ? With very few 

 exceptions, to be stated in their place, it is a 

 law that acknowledges no Sabbath, but com- 

 pels them to labor alike on the seventh day and 

 all days, in order to capture whales and fill 

 their ship. I repeat it, for the information of 

 those whom it may concern, there is no Sab- 

 bath known in the whale fishery. 



As generally conducted, it makes eighteen 

 or twenty thousand habitual Sabbath-breakers. 

 Men are kept at the fore and main mast heads, 

 boats are lowered, whales are taken and "cut 

 in," and all the work incident thereto is done 

 on the Sabbath just as much as on any day, 

 and this without the pretence of a plea of ne- 

 cessity, as in working a ship, but solely in or- 

 der to " fill up" as soon as possible, and return 

 to port with a cargo, taken as it comes, it mat- 

 ters not how, whether in those sacred hours 

 which the easy owner ashore has been spending 

 at church, or in the busy week days which he 

 devotes to the counting-room, or farm, or work- 

 shop. 



Owners, too, know this when their ships go 

 from port, are generally willing it should be so, 



