Introduction 11 



I found nothing in Melville except the passage in Mardi where he teUs of the 

 ship's sailing along the line, crossing it over and over again as it vainly hoped 

 for the "Thar she blows" from the lookout. Even if it tells nothing about 

 "our" ceremony the passage is quoted below under 1846, the date of publica- 

 tion. 



Whalers' logs are just about as garrulous and talkative as logs of other 

 ships — position, coiKses, winds, barrels of ou. We do have here sketches by 

 whalers in shape of Haley (1849), Dubarry (1869), Robertson (1950/51). 

 Three pictures by whalers! And whaling voyages must nm well into the 

 thousands. 



In the quotations let me say that the obvious comment is that English 

 bvJks larger than other tongues because more books were at hand in EngHsh. 

 I'm not so sure about that, am more than sure the search was keener to find 

 records in other languages. It is perhaps due to the fact that the great swing 

 upwards in English voyages came in the eighteenth and later centuries, with 

 American voyages about a century later. Most entries come from printed 

 books, again because printed sources were more readuy at hand than manu- 

 script. Would that time could have permitted going through oflBcial navy 

 records at home and abroad; dipping into sources in India House, in Salem 

 or New Bedford or Mystic or Sag Harbor. Personal narratives have I sought 

 from each and every sailor I found, but when it came to teUing what happened 

 when Father Neptune made his visit, the usual reply has been a laconic 

 "Plenty," httle more. 



So too, it may be not unfitting to tell how the "Rambler" in the story 

 entered below under 1792, from The Gentlevians Magazine offers this sage 

 remark as excuse and reason for the prüiting of the letter to the editor: "And 

 as every custom, however ridiculous it may have dwindled into (as for in- 

 stance, swearing at Highgate) has had a salutary foimdation, I should wish 

 some of your numerous readers, or your own phüanthrophic self; would be 

 pleased to tell me from what occasion it arose. Time that is employed in 

 investigation must be of general utüity, for it often draws, if not a satisfactory 

 conclusion of our own, a wise one from a better informed man; so, good 

 Mr. Urban, call upon some of your many friends; and fix an opinion about it." 



None of Mr. Urban's many friends, so far as I can find, chose to tell him 

 "from what occasion" this ceremony arose, or to show how much a "better 

 informed" man was that friend on this point. 



Let us now, a century and a half later beg oin: own "philanthrophic" editor 

 to pass on to his own numerous readers this new word of good wishes and high 

 hope. If he does, please pray for better luck than greeted this appeal of 1792. 



