76 REPORT OP COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 
The remarkable fact that so many men from interior States have 
Americans, but suggests something of the manner in which crews of 
whaling vessels are collected at San Francisco and the total lack of 
experience of some of the men. 
The San Francisco Chronicle of January 23, 1887, states: 
' 
In hiring sailors and officers for whaling voyages, the services of men designated as 
shipping masters are called into requisition. Various systems are resorted to to 
obtain men. Plying with liquor of the vilest description, doling out sufficient money 
to enable them to keep within the clutches of the harpies who float around the Barbary 
coast and water-front region, and in some cases conveying desirable men into interior 
towns until the ship is ready to sail, are the methods in vogue. The classes of men 
composing the crews are of a most heterogeneous description ; men who have never 
seen the sea, and to whom a ship is as unfamiliar as a rhinoceros, are to be found on 
board of a whaler. 
Besides these classes a whaling vessel has for a crew some of the greatest drunkards 
to be found in a large city, jail-birds, and thieves. In this mass of humanity, gath- 
ered within the confines of a forecastle, good leaven is small. The majority of those 
who can pull a boat at the outset of a whaling voyage are Kanakas, natives of the 
Caroline Islands, or men from the Azores. This class of men regard whaling as a 
profession. 
The lower grades of officers, such as boat-steerers and boat-headers, are nearly all 
colored men or Portuguese from Capo de Verde Islands. As is usual with ignorant 
persons placed in authority, their treatment of green hands before the mast is any- 
thing but kind. The mates and masters on the vessels are, with few exceptions, Ameri- 
cans, hailing from New Bedford or other Eastern whaling ports. Many instances are 
made public of the cruelty with which the sailors are treated by these officers, but 
while there are, no doubt, occasions when brutality is displayed, in most cases the 
sailors’ treatment is aggravated by their own conduct. When it is remembered that 
the crews of whaling ships are composed partly of a useless set of men and partly of 
a lot of vagabonds who speedily demoralize the others, it must be conceded that a 
strong hand is required to keep order and preserve discipline. 
The statements above quoted may be a little overdrawn so far as their 
general application to the whale fishery is concerned, but they are jus- 
tified by conditions which too frequently exist in connection with this 
industry. Still it is but just to say that much of this is unavoidable, 
and while other and more commendable conditions are desirable, it will 
be conceded that any useful employment of those who otherwise might 
be idle or worse must be considered of great importance, particularly 
when this results in the maintenance of an extensive industry. 
The men are shipped on shares, as usual in the whale fishery, and 
they receive “long” or “ short” lays, in proportion to their skill and 
experience. A considerable percentage of the men reship each season 
and because of their experience often receive better lay r s than those not 
previously employed in the fishery. But many merchant sailors or 
others are shipped who know nothing of whaling ; their lay is usually 
so “long” that they must be very “lucky” to earn more than enough 
to “ square-up” at the end of the season, since the advance received 
before sailing and “slop-chest” charges during the voyage are gener- 
ally equal to or in excess of their earnings ; indeed, the general rule 
