THE AMERICAN WHALEMAN. 31 



And of the sterner duties of our hardy profession : 



" Cease, rude Boreas, blustering railer ! 

 List ye landsmen unto me, 

 Listen to a brother-sailor 

 Sing the dangers of the sea. '' 



If need be, he must, handspike in hand, mount the windlass 

 and, in deepest bass, lead the chorus, 



" With a stamp and a go. 

 And 'Yo, heave oh!'" 



In brief, the " minstrel boy " must have a fitting song for 

 all moods and every occasion. He is an attraction in the 

 carouse on shore, and in the night-watch in calm and storm. 

 Such a treasure we had in our mulatto boat-steerer, Harry 

 Hinton. Brave and faithful, he never shrunk from a duty 

 below or aloft, or a danger in boat or port. He stuck to 

 the Chelsea through good and evil, and was one of the six 

 who remained to drop anchor from our old ship in New 

 London harbor. 



The sailor is an insatiable lover of the yarn, and his pas- 

 sion is still strong after he has put aside his sea-legs and set- 

 tled in the peaceful home, away from the blue water. The 

 marvelous narrations of the forecastle and the quarter-deck 

 have as wide a range as the songs. One of our crew had 

 mastered Mavor's voyages, "Walter Scott, Cooper, and Mar- 

 ryat; and being blessed with a memory that held all the 

 wonderful and beautiful of his earliest readings from the 

 " Good Book," he was able to hold the watch in breathless 

 attention through many bells — now with the matchless story 

 of " Ivanhoe," now with the " Talisman," now with " Peter 

 Simple " and " Snarleyow," or with the adventures of the old 

 terrors of the seas on which sailed the English buccaneers. 

 The wild extravagances of Hackett's Nimrod Wildfire and 

 Forrest's Metamora were recited in minutest detail, regard- 



