28 A YEAR WITH A WHALER 



of the most expert harpooners of the Arctic 

 Ocean whahng fleet. 



Little Johnny, the other boatsteerer, was a 

 mulatto from the Barbadoes, English islands of 

 the West Indies. He was a strapping, intelli- 

 gent young man, brimming over with vitality 

 and high spirits and with all a plantation darky's 

 love of fun. His eyes were bright and his cheeks 

 ruddy with perfect health; he loved dress and 

 gay colors and was quite the dandy of the crew. 



Five of the men of the forecastle were deep- 

 water sailors. Of these one was an American, 

 one a German, one a Norwegian, and two 

 Swedes. They followed the sea for a living and 

 had been bunkoed by their boarding bosses into 

 believing they would make large sums of money 

 whaling. They had been taken in by a confi- 

 dence game as artfully as the man who loses his 

 money at the immemorial trick of three shells 

 and a pea. When they learned they would get 

 only a dollar at the end of the voyage and con- 

 templated the loss of an entire working year, 

 they were full of resentment and righteous, 

 though futile, anger. 



