THE WHITE WHALE 219 
superiority in the English whalemen does really consist, it would he 
hard to say, seeing that the Yankees in one day, collectively, kill more 
whales than all the English, collectively, in ten years. But this is a 
harmless little foible in the English whale-hunters, which the Nantuck- 
eter does not take much to heart ; probably, because he knows that he 
has a few foibles himself. 
So, then, we see that of all ships separately sailing the sea, the whalers 
have most reason to be sociable — and they are so : whereas, some mer- 
chant ships crossing each other’s wake in the mid-Atlantic, will often- 
times pass on without so much as a single word of recognition, mutually 
cutting each other on the high seas, like a brace of dandies in Broad- 
way ; and all the time indulging, perhaps, in finical criticism upon each 
other’s rig. As for men-of-war, when they chance to meet at sea, they 
first go through such a string of silly bowings and scrapings, such a 
ducking of ensigns, that there does not seem to he much right-down 
hearty goodwill and brotherly love about it at all. As touching slave 
ships meeting, why, they are in such a prodigious hurry, they run 
away from each other as soon as possible. And as for pirates, when 
they chance to cross each other’s cross-bones, the first hail is — “How 
many skulls ?” — the same way that whalers hail — “How many barrels ?” 
And that question once answered, pirates straightway steer apart, for 
they are infernal villains on both sides, and don’t like to see overmuch 
of each other’s villainous likenesses. 
But look at the godly, honest, unostentatious, hospitable, sociable, 
free-and-easy whaler ! What does the whaler do when she meets 
another whaler in any sort of decent weather; she has a “Gam,” a 
thing so utterly unknown to all other ships that they never heard of 
the name even ; and if by chance they should hear of it, they only grin 
at it, and repeat gamesome stuff about “spouters” and “blubber-boilers,” 
and suchlike pretty exclamations. Why is it that all merchant seamen, 
and also all pirates and man-of-war’s men, and slave ship sailors, cherish 
such a scornful feeling towards whale ships ? this is a question it would 
be hard to answer. Because, in the case of pirates, say, I should like 
to know whether that profession of theirs has any peculiar glory 
about it. It sometimes ends in uncommon elevation, indeed ; hut only 
at the gallows. And besides, when a man is elevated in that odd 
fashion, he has no proper foundation for his superior altitude. Hence, 
