128 
the theory of seasickness thorough¬ 
ly. He said he was initiated into its 
workings when at the age of 13 he 
ran away from home and stowed 
away on the old whaling schooner 
Union and he came out from below 
24 hours later nearly dead. One 
minute he said, he thought he was 
going to die ai*id the next minute 
he was afraid he wasn’t going to 
die. His folks were all good whale¬ 
men, he said, and he used to sit 
around and listen and take in all 
the whaling yarn they told, and he 
was not satisfied until he ran away 
and got on board a whaler. Those 
were the days he said, when if a 
young fellow went to sea and showed 
any signs of making a good whale¬ 
men that folks would remark, ‘’there 
is a boy that will make his mark in 
the world/* 
“Now if a boy goes whaling." de¬ 
clared the captain, "he will have to 
live in his own town 20 years to live 
down the scandal." 
Those were the days, said the cap¬ 
tain when a whaleboat was low¬ 
ered and you were told' that one 
more stroke would take you up to 
the whaje, and that one stroke was 
oftentimes still missing when it was 
too dark to chase the whale any 
longer, and hungry, he said, why 
those were the days when after get¬ 
ting on board you would be served 
one potato, and likely as not * it 
would be false hfearted at that. Cap-* 
tain Tilton said that at 14 he re¬ 
membered he was at Bermuda. He 
had been to sea ever since that time, 
and he would say the first 20 years 
was the worst. He said he had 
sailed' every sea and every known 
ocean and he had been swept from 
stem to stern by them all. But with 
all his trials at sea. Captain Tilton 
said his great desire was to fit out 
a ship just as he wanted her, take 
12 congenial companions and go out 
and look the -world over for three 
years, and then he would be content 
to come back to Marthas Vineyard 
and settle down for the rest of his 
life. 
Captain Tilton gave a very inter¬ 
esting account of his life in the Naval 
Reserves during the war, when he 
was promoted from Bos’n to lieuten¬ 
ant commander. As the latter he 
was master of a ship with 187 men 
under him, and made two trips to 
France and return. None of his men 
had any marks against them and on 
his return he was summoned to the 
commandant’s office and questioned 
about this unusual happening when 
all other ships had men in the brig 
and men up to 20 with black marks 
against them. Captain Tilton said 
that the men had been punished on 
board by being made to do extra 
duty, and when the shore was 
reached they all got shore liberty 
just the same, and without any 
black marks to be held ' over them 
in the future. This was accom¬ 
plished, he told the commandant, 
at the expense of considerable cuss¬ 
ing on his part, but that he didn’t 
have a man under him who would 
not have torn the ship to pieces at 
his command and put her together 
again. The commandant agreed 
with him that a good cussing was 
better than black marks. After a 
good cussing, Captain Tilton said 
everything was all right again in 15 
minutes, but it would have been dif¬ 
ferent with black marks against a 
sailor. 
Captain Tilton said that when he 
got a ten day’s leave of absence 
he went on home, and he couldn’t 
resist the temptation to go into a 
certain officers headquarters in New¬ 
port, the office of a man who had 
tried hard to keep him from getting 
promotion, make him salute his 
higher rank, and tell that man that 
he couldn’t tack, jibe or sail a ship 
down hill in a fair wind, and that 
he had wrung more sa'lt water out 
of his mittens that the officer had. 
ever sailed over. 
Commenting on the vast difference 
between a seaman’s life today and that 
lived by the men who whaled for a liv¬ 
ing in the days of "wodden ships and 
[iron men,” Captain Tilton said, “Now¬ 
adays if a young man goes whaling lie 
has to live in his home town 20 years 
I to live clown the scandal.” 
Tripp Tells of Experiences on 
Manta—Tilton Spins 
Yarns 
NEARLY 100 PRESENT 
AT ANNUAL OUTING 
Entertained by the reminiscences of 
Captain George Fred Tilton and Wil¬ 
liam H. Tripp, nearly 100 members of 
the New Bedford Whaleman's Club 
held forth at a clambake Friday night 
at Grimshaw's, Fort Phoenix, and list¬ 
ened to true yarns woven about the 
famous John R. Manta on Us recent 
six week’s cruise. 
Mr. Tripp told how he had shipped 
recently as a boatheacler on the Manta 
under Captain Antone J. Mandly and 
how the green hands on board became , 
the victims of seasickness, citing the 
case of a cabin boy, in particular, who, 
when given some King Phillip spi ing 
water by Mr. Tripp, told the latter that 
it had saved his life. 
About a week after the boat set 
sail, according to the boatheader, a 
school of whales was sighted and on a 
Friday the first catch was made. At 
the end of the day, the blubber was 
tried altogether and the smoke result¬ 
ing from the boiling caused the old cry. 
“Here comes cld Hallett!” to go up 
from those on deck. Referring to the 
expression mentioned, Mr. Tripp said 
he did not know the meaning or ori¬ 
gination of it, only that it had some¬ 
thing to do with the starting of the try 
works. 
At. this point, Captain Tilton volun¬ 
teered to give an explanation. He said 
i that years ago there was an old sea 
Captain sailing from New Bedford who 
“could boil more oil in four hours than 
any other whaleman ever heard of, 
and when one whaleman sighted an¬ 
other in those early days and a consid¬ 
erable amount of smoke was seen com¬ 
ing from either boat, the crew of the 
other would shout “There goes old Hal¬ 
lett!” 
