c cruises were the chief ornaments, was of the distant
husbands and sons, the perils they braved, and when they might be expected
home. The solid, square houses the whalemen built, stoutly timbered as
though themselves ships, faced the ocean, and bore on their ridge-pole a
railed platform called the bridge, whence the watchers could look far out
to sea, scanning the horizon for the expected ship. Lucky were they if she
came into the harbor without half-masted flag or other sign of disaster.
The profits of the calling in its best days were great. The best New
London record is that of the "Pioneer," made in an eighteen-months' cruise
in 1864-5. She brought back 1391 barrels of oil and 22,650 pounds of bone,
all valued at $150,060. The "Envoy," of New Bedford, after being condemned
as unseaworthy, was fitted out in 1847 at a cost of $8000, and sent out on
a final cruise. She found oil and bone to the value of $132,450; and
reaching San Francisco in the flush times, was sold for $6000. As an
offset to these records, is the legend of the Nantucket captain who
appeared off the harbor's mouth after a cruise of three years. "What luck,
cap'n?" asked the first to board. "Well, I got nary a barrel of oil and
nary a pound of bone; but I had a _mighty good sail_."

When the bar was crossed and the ship fairly in blue water, work began.
Rudyard Kipling has a characteristic story, "How the Ship Found Herself,"
telling how each bolt and plate, each nut, screw-thread, brace, and rivet
in one of those iron tanks we now call ships adjusts itself to its work on
the first voyage. On the whaler the crew had to find itself, to readjust
its relations, come to know its constituent parts, and learn the ways of
its superiors. Sometimes a ship was manned by men who had grown up
together and who had served often on the same craft; but as a rule the men
of the forecastle were a rough and vagrant lot; capable seamen, indeed,
but of the adventurous and irresponsible sort, for service before the mast
on a whaler was not eagerly sought by the men of the merchant service. For
a time Indians were plenty, and their fine physique and racial traits made
them skillful harpooners. As they became scarce, negroes began to appear
among the whalemen, with now and then a Lascar, a South Sea Islander,
Portuguese, and Hawaiians. The alert New Englanders, trained to the life
of the sea, seldom lingered long in the forecastle, but quickly made their
way to the posts of