Herman Melville's Whaling Years

7. On Passage

[43] chapter 7 On Passage It’s now we’re out to sea, my boys, the wind comes on to blow; One half the watch is sick on deck, the other half below. But as for the provisions, we don’t get half enough; A little piece of stinking beef and a blamed small bag of duff. . . . Next comes the running rigging, which you’re all supposed to know; ’Tis “Lay aloft, you son-of-a-gun, or overboard you go!” The cooper’s at the vise-bench, a-making iron poles, And the mate’s upon the main hatch a-cursing all our souls. —from “Blow, Ye Winds,” whaling song After the Acushnet was settled well upon her course,Herman Melville and his new shipmates were doubtless mustered aft, according to the custom aboard whalers, to be told off into two watches for the passage and divided into whaleboat crews.1 The foremast hands lined up to one side,boatsteerers standing apart in a group, while mates of the craft made selections. First Officer Frederick Raymond, who with Third Mate George Galvan would command the larboard watch, and Second Mate John Hall, in charge of the starboard watch, would have alternately chosen men to serve under them. Then, in order of their seniority, Mates Raymond, Hall, and Galvan, each of whom would “head”or command a whaleboat and lance to death the whales it chased, would have selected first the boatsteerers and then one by one the members of their crews. Mates usually appraised the men carefully, observing their hands and feet, feeling their muscles, and questioning them about previous experience before choices were made. The complement of a boat’s crew in American whalers was six men: a mate (or sometimes the captain) in command,a boatsteerer,and four foremast hands. Three crews were all that were selected at this stage of the Acushnet’s voyage, for the total of ship’s company was twenty-five, and a vessel of this size required six or more men as shipkeepers to carry her through necessary [44]   Herman Melville’s Whaling Years nautical evolutions when boats were lowered away.2 It would seem that eighteen men were chosen to do the active whaling, leaving seven persons—that would be Captain Pease,Cooper Stedman,Blacksmith Walcut,Cook Maiden, and perhaps the three greenest hands—to be shipkeepers. Captain Pease was probably not, like Ahab of Moby-Dick, a “fighting captain” who lowered his starboard boat when whales were raised. Once watches and boat crews had been chosen, it was customary for the master of a whaler to read the rules of the ship and treat the crew to a specimen of quarter-deck oratory, the length and flavor of which depended on how stern,garrulous,or salty the spokesman might be.Such speeches seem to have followed a pattern,familiar to seasoned whalemen,perhaps impressive or ominous to green hands.The captain, looking from man to man, warned that this was no pleasure cruise.The object was to kill whales, and the quicker the men found that out, the shorter would be the voyage. Laziness, fighting, and swearing would not be tolerated.When an order was given, the men were to respond promptly. If they did not jump, they would have reason to regret it. The captain would settle all disputes aboard ship. No grub was to be wasted, no unnecessary noise made while men were standing mastheads. Competition among boat crews was to be encouraged in a whale hunt, but anyone who attempted to gain unfair advantage would be severely punished. Then the captain affirmed his sovereignty aboard ship. If anyone doubted that he was master of the craft, that man would soon find out.This said, he ordered the men to go forward. To Melville, who had passed his nautical novitiate in 1839 in the merchantman St. Lawrence, the fittings of a sailing ship, the routine of ship’s duty, and the salty language of sailors would not have been as bewildering as they must have been to other green hands in the crew of the Acushnet. Like Ishmael in Moby-Dick, he “was used to the sea,could steer a ship,splice a rope, and all that” (16:75). Having previously gained his sea legs, he was entitled to a slightly better lay as a green hand. But his tour of duty in a Liverpool trader had neither prepared him fully for the experiences he was to have...