Ere the English ship fades from sight be it set down here, that she hailed from London, and was named after the late Samuel Enderby, merchant of that city, the original of the famous whaling house of enderby and sons; a house which in my poor whaleman's opinion, comes not far behind the united royal houses of the Tudors and Bourbons, in point of real historical interest. How long, prior to the year of our Lord 1775, this great whaling house was in existence, my numerous fish-documents do not make plain; but in that year (1775) it fitted out the first English ships that ever regularly hunted the Sperm1 Whale; though for some score of years previous (ever since 1726) our valiant2 Coffins3 and Maceys of Nantucket and the Vineyard had in large fleets pursued the Leviathan, but only in the North and South Atlantic: not elsewhere. Be it distinctly recorded here, that the Nantucketers were the first among mankind to harpoon5 with civilized6 steel the great Sperm Whale; and that for half a century they were the only people of the whole globe who so harpooned7 him.
In 1778, a fine ship, the Amelia, fitted out for the express purpose, and at the sole charge of the vigorous Enderbys, boldly rounded Cape8 Horn, and was the first among the nations to lower a whale-boat of any sort in the great South Sea. The voyage was a skilful9 and lucky one; and returning to her berth10 with her hold full of the precious sperm, the Amelia's example was soon followed by other ships, English and American, and thus the vast Sperm Whale grounds of the Pacific were thrown open. But not content with this good deed, the indefatigable11 house again bestirred itself: Samuel and all his Sons--how many, their mother only knows--and under their immediate12 auspices13, and partly, I think, at their expense, the British government was induced to send the sloop-of-war Rattler on a whaling voyage of discovery into the South Sea. Commanded by a naval14 Post-Captain, the Rattler made a rattling15 voyage of it, and did some service; how much does not appear. But this is not all. In 1819, the same house fitted out a discovery whale ship of their own, to go on a tasting cruise to the remote waters of Japan. That ship-- well called the "Syren"--made a noble experimental cruise; and it was thus that the great Japanese Whaling Ground first became generally known. The Syren in this famous voyage was commanded by a Captain Coffin4, a Nantucketer.
All honor to the Enderbies, therefore, whose house, I think, exists to the present day; though doubtless the original Samuel must long ago have slipped his cable for the great South Sea of the other world.
The ship named after him was worthy17 of the honor, being a very fast sailer and a noble craft every way. I boarded her once at midnight somewhere off the Patagonian coast, and drank good flip18 down in the forecastle. It was a fine gam we had, and they were all trumps--every soul on board. A short life to them, and a jolly death. And that fine gam I had-- long, very long after old Ahab touched her planks19 with his ivory heel-- it minds me of the noble, solid, Saxon hospitality of that ship; and may my parson forget me, and the devil remember me, if I ever lose sight of it. Flip? Did I say we had flip? Yes, and we flipped20 it at the rate of ten gallons the hour; and when the squall came (for it's squally off there by Patagonia), and all hands-- visitors and all--were called to reef topsails, we were so top-heavy that we had to swing each other aloft in bowlines; and we ignorantly furled the skirts of our jackets into the sails, so that we hung there, reefed fast in the howling gale21, a warning example to all drunken tars22. However, the masts did not go overboard; and by and by we scrambled23 down, so sober, that we had to pass the flip again, though the savage24 salt spray bursting down the forecastle scuttle25, rather too much diluted26 and pickled it for my taste.
The beef was fine--tough, but with body in it. They said it was bullbeef; others, that it was dromedary beef; but I do not know, for certain, how that was. They had dumplings too; small, but substantial, symmetrically globular, and indestructible dumplings. I fancied that you could feel them, and roll them about in you after they were swallowed. If you stooped over too far forward, you risked their pitching out of you like billiard-balls. The bread-- but that couldn't be helped; besides, it was an anti-scorbutic, in short, the bread contained the only fresh fare they had. But the forecastle was not very light, and it was very easy to step over into a dark corner when you ate it. But all in all, taking her from truck to helm, considering the dimensions of the cook's boilers27, including his own live parchment boilers; fore16 and aft, I say, the Samuel Enderby was a jolly ship; of good fare and plenty; fine flip and strong; crack fellows all, and capital from boot heels to hat-band.
But why was it, think ye, that the Samuel Enderby, and some other English whalers I know of--not all though--were such famous, hospitable28 ships; that passed round the beef, and the bread, and the can, and the joke; and were not soon weary of eating, and drinking, and laughing? I will tell you. The abounding29 good cheer of these English whalers is matter for historical research. Nor have I been at all sparing of historical whale research, when it has seemed needed.
The English were preceded in the whale fishery by the Hollanders, Zealanders, and Danes; from whom they derived30 many terms still extant in the fishery; and what is yet more, their fat old fashions, touching31 plenty to eat and drink. For, as a general thing, the English merchant-ship scrimps her crew; but not so the English whaler. Hence, in the English, this thing of whaling good cheer is not normal and natural, but incidental and particular; and, therefore, must have some special origin, which is here pointed32 out, and will be still further elucidated33.
During my researches in the Leviathanic histories, I stumbled upon an ancient Dutch volume, which, by the musty whaling smell of it, I knew must be about whalers. The title was, "Dan Coopman," wherefore I concluded that this must be the invaluable34 memoirs35 of some Amsterdam cooper in the fishery, as every whale ship must carry its cooper. I was reinforced in this opinion by seeing that it was the production of one "Fitz Swackhammer." But my friend Dr. Snodhead, a very learned man, professor of Low Dutch and High German in the college of Santa Claus and St. Potts, to whom I handed the work for translation, giving him a box of sperm candles for his trouble--this same Dr. Snodhead, so soon as he spied the book, assured me that "Dan Coopman" did not mean "The Cooper," but "The Merchant." In short, this ancient and learned Low Dutch book treated of the commerce of Holland; and, among other subjects, contained a very interesting account of its whale fishery. And in this chapter it was, headed, "Smeer," or "Fat," that I found a long detailed36 list of the outfits37 for the larders38 and cellars of 180 sail of Dutch whalemen; from which list, as translated by Dr. Snodhead, I transcribe39 the following:
0084400,000 lbs. of beef. 60,000 lbs. Friesland pork. 150,000 lbs. of stock fish. 550,000 lbs. of biscuit. 72,000 lbs. of soft bread. 2,800 firkins of butter. 20,000 lbs. of Texel and Leyden cheese. 144,000 lbs. cheese (probably an inferior article). 550 ankers of Geneva. 10,800 barrels of beer.
Most statistical40 tables are parchingly dry in the reading; not so in the present case, however, where the reader is flooded with whole pipes, barrels, quarts, and gills of good gin and good cheer.
At the time, I devoted41 three days to the studious digesting of all this beer, beef, and bread, during which many profound thoughts were incidentally suggested to me, capable of a transcendental and Platonic42 application; and, furthermore, I compiled supplementary43 tables of my own, touching the probable quantity of stock-fish, &c., consumed by every Low Dutch harpooneer in that ancient Greenland and Spitzbergen whale fishery. In the first place, the amount of butter, and Texel and Leyden cheese consumed, seems amazing. I impute44 it, though, to their naturally unctuous45 natures, being rendered still more unctuous by the nature of their vocation46, and especially by their pursuing their game in those frigid47 Polar Seas, on the very coasts of that Esquimaux country where the convivial48 natives pledge each other in bumpers49 of train oil.
The quantity of the beer, too, is very large, 10,800 barrels. Now, as those polar fisheries could only be prosecuted50 in the short summer of that climate, so that the whole cruise of one of these Dutch whalemen, including the short voyage to and from the Spitzbergen sea, did not much exceed three months, say, and reckoning 30 men to each of their fleet of 180 sail, we have 5,400 Low Dutch seamen51 in all; therefore, I say, we have precisely52 two barrels of beer per man, for a twelve weeks' allowance, exclusive of his fair proportion of that 550 ankers of gin. Now, whether these gin and beer harpooneers, so fuddled as one might fancy them to have been, were the right sort of men to stand up in a boat's head, and take good aim at flying whales; this would seem somewhat improbable. Yet they did aim at them, and hit them too. But this was very far North, be it remembered, where beer agrees well with the constitution; upon the Equator, in our southern fishery, beer would be apt to make the harpooneer sleepy at the mast-head and boozy in his boat; and grievous loss might ensue to Nantucket and New Bedford.
But no more; enough has been said to show that the old Dutch whalers of two or three centuries ago were high livers; and that the English whalers have not neglected so excellent an example. For, say they, when cruising in an empty ship, if you can get nothing better out of the world, get a good dinner out of it, at least. And this empties the decanter.
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sperm
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| n.精子，精液 | |
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valiant
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| adj.勇敢的，英勇的；n.勇士，勇敢的人 | |
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coffins
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| n.棺材( coffin的名词复数 )；使某人早亡[死，完蛋，垮台等]之物 | |
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coffin
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| n.棺材，灵柩 | |
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harpoon
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| n.鱼叉；vt.用鱼叉叉，用鱼叉捕获 | |
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civilized
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| a.有教养的，文雅的 | |
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harpooned
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| v.鱼镖，鱼叉( harpoon的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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cape
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| n.海角，岬；披肩，短披风 | |
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skilful
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| (=skillful)adj.灵巧的，熟练的 | |
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berth
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| n.卧铺，停泊地，锚位；v.使停泊 | |
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indefatigable
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| adj.不知疲倦的，不屈不挠的 | |
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immediate
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| adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的 | |
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auspices
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| n.资助，赞助 | |
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naval
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| adj.海军的，军舰的，船的 | |
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rattling
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| adj. 格格作响的, 活泼的, 很好的 adv. 极其, 很, 非常 动词rattle的现在分词 | |
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fore
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| adv.在前面；adj.先前的；在前部的；n.前部 | |
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worthy
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| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
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flip
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| vt.快速翻动；轻抛；轻拍；n.轻抛；adj.轻浮的 | |
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planks
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| （厚）木板( plank的名词复数 )； 政纲条目，政策要点 | |
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flipped
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| 轻弹( flip的过去式和过去分词 )； 按（开关）； 快速翻转； 急挥 | |
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gale
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| n.大风，强风，一阵闹声（尤指笑声等） | |
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tars
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| 焦油，沥青，柏油( tar的名词复数 ) | |
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scrambled
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| v.快速爬行( scramble的过去式和过去分词 )；攀登；争夺；（军事飞机）紧急起飞 | |
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savage
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| adj.野蛮的；凶恶的，残暴的；n.未开化的人 | |
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scuttle
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| v.急赶，疾走，逃避；n.天窗；舷窗 | |
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diluted
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| 无力的，冲淡的 | |
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boilers
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| 锅炉，烧水器，水壶( boiler的名词复数 ) | |
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hospitable
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| adj.好客的；宽容的；有利的，适宜的 | |
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abounding
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| adj.丰富的，大量的v.大量存在，充满，富于( abound的现在分词 ) | |
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derived
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| vi.起源；由来；衍生；导出v.得到( derive的过去式和过去分词 )；（从…中）得到获得；源于；（从…中）提取 | |
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touching
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| adj.动人的，使人感伤的 | |
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pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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elucidated
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| v.阐明，解释( elucidate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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invaluable
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| adj.无价的，非常宝贵的，极为贵重的 | |
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memoirs
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| n.回忆录；回忆录传( mem,自oir的名词复数) | |
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detailed
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| adj.详细的，详尽的，极注意细节的，完全的 | |
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outfits
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| n.全套装备( outfit的名词复数 )；一套服装；集体；组织v.装备，配置设备，供给服装( outfit的第三人称单数 ) | |
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larders
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| n.（家中的）食物贮藏室，食物橱( larder的名词复数 ) | |
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transcribe
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| v.抄写，誉写；改编(乐曲)；复制，转录 | |
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statistical
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| adj.统计的，统计学的 | |
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devoted
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| adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的 | |
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platonic
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| adj.精神的；柏拉图（哲学）的 | |
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supplementary
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| adj.补充的，附加的 | |
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impute
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| v.归咎于 | |
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unctuous
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| adj.油腔滑调的，大胆的 | |
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vocation
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| n.职业，行业 | |
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frigid
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| adj.寒冷的，凛冽的；冷淡的；拘禁的 | |
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convivial
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| adj.狂欢的，欢乐的 | |
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bumpers
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| （汽车上的）保险杠，缓冲器( bumper的名词复数 ) | |
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prosecuted
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| a.被起诉的 | |
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seamen
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| n.海员 | |
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precisely
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| adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地 | |
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