At this time we are on or near a favorite whaling ground, great numbers of these leviathans being taken in this vicinity every year by schooners. In the old days a first-class whaling bark cost about thirty-five thousand dollars, and was manned by perhaps thirty Western Islanders, or natives of the Azores. They were owned by companies who supplied the vessels with provisions, clothes, and outfits, and also advanced certain sums of money to captain and crew (which did not go to crimps as it does now) while they were away on a three years’ cruise. No wages were ever paid to any one, but all hands received a percentage when the ship returned, the bulk, which remained, being divided among the stockholders. The most lucrative whaling voyage of which there is any record was made by the “Onward” of New Bedford, which, after a forty-one months’ voyage, stocked two hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars, the captain’s share alone amounting to thirty-three thousand. More startling even than that is the fact that during the fifty-two years which formed the golden era of Massachusetts’s whaling industry the total value of whale products landed in New Bedford alone amounted to one hundred and forty-five million dollars! We had quite an agreeable shock this morning when the carpenter walked aft to breakfast with a clean, new, checked shirt on, it being Sunday. He had combed the sawdust and other little inconveniences out of his unctuous locks, and he made quite a respectable appearance as he wabbled into the cabin. Fresh Trades blew all day, and we have made good a course about south-southeast. Latitude, 23° 28′ north; longitude, 40° 15′ west. +May 24+ This day broke with a strong breeze and a cloudy sky; but, as usual, the vapor cleared away at ten o’clock and a superb afternoon followed. Nearly all wooden ships have to be pumped out twice every day, once in the morning watch and again at six in the evening. It is almost impossible to build a tight wooden vessel of any size, and the rougher the sea the more water she will make, on account of laboring. Of course, the leakage varies greatly, but I suppose that our own is an average one, about one thousand strokes of the pumps being necessary to free the ship at each session of thirty minutes, and the aperture through which the water escapes is about as large as a fire-hose.