Here the cook, or “doctor” as he was called, prepared the food for officers and crew. The galley was located aft on the starboard side, abreast of the wheel, where the steersman might get an occasional cup of coffee from the cook to ease his trick at the wheel. How different to the case of the man at the wheel in merchant ships, stamping his feet and blowing on his fingers in the roaring forties, and looking with wistful eyes towards the galley at the far end of the deck. [Illustration] _TYPES_ The crews of Yankee whalers up to, and including, the fifties were made up mostly of Americans drawn from the neighbourhood of the ships’ home port. As the great West opened up, the movement overland diverted the native American from the sea, and in the declining years of the industry crews were composed mainly of Portuguese, Negroes, and Bravas from the Cape Verde Islands. Whaling crews were not paid wages but were given a “lay,” or share in the profits at the end of the voyage. The lay scale was graded down from 1/16th for the captain to 1/200th for a green hand--and even less to the cabin boy. At the end of a long voyage, when the ship was credited with oil valued at $250,000, or more, the sailors’ share was quite worth while. [Illustration] _THE BLACKSMITH_ The blacksmith’s duties lay in the care of all the harpoons, spades, lances, boarding and mincing knives, and kindred gear. When whales were being killed and brought alongside he was a busy man, straightening and repairing irons, and keeping the cutting-in stage supplied with keen-edged spades. [Illustration] _THE COOPER_ When a whaleship set out on a voyage she was loaded from keel to deck with casks of various sizes, from the largest, of fourteen barrel capacity, to long, narrow ones, known as “ryers,” used to fill empty spaces and odd corners. Many of them were filled with fresh water to serve as ballast, and all the spare sails, food, clothing (slops) and other reserve articles were headed up in casks. In due course they were emptied and filled with oil, and the cooper’s task was to keep them in good condition, and, if need arose, to construct new ones from the staves, heads and hoops which he had in reserve. The term “barrel” was only used as a unit of measure:--a cask was spoken of as an eight barrel cask or a whale’s size was reckoned in so many barrels. An average whaler carried in the neighbourhood of five hundred casks of all sizes, and the keeping of them in serviceable condition involved constant watchfulness and work on the cooper’s part. [Illustration] _GRINDING SPADES_ No one was busier than the ship’s boy. Helping the steward in the pantry, turning the grindstone, peeling potatoes for the cook, or running aloft to tie stops in the buntlines, he was kept hopping from one job to another.