"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.