CHAPTER IX.
NEWS FROM HOME--A GAM Shoregoing people have but little notion of the ease with which the heart of a jack-tar is made to rejoice when he is out on a long voyage.
His pleasures and amusements are so few that he is thankful to make the most of whatever is thrown in his way.

In the whale-fisheries, no doubt, he has more than enough of excitement, but after a time he gets used to this, and begins to long for a little variety--and of all the pleasures that fall to his lot, that which delights him most is to have a GAM with another ship.
Now, a gam is the meeting of two or more whale-ships, their keeping company for a time, and the exchanging of visits by the crews.

It is neither more nor less than a jollification on the sea--the inviting of your friends to feast and make merry in your floating house.

There is this difference, however, between a gam at sea and a party on land, that your _friends_ on the ocean are men whom you perhaps never saw before, and whom you will likely never meet again.

There is also another difference--there are no ladies at a gam.