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1The ostensible reason why Ahab did not go on board of the whaler we had spoken was this: the wind and sea betokened
2storms. But even had this not been the case, he would not after all, perhaps, have boarded her--judging by his
3subsequent conduct on similar occasions--if so it had been that, by the process of hailing, he had obtained a negative
4answer to the question he put. For, as it eventually turned out, he cared not to consort, even for five minutes, with
5any stranger captain, except he could contribute some of that information he so absorbingly sought. But all this might
6remain inadequately estimated, were not something said here of the peculiar usages of whaling-vessels when meeting each
7other in foreign seas, and especially on a common cruising-ground. If two strangers crossing the Pine Barrens in New
8York State, or the equally desolate Salisbury Plain in England; if casually encountering each other in such inhospitable
9wilds, these twain, for the life of them, cannot well avoid a mutual salutation; and stopping for a moment to
10interchange the news; and, perhaps, sitting down for a while and resting in concert: then, how much more natural that
11upon the illimitable Pine Barrens and Salisbury Plains of the sea, two whaling vessels descrying each other at the ends
12of the earth--off lone Fanning's Island, or the far away King's Mills; how much more natural, I say, that under such
13circumstances these ships should not only interchange hails, but come into still closer, more friendly and sociable
14contact. And especially would this seem to be a matter of course, in the case of vessels owned in one seaport, and whose
15captains, officers, and not a few of the men are personally known to each other; and consequently, have all sorts of
16dear domestic things to talk about. For the long absent ship, the outward-bounder, perhaps, has letters on board; at any
17rate, she will be sure to let her have some papers of a date a year or two later than the last one on her blurred and
18thumb-worn files. And in return for that courtesy, the outward-bound ship would receive the latest whaling intelligence
19from the cruising-ground to which she may be destined, a thing of the utmost importance to her. And in degree, all this
20will hold true concerning whaling vessels crossing each other's track on the cruising-ground itself, even though they
21are equally long absent from home. For one of them may have received a transfer of letters from some third, and now far
22remote vessel; and some of those letters may be for the people of the ship she now meets. Besides, they would exchange
23the whaling news, and have an agreeable chat. For not only would they meet with all the sympathies of sailors, but
24likewise with all the peculiar congenialities arising from a common pursuit and mutually shared privations and perils.
25Nor would difference of country make any very essential difference; that is, so long as both parties speak one language,
26as is the case with Americans and English. Though, to be sure, from the small number of English whalers, such meetings
27do not very often occur, and when they do occur there is too apt to be a sort of shyness between them; for your
28Englishman is rather reserved, and your Yankee, he does not fancy that sort of thing in anybody but himself. Besides,
29the English whalers sometimes affect a kind of metropolitan superiority over the American whalers; regarding the long,
30lean Nantucketer, with his nondescript provincialisms, as a sort of sea-peasant. But where this superiority in the
31English whalemen does really consist, it would be hard to say, seeing that the Yankees in one day, collectively, kill
32more whales than all the English, collectively, in ten years. But this is a harmless little foible in the English
33whale-hunters, which the Nantucketer does not take much to heart; probably, because he knows that he has a few foibles
34himself. So, then, we see that of all ships separately sailing the sea, the whalers have most reason to be sociable--and
35they are so. Whereas, some merchant ships crossing each other's wake in the mid-Atlantic, will oftentimes pass on
36without so much as a single word of recognition, mutually cutting each other on the high seas, like a brace of dandies
37in Broadway; and all the time indulging, perhaps, in finical criticism upon each other's rig. As for Men-of-War, when
38they chance to meet at sea, they first go through such a string of silly bowings and scrapings, such a ducking of
39ensigns, that there does not seem to be much right-down hearty good-will and brotherly love about it at all. As touching
40Slave-ships meeting, why, they are in such a prodigious hurry, they run away from each other as soon as possible. And as
41for Pirates, when they chance to cross each other's cross-bones, the first hail is--"How many skulls?"--the same way
42that whalers hail--"How many barrels?" And that question once answered, pirates straightway steer apart, for they are
43infernal villains on both sides, and don't like to see overmuch of each other's villanous likenesses. But look at the
44godly, honest, unostentatious, hospitable, sociable, free-and-easy whaler! What does the whaler do when she meets
45another whaler in any sort of decent weather? She has a "Gam," a thing so utterly unknown to all other ships that they
46never heard of the name even; and if by chance they should hear of it, they only grin at it, and repeat gamesome stuff
47about "spouters" and "blubber-boilers," and such like pretty exclamations. Why it is that all Merchant-seamen, and also
48all Pirates and Man-of-War's men, and Slave-ship sailors, cherish such a scornful feeling towards Whale-ships; this is a
49question it would be hard to answer. Because, in the case of pirates, say, I should like to know whether that profession
50of theirs has any peculiar glory about it. It sometimes ends in uncommon elevation, indeed; but only at the gallows. And
51besides, when a man is elevated in that odd fashion, he has no proper foundation for his superior altitude. Hence, I
52conclude, that in boasting himself to be high lifted above a whaleman, in that assertion the pirate has no solid basis
53to stand on. But what is a Gam? You might wear out your index-finger running up and down the columns of dictionaries,
54and never find the word. Dr. Johnson never attained to that erudition; Noah Webster's ark does not hold it.
55Nevertheless, this same expressive word has now for many years been in constant use among some fifteen thousand true
56born Yankees. Certainly, it needs a definition, and should be incorporated into the Lexicon. With that view, let me
57learnedly define it. GAM. NOUN--A social meeting of two (or more) Whaleships, generally on a cruising-ground; when,
58after exchanging hails, they exchange visits by boats' crews: the two captains remaining, for the time, on board of one
59ship, and the two chief mates on the other.
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