Their masters were paid eight pounds
per voyage, and if their vessels were diverted from coasting
to foreign trades their stipend was eight to nine pounds a
month. Considering the cost of living in those days, it is a
marvel how they managed, but many of them did not only
succeed in making ends meet, but were able to save. They
owed much to the frugal habits of their bonny, healthy
wives, who for the most part had been domestic servants, or
daughters of respectable working men, living at home with
their parents until they were married. They were trained in
household economy, and they were exclusively domesticated.
Educational matters did not come into the range of their
sympathies. They were taught to work, and they and their
homes were good to look upon. Many of these thrifty girls
married swaggering young fellows who were before the mast.
They were not merely thrifty, but ambitious. Their ambition
was to become captains' wives; nor did they spare
themselves to accomplish their desire promptly. They did not
overlook the necessity of inspiring their husbands with high
aims, and in order that their incomes might be improved
these married men were coaxingly urged to seek an engagement
as cook--a post which carried with it ten shillings per
month more than the able seamen's pay, besides other
emoluments, such as the dripping saved by skimming the
coppers in which the beef or pork was boiled, and casking it
ready for turning into cash wherever the voyage ended.
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