_For the Table Book._
Sir,--You have described the ceremony adopted by our sailors, of shaving
all nautical tyros on crossing the _line_,[185] but perhaps you are not
aware of a custom which prevails annually on the first of May, in the
whale-fishery at Greenland and Davis’s Straits. I therefore send you an
account of the celebration which took place on board the Neptune of
London, in Greenland, 1824, of which ship I was surgeon at that period.
Previous to the ship’s leaving her port, the sailors collected from
their wives, and other female friends, ribands “for the garland,” of
which great care was taken until a few days previous to the first of
May, when all hands were engaged in preparing the said garland, with a
model of the ship.
The garland was made of a hoop, taken from one of the beef casks; this
hoop, decorated with ribands, was fastened to a stock of wood, of about
four feet in length, and a model of the ship, prepared by the carpenter,
was fastened above the hoop to the top of the stock, in such a manner as
to answer the purpose of a vane. The first of May arrives; the tyros
were kept from between decks, and all intruders excluded while the
principal performers got ready the necessary apparatus and dresses. The
barber was the boatswain, the barber’s mate was the cooper, and on a
piece of tarpawling, fastened to the entrance of the fore-hatchway, was
the following inscription:--
“NEPTUNE’S EASY SHAVING SHOP,
_Kept by_