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What does the whaler do when she meets another whaler in any sort of decent weather? She has a "Gam", a thing so utterly unknown to all other ships that they never heard of the name even; and if by chance they should hear of it, they only grin at it, and repeat gamesome stuff about "spouters" and
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describes the meeting of two ships at sea as a "beautiful and imposing sight". He describes a "good old-fashioned 'gam'" as "rough entertainment," but with a "vein of politeness and deference to their guests... which might be studied with profit by many accostomed to more courtly circles." Macy
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reported that "a man who should overstep certain bonds in his intercourse with visitors from a strange ship... would be taken to task unmercifully by his shipmates." A gam would also be the occasion for the exchange of newspapers, perhaps letters, and tobacco.
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GAM. Noun - A social meeting of two (or more) Whale-ships, generally on a cruising- ground; when, after exchanging hails, they exchange visits by boats' crews: the two captains remaining, for the time, on board of one ship, and the two chief mates on the
23:(or "whaler") paying a social visit to another at sea. The term was first used to describe a school of whales, and whalemen may have taken its meaning from that source.
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In the Heart of the Sea: The
Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex
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There She Blows! The Whales we Caught and How We Did It
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