THE AMERICAN WHALEMAN. 77 



CHAPTER VI. 



The Phoenix, of Nantucket. "Cutting-in" first Whale. Boat-steerer 

 goes over the Side to hook on. Choice between drowning and Sharks. 

 Immense Power required. Blanket-piece. Misapprehension regard- 

 ing Size corrected. Deep Surgery. The Head. The Junk. The 

 Case, and the Bailing. The Spermaceti Bath. Contents of the Case. 

 Trying-out, and Ship drifting. Bill in the Blubber-room. Night Scene 

 in trying-out. The Suffering of this first Night. But we will soon 

 harden to that. Want of Sleep. Sleeping at Wheel and Mast-head. 

 Always tired, and never wideawake. Moralizing on the same. 



THUS equipped, the Phoenix, of Nantucket, ran under our 

 stern. She was commanded by Captain Huzzie, sixteen 

 months out, with 1100 barrels of oil. On Saturday last she 

 took two whales, making 170 barrels. We reported clean 

 hold, but grease alongside. We had no time for civilities, 

 and, hastily touching hats, we parted company, she, with 

 mast-heads manned, luffing to the wind as we turned to the 

 hard work of cut ting-in the whale. 



" Boused from repose, aloft the sailors swarm, 

 And with their levers soon the windlass arm ; 

 They lodge their bars, and wheel their engine round, 

 At every turn the clanging pawls resound." 



The "cutting-in" of a large whale is truly a formidable un- 

 dertaking. It is surgery, or dissection, on a gigantic scale, 

 and the appliances are of corresponding magnitude and pow- 

 er. From the head of the mast two great sheave-blocks 

 depend, through which is run a Manila rope of about eight 

 inches circumference. This passes through a corresponding 

 traveling-block, to which, in the commencement of the op- 

 eration, a heavy iron hook is attached by a clevis and bolt. 



