THE AMERICAN WHALEMAN. 81 



the officers and the management of the monkey-rope are 

 guards. 



The hook is inserted and the order given " Haul taut and 

 heave away." Sixteen men double manning the hand-spikes, 

 responsively heave away at the powerful windlass, while 

 the spades are busy under-cutting to free and tear tip the 

 eye-flap. The great surge of the rolling ship greatly aids in 

 this effort, and soon the strip of blubber, termed the " blank- 

 et," slowly moves upward. This is the moment seized by 

 the artist in the illustration. The floating whale is shown 

 with head partially dissevered, and with the spiral cuts which 

 are to lead the unrolling of the blanket. When the cry 

 of " To blocks " announces that the head of the blanket has 

 reached three-fourths the height of the mainmast, the order 

 is given to " Board blanket-piece." Now a boat-steerer, with 

 a long, double-edged sword, mounted by a long, straight han- 

 dle, and termed a " boarding-knife," makes a lunge at the 

 swinging mass, cutting out an oval plug of blubber, through 

 which the eye of the strap to the second tackle is thrust, 

 and secured by a heavy oak toggle. Then the order is, 

 heave away on the second tackle, and as soon as the strain 

 is fairly taken by it, a second cut of the boarding-knife de- 

 taches the upper blanket-piece, which is swung inboard, im- 

 mediately over the main-hatch. Here it is lowered into the 

 blubber-room, where a man awaits it with a hook to send 

 the slippery end away to leeward, and pack the long pieces 

 to the best advantage. Thus alternated, the two tackles re- 

 lieve each other, and the windlass travels almost continuous- 

 ly until four hundred and fifty or five hundred feet of blank- 

 et, from four feet eight to eighteen inches in thickness, have 

 passed from the symmetrical form of the whale into the con- 

 fused, disagreeable mass in the blubber-room. 



While the huge carcass is being turned in the water by 

 the unrolling of its valuable blanket, the officer on the for- 



4* 



