This duty of the boatsteerer is unpleasant enough at best, but when the sea is rough I have seen a man almost drowned by the water which continually swept over him. Under such conditions the enormous hook is jerked and swayed by the roll of the ship; and he has to be constantly on the lookout that the heave of the ship and the heave of the whale, which usually will not be in the same direction at any instant, do not catch him between them. Two men were at the gangway, to steer the sheet of blubber—called the blanket piece—as it came up, and twenty men at the windlass. When Azevedo gave the word, “Haul taut and heave away,” the whole twenty of them pumped at the windlass, which clanked merrily at first, then more slowly as the falls took the strain; then more slowly still, with the men singing out, and puffing and grunting. The ship slowly heeled over toward the whale. Then, suddenly, there was a ripping, rending sound, the ship righted and rolled a little, and there was the hook with the end of the blanket piece of blubber in the air, clear of the carcass, which had turned part way over in the bight of the fluke-chain. I may not have said {80} that the body is held by a loop or bight of heavy chain at the “small,” just forward of his flukes, so that it will turn freely. In addition to this there is a chain about the lower jaw at first, but that, of course, does not hold the carcass after the jaw is cut off, which is one of the earliest operations. Mr. Tilton and Mr. Snow continued cutting the rear scarf, Mr. Brown kept at the forward scarf, or necklace, where the head was to be cut off, and Mr. Wallet again attacked the tongue and the other hinge of the jaw as the turning of the carcass gave him opportunity. The heavy strip of blubber rose slowly as the crew pumped at the windlass, and the spades of the mates rose and fell regularly. The tongue and the jaw were hoisted in by the second cutting-falls. That jaw looked enormous as it came in over the side. When the tackle was tight up, block to block, it was not quite clear of the gangway, and they had to swing the other end around, and heave it in. When it was on deck, it was pushed over into the port scuppers, out of the way. They then resumed work upon the blanket piece of blubber, the work of cutting off the head being carried forward at the same time. The blanket strip was soon high in the air, the falls block to block. The steady clanking of the windlass stopped, and the men had a breathing spell of a few minutes, as Mr. Baker called “Chock-a-block. Board blanket piece.”