g up of the huge
carcass covered the decks with oil and blood, making them so slippery
that they had to be covered with sand to enable the men to walk about.
Then the smoke of the great fires under the melting-pots begrimed the
masts, sails, and cordage with soot. The faces and hands of the men got
so covered with oil and soot that it would have puzzled any one to say
whether they were white or black. Their clothes, too, became so dirty
that it was impossible to clean them. But, indeed, whalemen do not much
mind this. In fact, they take a pleasure in all the dirt that surrounds
them, because it is a sign of success in the main object of their
voyage. The men in a _clean_ whale-ship are never happy. When
everything is filthy, and dirty, and greasy, and smoky, and black--
decks, rigging, clothes, and person--it is then that the hearty laugh
and jest and song are heard as the crew work busily, night and day, at
their rough but profitable labour.

The operations of "cutting-in" and "trying out" were matters of great
interest to me the first time I saw them.

After having towed our whale to the ship, cutting-in was immediately
begun. First, the carcass was secured near the head and tail with
chains, and made fast to the ship; then the great blocks and ropes
fastened to the main and foremast for hoisting in the blubber were
brought into play. When all was ready, the captain and the two mates,
with Tom Lokins, got upon the whale's body, with long-handled sharp
spades or digging-knives. With these they fell to work cutting off the
blubber.

I was stationed at one of the hoisting ropes, and while we were waiting
for the signal to "hoist away," I peeped over the side, and for the
first time had a good look at the great fish. When we killed it, so
much of its body was down in the water that I could not see it very
clearly, but now that it was lashed at full length alongside the ship,
and I could look right down upon it, I began to understand more clearly
what a large creature it was. One thing surprised me much; the top of
its head, which was rough and knotty like the bark of an old tree, was
swarming with little crabs and barnacles, and other small creatures.
The whale's head seemed to be their regular home! This fish was by no
means one of the largest kind, but being the first I had seen, I fancied
it must be the largest fish in the sea.

Its body was forty feet long, and twenty feet round at the thickest
part.