The windlass crew were forward, heaving on the tackle which was suspended from the cap of the lower mainmast.
As they hove the blanket rose higher and higher, the cutters plied their spades, and the whale rolled over and over.
THE BLANKET PIECE COMING ABOARD
When the tackle was “block and block,” the third mate or one of the boatsteerers, with his “boarding knife,” made a hole for the second tackle.
A heavy blubber hook, or the eye in the long strop of the block in the foreground was pushed through and secured on the outside by a heavy wooden pin or toggle.
The second tackle was hove taut to take up the weight and the upper piece sliced off.
LOWERING INTO THE HOLD
As each piece was cut off, it was lowered down the main hatch into the blubber room and there cut into “horse pieces,” three or four feet long and six or eight inches wide.