"'Steady it is!' answers the wheel.
"'Call all hands!' shouts the captain, in a voice like a tempest.
"The main hatches was off, and the men mostly in the blubber-room, engaged, some on 'em, in mincin' and pikin' pieces of blanket and horse from one tub to another, and some was a-tendin' fires, and some a-fillin' casks with hot ile from the cooler; but quick as lightnin' all the deck is thronged, like the street of a city when there is a cry of fire.
"'There she blows! O, she's a beauty, a regular old sog!' sings the mast-head.
"'Slack down the fires! Quick, by G—!' shouts the captain in a voice like thunder.
"'She peaks her flukes, and goes down!' cries the mast-head.
"'A sharp eye, sir! Mind where she comes up!'
"'Ay, ay, sir!'
"'Get your boats ready, lads, and stand by to lower away!'
"The men work as for life,—the boat-bottoms are tallered, the boat-tackle-falls laid down, so as to run clear, the tub o' line and the harpoons got in, the gripes cast clear, and each boat's crew by the side o' their boat.