the hoops, rap,
rap, go as many hammers as can play upon them, for now, EX OFFICIO,
every sailor is a cooper.

At length, when the last pint is casked, and all is cool, then the great
hatchways are unsealed, the bowels of the ship are thrown open, and down
go the casks to their final rest in the sea. This done, the hatches are
replaced, and hermetically closed, like a closet walled up.

In the sperm fishery, this is perhaps one of the most remarkable
incidents in all the business of whaling. One day the planks stream with
freshets of blood and oil; on the sacred quarter-deck enormous masses of
the whale's head are profanely piled; great rusty casks lie about, as
in a brewery yard; the smoke from the try-works has besooted all the
bulwarks; the mariners go about suffused with unctuousness; the entire
ship seems great leviathan himself; while on all hands the din is
deafening.

But a day or two after, you look about you, and prick your ears in this
self-same ship; and were it not for the tell-tale boats and try-works,
you would all but swear you trod some silent merchant vessel, with a
most scrupulously neat commander. The unmanufactured sperm oil possesses
a singularly cleansing virtue. This is the reason why the decks never
look so white as just after what they call an affair of oil. Besides,
from the ashes of the burned scraps of the whale, a potent lye is
readily made; and whenever any adhesiveness from the back of the whale
remains clinging to the side, that lye quickly exterminates it. Hands
go diligently along the bulwarks, and with buckets of water and rags
restore them to their full tidiness. The soot is brushed from the lower
rigging. All the numerous implements which have been in use are likewise
faithfully cleansed and put away. The great hatch is scrubbed and placed
upon the try-works, completely hiding the pots; every cask is out of
sight; all tackles are coiled in unseen nooks; and when by the combined
and simultaneous industry of almost the entire ship's company, the
whole of this conscientious duty is at last concluded, then the crew
themselves proceed to their own ablutions; shift themselves from top to
toe; and finally issue to the immaculate deck, fresh and all aglow, as
bridegrooms new-leaped from out the daintiest Holland.

Now, with elated step, they pace the planks in twos and threes, and
humorously discourse of parlors, sofas, carpets, and fine cambrics;
propose to mat the deck; think of havi