A square block of wood fastened to a whale line and used to check the whale. Nowadays only used when the whale is about to take the last of the whale line. It acts against the water exactly as a kite does against the wind. Derived from drudge, the earliest form of the word (“to labour patiently for others“) and not from drag as usually stated.
I have given myself the task to illustrate every week a different whaling term, the illustrations do not seek to be in anyway didactic but a personal and playful interpretation of the words.
"a still better seaward peep" 