Dana is describing getting hides from shore to ship.
"and wade out with them and throw them into the boat, which as there are no wharves, we are usually kept anchored by a small kedge, or keelek, just outside of ... "

Kedge means to put out an anchor away from ship or small boat, and the pull on rope to move the vessel. I could find dfinition of "keelek" only in a German site = "Warpanker".
Obvious "warp" is same as English, meaning to cause to move.