Dana is describing the untidiness of a whaler he boarded:
"She had a false deck, which was rough and oily, and cut up in every direction by the chimes of oil casks; her rigging was slack and turning white; no paint on the spars or blocks; clumsy seizings and straps without covers, and homeward-bound splices in every direction."

chime 2
n.
5ME chimb < OE cimb3 (only in compounds); akin to Du kim, Ger kimme, an edge & ? COMB16 the extended rim at each end of a cask or barrel