The ship is getting close to Boston Harbor. So the captain has men casting leads, to see if they can touch bottom
Dana says of one of the leadsmen: "As the last ]red]fake left his hand....."
On a sailing vessel, all ropes (of various names_ were laid out on deck in coils, spirals. One circle was a fake.

My dictionary gives a slightly different definition:
ake 2
vt.
faked, fak4ing 5< ?6 Naut. to lay out (a line) in long, parallel, partly overlapping lengths so that it will run out freely without kinking: usually with down