Moby Dick; Or, The Whale

The Cassock

Once suited in the prepared pelt, the mincer is invested in the full traditional canonicals of his occupation. This immemorial garment, standard for all members of his order, provides adequate protection for him while he performs the specific duties of his office.

The Mincing Office

The mincer’s official role is to chop whale blubber into small pieces for boiling to extract oil. He works at a dedicated wooden apparatus on the forecastle, with a large tub beneath to catch the minced pieces as they fall as fast as sheets from a rapt orator’s desk. Dressed entirely in black within his pelt cassock, he cuts a striking figure comparable to a clergyman in a pulpit or a candidate for high religious office such as archbishop or Pope.

The Wooden Horse

The mincer performs his mincing work at a curious wooden horse, positioned endwise against the ship’s bulwarks, with a capacious tub mounted directly beneath it to collect the chopped blubber pieces as they drop.

Bible Leaves

The accompanying footnote explains that the phrase “Bible leaves!” is the constant, invariable cry from the ship’s mates to the mincer while he works. The instruction directs him to cut the blubber into the thinnest possible slices, as this speeds up the oil boiling process, increases the total quantity of oil extracted, and may also improve the oil’s quality.

CHAPTER 96. The Try-Works.

The try-works distinguish an American whaler, consisting of a substantial brick and mortar structure planted between the foremast and mainmast, fitted with two large iron try-pots of several barrels’ capacity each, polished so thoroughly with soapstone and sand that they shine like silver punch-bowls. The works are started by feeding wood to the furnaces initially, then sustained by the blubber scraps or fritters that fuel the flames, as the narrator observes that once ignited, the whale supplies his own fuel and burns by his own body. By midnight the try-works were in full operation, the fierce flames illuminating the ship’s rigging and revealing the pagan harpooneers stoking the fires with pronged poles, their tawny features begrimed with smoke and sweat as they fed boiling oil into the pots. The narrator recounts a troubling incident at the helm that night, where he awoke from a brief sleep to find himself facing the ship’s stern instead of the prow, gripped by a hallucination that the tiller was somehow inverted, and uses this experience to caution readers against becoming mesmerized by artificial fire, concluding with reflections on the wisdom found in sorrow and the soul’s capacity to dive into darkness yet remain higher than those who merely soar upon the plain.

American Whaler Try-Works: Placement, Structure, and Uses

The try-works distinguish an American whaler, combining solid masonry with oak and hemp. Planted between the foremast and mainmast—the most spacious deck area—the masonry foundation measures roughly ten feet by eight square and five feet high. Secured by iron bracing rather than penetrating the deck, the structure supports two try-pots, each with several barrels’ capacity. When idle, the pots are polished with soapstone and sand until they shine like silver punch-bowls. Sailors sometimes nap inside them, and confidential conversations occur over their iron lips. Ishmael first grasped the cycloid’s properties while polishing a pot here.

Try-Works Furnace Design and Pequod Voyage First Ignition

The furnaces occupy the masonry front, their iron mouths directly beneath the pots, fitted with heavy iron doors. A shallow water reservoir beneath the entire surface prevents heat from reaching the deck, replenished via a rear tunnel as water evaporates. The furnaces have no external chimneys, opening directly from the rear wall. The Pequod’s try-works were first ignited around nine o’clock on this voyage, with Stubb overseeing. The carpenter had been feeding shavings into the furnace during the passage, and the first fire requires wood before transitioning to the staple fuel.

Blubber as Try-Works Fuel and Its Noxious Smoke

After the initial wood ignition, the try-works run on “scraps” or “fritters”—processed blubber that still retains unctuous properties. The whale effectively supplies his own fuel, burning by his own body. However, this fuel produces horrible smoke with an unspeakable, wild, Hindoo odor resembling funeral pyres. Sailors must inhale this smoke and endure it for extended periods, described as smelling like “the left wing of the day of judgment” and serving as “an argument for the pit.”