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.
第九十六章 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.
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