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Updated: May 17, 2025
Huge caldrons, or "try-pots," had been got up on deck, with pans below them for holding the fire. The first operation was to cut off the head; which being done, it was hauled astern and carefully secured with the snout downwards.
As this glad ship of good luck bore down upon the moody Pequod, the barbarian sound of enormous drums came from her forecastle; and drawing still nearer, a crowd of her men were seen standing round her huge try-pots, which, covered with the parchment-like POKE or stomach skin of the black fish, gave forth a loud roar to every stroke of the clenched hands of the crew.
This oil, the most valuable part of the whale, was then boiled separately, and stowed in casks. Now commenced the operation of trying out. Fires were lighted under the huge try-pots, the crisp membranous parts of the blanket, after the oil had been extracted, serving as fuel. The blubber was boiled until the oil rose to the surface, when it was skimmed off and placed in casks.
But the rest of her crew being at last safe aboard, she crowded all sail stunsail on stunsail after the missing boat; kindling a fire in her try-pots for a beacon; and every other man aloft on the look-out.
None of it was allowed to run to waste, though, for the scupper-holes which drain the deck were all carefully plugged, and as soon as the "junk" had been dissected all the oil was carefully "squeegeed" up and poured into the try-pots.
The blanket-piece being cut up into small portions, they were thrown into the try-pots; the crisp pieces which remained after the oil was extracted, called "scraps," serving for fuel. This last operation is called "trying out." Four days elapsed before both the carcasses were got rid of, and the oil stowed away in casks in the hold.
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