The Try-Works

Chapter 96 The Try-Works The American whaleship is outfitted with a brick fireplace or furnace built on its deck between the foremast and mainmast. Within the brickwork are situated two very large kettles -- try-pots, as they are called. This construct is called the try-works, because the operation it performs is called trying-out the whale's blubber, which amounts to boiling the oil out of it. In some cases, this try-works is broken down and thrown overboard …

…the material counterpart of her monomaniacal commander's soul." Somehow Ishmael is hypnotized by the flames and comes-to at the helm, but facing the stern and not the bow. He nearly causes the ship to capsize, but luckily he prevents it. The memory of this evokes a moral: "Look not too long in the face of fire, O Man. Never dream with thy hand at the helm." He goes on and on, still hallucinating, still fulminating . . .