172 THE AMERICAN WHALEMAN 



guarded the boatsteerer who was down on the whale j and 

 others were employed in cutting the great blanket-pieces as 

 they came into the blubber-room. The only persons on board 

 who were enabled to follow a reasonably normal program were 

 the cook and the steward. Even these two, however, were 

 often required to reenforce the efforts of the men at the 

 windlass. 



Following hard upon the heels of the "cutting-in" opera- 

 tions came the activities of "trying-out," whereby the oil was 

 boiled out of the blubber and stowed away in huge casks in 

 the hold. For this purpose the crew was divided into two 

 watches which alternated for six-hour tours of duty. Here 

 again a regular routine was followed. The horse-pieces were 

 first taken from the blubber-room to the mincing-block, where 

 they were cut into thin slices, but with just enough of one side 

 left uncut to prevent the original horse-piece from falling apart. 

 The resulting appearance of the slices was not unlike that of 

 the leaves of a bookj and for this reason they were dubbed 

 "Bible-leaves." These fanciful volumes were thrown into 

 two large iron try-pots, having a combined capacity of three to 

 four hundred gallons, which were built into brick furnaces 

 erected on deck. After boiling for some time the oil became 

 separated from the fibers and was dipped out into a copper con- 

 tainer, where it was allowed to cool. Thence it was trans- 

 ferred to casks, wherein it was kept for several days in order 

 to insure a thorough cooling process j and thereafter it was 

 stowed away in the hold for the remainder of the voyage. ^^ 

 The fibrous matter left in the try-pots after the oil had been 

 extracted, known as "cracklings," was carefully saved to serve 

 as fuel for the next trying-out period. 



As in cutting-in, these trying-out activities were kept up 

 continuously, day and night, until completed. The mates and 

 boatsteerers superintended the loading of the pots, the feed- 

 ing of the fires, and the ladling of the seething oil into the 

 copper cooler. The remainder of the men on duty were en- 

 gaged in preparing the blubber for the try-pots, in feeding the 



1^ In the earlier days of the Industry the same casks which had been filled 

 on deck were re-coopered when the oil was thoroughly cool and then stowed 

 away in the hold until the end of the cruise, Later, however, the oil was put 

 into casks which never left the hold. 



