CUTTING IN AND TRYING OUT 147 



the caldrons that are kept bubbling with boiling 

 oil. When the oil has been boiled out of them, 

 the horse-pieces, now shrunken and twisted into 

 hard, brittle lumps, called " scrap," are skimmed 

 off and thrown into a vat at the port side of the 

 try-works to be used later as fuel in trying out 

 the remainder of the blubber. The oil is ladled 

 off into a cooling vat at the starboard side where, 

 after it has cooled, it is siphoned into hogsheads 

 or tanks and these are later stowed in the 

 hold. 



The trying out of the whale gave several deli- 

 cacies to the forecastle menu. Hardtack biscuit 

 soaked in buckets of sea water and then boiled 

 in the bubbling caldrons of oil made relishing 

 morsels. The crisp, tried-out blubber, which 

 looked like honey-comb, was palatable to some. 

 Black whale skin freed of blubber and cut into 

 small cubes and pickled in salt and vinegar had 

 a rather agreeable taste, though it was much 

 like eating pickled rubber. These things with 

 whale steaks and whale sausages made trying- 

 out days a season of continual feasting. 



At night " scrap " was put into an iron basket 

 iswung between the two chimneys of the try- 



