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 …showed first 75 words of 617 total…

…showed last 75 words of 617 total…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 . . .