Definitions
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- The boilers and furnaces, either on board a whaleship or on shore, for converting blubber into oil.
Examples
“Here be it said in a whaling voyage the first fire in the try-works has to be fed for a time with wood.”
“The try-works are planted between the foremast and mainmast, the most roomy part of the deck.”
“While some were occupied with this latter duty, others were employed in dragging away the larger tubs, so soon as filled with the sperm; and when the proper time arrived, this same sperm was carefully manipulated ere going to the try-works, of which anon.”
“Removing the fire-board from the front of the try-works, the bare masonry of that side is exposed, penetrated by the two iron mouths of the furnaces, directly underneath the pots.”
“Now, while discoursing of sperm it behooves to speak of other things akin to it, in the business of preparing the sperm whale for the try-works.”
“Besides her hoisted boats, an American whaler is outwardly distinguished by her try-works.”
“They moored ship, erected their try-works on shore, put up a small tent, in which they all lived, and commenced operations.”
Chapter XIX. The Sandwich Islanders-Hide-Curing-Wood-Cutting-Rattle-Snakes-New-Comers
“That fellow is no whaler; look at his canvas, no smoke stains from the try-works there: he is a sandal-wood trader, or is after _beche-de-mer_.”
“Her deck was flush fore and aft, the only obstructions being the brick-built "try-works" in the waist, the galley, and cabin skylight right aft by the taffrail.”
The Cruise of the Cachalot Round the World After Sperm Whales
“One night, however, as we were nearing the Kuriles again, on our way south, leaving the Sea of Okhotsk, I was sitting on the fore side of the try-works alone, meditating upon what I would do when once I got clear of this miserable business.”
The Cruise of the Cachalot Round the World After Sperm Whales
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘try-works’.
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Mobying Along
looks like there's not an open Moby Dick list. So now there is.
hypos, Manhattoes, circumambulate, mole, grapnels, bowsprit, asphaltic, mazy, tranced, cataract, ungraspable, judgmatically and 227 more...
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Learned (or Encountered) in Reading
I have a list for words learned from Newsweek; here's where I keep all the stuff from other shit I read.
Except when I'm looking stuff up and find new words that way. Those go on their...cellie, laminectomy, mridangam, terroir, hypospadias, crus, corpora cavernosa, crura, uretheral meatus, bartholin's gland, coloquintida, colopexy and 921 more...
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whaling terms
Terms defined in the glossary of Clifford W. Ashley's "Yankee Whaler".
advance, adze, after house, after oar, agent, air up, alow, ambergris, apeak, article, away, bailer and 299 more...
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Prosie: A Squeeze of the Hand
excerpt from ch. 94 of Melville's Moby-Dick:
"...and when the proper time arrived, this same sperm was carefully manipulated ere going to the try-works, of which anon.
It ...try-works, sweet and unctuou..., spiralize, musky meadow, that inexpressibl..., squeeze! squeeze!..., social acerbities, squeeze ourselves..., the very milk and..., angels in paradis...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for try-works.
chained_bear "Amidships stood the brick try-works equipped with furnaces and cauldrons for rendering blubber into oil."
--Walter Noble Burns, A Year with a Whaler, 10 Apr 27, 2008