Besides her hoisted boats, an American whaler is outwardly distinguished by her try-works. She presents the curious anomaly of the most solid masonry joining with oak and hemp in constituting the completed ship. It is as if from the open field a brick-kiln were transported to her planks.
Matthias Bickenbach Kapitel 96: The Try-Works:
"[...] Der amerikanische Walfänger ist daher nicht nur ein Schiff, sondern auch eine Fabrik. Diese doppelte Funktion führt in das Kapitel die Struktur der Heterotopie ein, die Michel Foucault als Räume beschrieben hat, die »andere Räume« implizieren und, wichtiger noch, hervorbringen. Heterotopien sind einerseits Orte, die mehrfach besetzt sind und heterogene Funktionen vereinen, auch paradoxe Umbesetzungen der ›eigentlichen‹ Funktion. Zugleich sind sie andererseits Schnittstellen zwischen realen und imaginären Räumen. Genau diese Überschreitung erzählt das Kapitel 96. Bereits der zweite Satz stellt klar, dass der amerikanische Walfänger durch seine Tranöfen einen »kuriosen Ausnahmefall« (653) darstellt. Er ist das Paradox eines Holzschiffes mit Mauern – und erst diese machen ihn »zum vollständigen Schiff« (ebd.).
The try-works are planted between the foremast and mainmast, the most roomy part of the deck. The timbers beneath are of a peculiar strength, fitted to sustain the weight of an almost solid mass of brick and mortar, some ten feet by eight square, and five in height. The foundation does not penetrate the deck, but the masonry is firmly secured to the surface by ponderous knees of iron bracing it on all sides, and screwing it down to the timbers. On the flanks it is cased with wood, and at top completely covered by a large, sloping, battened hatchway. Removing this hatch we expose the great try-pots, two in number, and each of several barrels’ capacity. When not in use, they are kept remarkably clean. Sometimes they are polished with soapstone and sand, till they shine within like silver punchbowls. During the night-watches some cynical old sailors will crawl into them and coil themselves away there for a nap. While employed in polishing them—one man in each pot, side by side— many confidential communications are carried on, over the iron lips. It is a place also for profound mathematical meditation. It was in the left hand try-pot of the Pequod, with the soapstone diligently circling round me, that I was first indirectly struck by the remarkable fact, that in geometry all bodies gliding along the cycloid, my soapstone for example, will descend from any point in precisely the same time.[...]
(Melville: Moby Dick, Kapitel 96)
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