This eighteenth-century German engraving shows men boiling pieces of whale blubber (a) in an open air vat (b). When blubber was heated the oil (c) separated out and drained into cooling tanks (d) before being casked (e) for shipment to market. This blubber was probably taken from northern whales. On southern voyages the hot climate made it impossible to store the blubber for long before it spoiled. As a result the oil had to be boiled right on deck in a large iron vat suspended over a blazing fire in a brick hearth. This apparatus was called a tryworks and the process was known as trying out the oil.
Courtesy: Picture Division, Public Archives of Canada (C-97529)
