midnight
Along the deck were arranged the huge `` try-pots , '' with brightly blazing fires beneath them , the fuel being the crisp membrane from the already used blubber . On each side of the `` try-works '' were copper tanks or coolers to receive the oil as it flows over the sides of the pots with the rolling of the ship , or is ladled into them when sufficiently boiled . Some of the men stripped to the waist , and , begrimed with smoke and oil , were working away with forks or ladles , either throwing in the blubber , chopped into small pieces , or skimming off the scraps , or baling out the oil ; others of the men were in the blubber-room , heaving on deck the horse-pieces , of about thirty pounds weight each , to be minced fine before being thrown into the try-pots . The whole watch were thus engaged , and what with the blazing fires , the wreaths of black smoke , the dark figures flourishing their implements , and ever and anon giving vent to horrible oaths and shouts and shrieks of savage laughter , the spectacle I beheld was more weird and wild than anything I could have imagined -- like one of those dreadful scenes I have read of where spirits of darkness are described holding their midnight revels . My share of the work on such occasions when the watch to which I belonged was on deck was to turn the grindstone for the carpenter , whose business it was to sharpen the spades for the men . In the intervals during daylight I amused myself , armed with one of the spades , the pole of which was twenty feet long , in killing the sharks swarming alongside . One deep cut on the back of the neck or tail was sufficient to destroy the largest of the savage creatures .