54 The Town-Ho's Story
CHAPTER 54
THE TOWN-HO’S STORY.(As told at the Golden Inn.)
The Town Ho’s Story: To promote Melville’s forthcoming novel, this chapter was published separately in Harper’s New Monthly Magazine (October 1851), just as the novel was reaching readers in England and six weeks before Harper & Brothers published Moby-Dick in America.
The Cape of Good Hope, and all the watery region round about there, is much like some noted four corners of a great highway, where you meet more travellers than in any other part.
It was not very long after speaking the Goney that another homeward-bound whaleman, the Town-Ho,* was encountered. She was manned almost wholly by Polynesians. In the short gam that ensued she gave us strong news of Moby Dick. To some the general interest in the White Whale was now wildly height-
_____________________________________________________
* [Melville's Note] The ancient whale-crywhale-cry: “Town-ho” derives from the Wampanoag Indian whaling cry, “townor,” indicating, despite Ishmael’s note, the second, not the first, sighting of a whale. upon first sighting a whale from the mast-head, still used by whalemen in hunting the famous Gallipagos terrapinGallipagos terrapin: The Galápagos Islands, 600 miles west of Ecuador in the Pacific Ocean, are the home of the giant tortoise (Melville's "terrapin") and site of the early researches of Charles Darwin (1809-1882) in biological evolution (1835). On his first whaling ship, Acushnet, Melville cruised and hunted tortoise in these "enchanted" islands in fall 1841, and in his 1854 sketches about them, titled “The Encantadas,” he drew upon Darwin in his treatment of tortoises; see Bryant, Melville: A Half Known Life, vol. 2, ch. 75. See also "this wondrous extermination" in Ch. 105 and "Isle of Albemarle" in Ch. 127..
__________________________________
ened by a circumstance of the Town-Ho’s story, which seemed obscurely to involve with the whale a certain wondrous, inverted visitation of one of those so called judgments of God which at times are said to overtake some men. This latter circumstance, with its own particular accompaniments, forming what may be called the secret part of the tragedy about to be narrated, never reached the ears of Captain Ahab or his mates. For that secret part of the story was unknown to the captain of the Town-Ho himself. It was the private property of three confederate white seamen of that ship, one of whom, it seems, communicated it to Tashtego with RomishRomish: Roman Catholic. injunctions of secresy, but the following night Tashtego rambled in his sleep, and revealed so much of it in that way, that when he was wakened he could not well withhold the rest. Nevertheless, so potent an influence did this thing have on those seamen in the Pequod who came to the full knowledge of it, and by such a strange delicacy, to call it so, were they governed in this matter, that they kept the secret among themselves so that it never transpired abaftnever transpired abaft: that is, the secret never reached the officers, whose quarters are at the rear of the ship. the Pequod’s main-mast. Interweaving in its proper place this darker thread with the story as publicly narrated on the ship, the whole of this strange affair I now proceed to put on lasting record.
For my humor’s sake, I shall preserve the style in which I once narrated it at Lima, to a lounging circle of my Spanish friends, one saint’s eve, smoking upon the thick-gilt tiled piazza of the Golden Inn. Of those fine cavaliers, the young Dons, Pedro and Sebastian, were on the closer terms with me; and hence the interluding questions they occasionally put, and which are duly answered at the time.
“Some two years prior to my first learning the events which I am about rehearsing to you, gentlemen, the Town-Ho, Sperm Whaler of Nantucket, was cruising in your Pacific here, not very many days’ sail eastwardnot very many days’ sail eastward: The direction given in both the American and British editions is “eastward,” a likely typo that seems to put the Town-Ho “cruising” impossibly east of Lima’s Golden Inn, somewhere in the Andes mountains. Another possibility is a faulty transcription, with the intended original meaning being something like: The Town-Ho was cruising eastward not very many days' sail from the Golden Inn. Assuming that “eastward” is a typo, the NN and other editions emend the reading text to “westward”; however, given the possibility of the befuddlement scenario, MEL makes no change. from the eaves of this good Golden Inn. She was somewhere to the northward of the Linethe Line: the Equator. One morning upon handling the pumps, according to daily usage, it was observed that she made more watermade more water: leaked more. in her hold than common. They supposed a sword-fishsupposed a sword-fish had stabbed her: Although this sounds like a tall tale, such stabbings have actually occurred, as with the London Packet, seen by Melville in Nuku Hiva, in 1842. See Wilson L. Heflin's Herman Melville's Whaling Years (Ch. 20) for such historical parallels to and possible sources of "The Town-Ho’s Story." had stabbed her, gentlemen. But the captain, having some unusual reason for believing that rare good luck awaited him in those latitudes; and therefore being very averse to quit them, and the leak not being then considered at all dangerous, though, indeed, they could not find it after searching the hold as low down as was possible in rather heavy weather, the ship still continued her cruisings, the mariners working at the pumps at wide and easy intervals; but no good luck came; more days went by, and not only was the leak yet undiscovered, but it sensibly increased. So much so, that now taking some alarm, the captain, making all sail, stood awaystood away: steered a course. for the nearest harbor among the islands, there to have his hull hove outhove out: tipped to one side. and repaired.
“Though no small passage was before her, yet, if the commonest chance favored, he did not at all fear that his ship would founder by the way, because his pumps were of the best, and being periodically relieved at them, those six-and-thirty men of his could easily keep the ship free; never mind if the leak should double on her. In truth, well nigh the whole of this passage being attended by very prosperous breezes, the Town-Ho had all but certainly arrived in perfect safety at her port without the occurrence of the least fatality, had it not been for the brutal overbearing of Radney, the mate, a VineyarderRadney, the mate, a Vineyarder: Later in Ch. 54, in both the American and British versions, Radney (here called a “Vineyarder”) is referred to three times as a “Nantucketer.” Although Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket are neighboring islands, they have distinctive histories and cultures, and Ishmael has previously associated radically different characters with these different islands. (Intemperate Flask, for instance, is a Vineyarder, and calm Starbuck, a Nantucketer; each has his “different way,” see Ch. 28.) Therefore, it is unlikely that Melville would want to conflate the two island types, although in writing he might have erred here, or in the other three places, by substituting one island origin for Radney for the other. It is also possible that in the writing process Melville changed his mind about Radney’s origin, but failed to make his text record the change consistently, thus leaving Radney in one place a Vineyarder and in others a Nantucketer. The NN editors revise “Vineyarder” to “Nantucketer” (NN 875). But since the discrepancy might be the vestige of an incomplete revision, MEL makes no change., and the bitterly provoked vengeance of Steelkilt, a Lakeman and desperado from BuffaloBuffalo: Situated on Lake Erie and New York’s western border, Buffalo was made the western terminus of the Erie Canal in 1822. Its harbor received grain from Chicago via the Great Lakes and sent it on to Albany by canal and then New York City by the Hudson River. In the 1840s it also became a railroad center. On his 1840 tour of the West, Melville passed through this western boom town and witnessed its rowdiness and corruption; see Bryant, Herman Melville: A Half Known Life, vol. 2, ch. 55..”
“‘Lakeman!—Buffalo! Pray, what is a Lakeman, and where is Buffalo?’REVISION NARRATIVE. “‘Lakeman!—Buffalo! Pray, what is a Lakeman, and where is Buffalo?’: Quotation Marks // Because “The Town-Ho’s Story” (Ch. 54) was reset from the American edition text in order to appear as a promotional pre-publication excerpt in Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, its text (like the British version, which was also reset at a later time) exhibits numerous variants, derived from the resetting, that affect meaning, even at the level of the quotation mark.
The chapter is an interpolated tale within the novel, and in it, Ishmael speaks in different modes: He introduces Lima, where he first told the tale, and reports his interactions with his audience there as well as the dialogue of the characters at sea in the story proper. To represent these narrative layers, Melville uses double and single quotation marks. Because Ishmael proposes to “preserve the style in which [he] once narrated” the tale, the story is, in effect, one long quotation, indicated by double quotation marks. However, the interruptions by Don Pedro and Don Sebastian at the Golden Inn and his dialogue with them at the beginning and end are set off in single quotation marks, as are the speeches of such characters as Radney, Steelkilt, and the Captain within the tale itself. Also, in accordance with punctuation conventions, double quotation marks do not close a paragraph if the speaker continues in the next paragraph; only the last paragraph of a multi-paragraph passage takes a closing double quotation mark.
But these general rules are not perfectly followed in the American edition, and re-settings of the text in the Harper’s and British versions add as many errors as corrections. In addition, the NN edition makes over 80 changes to the quotation marks in their reading text; some of them are corrections, but most replace with double quotes the American edition’s single quotes from the dialogue of the Dons. For instance, in the highlighted passage, the NN edition reading is “Lakeman! . . . Buffalo?” rather than “‘Lakeman! . . . Buffalo?’ MEL retains the single quotes, and makes seventeen corrections to the American version (as listed in Variants Not Discussed). said Don Sebastian, rising in his swinging mat of grass.
“On the eastern shore of our Lake Erie, Don; but—I crave your courtesy—may be, you shall soon hear further of all that. Now, gentlemen, in square-sail brigs and three-masted ships, well nigh as large and stout as any that ever sailed out of your old Callao to far ManillaCallao to far Manilla: Spanish colonial authorities sent Peruvian silver from Callao (Lima, Peru’s seaport) to Spain, while from Acapulco, Mexico, they shipped silver across the Pacific to Manila, the capital of their Philippine Islands colony, where it was used to buy goods from India, China, Japan, and elsewhere on the Pacific Rim. In 1843–44, Melville was stationed in Callao on the U.S. frigate United States and from there visited Lima; see Bryant, Herman Melville: A Half Known Life, vol. 2, chs. 91-92.;
this Lakeman, in the land-locked heart of our America, had yet been nurturedyet been nurtured by all those agrarian freebooting impressions: already accustomed to inland conceptions of the piratical high seas. by all those agrarian freebooting impressions popularly connected with the open ocean. For in their interflowing aggregate, those grand fresh-water seas of ours,—Erie, and Ontario, and Huron, and Superior, and Michigan,—possess an ocean-like expansiveness, with many of the ocean’s noblest traits; with many of its rimmed varieties of races and of climes. They contain round archipelagoes of romantic isles, even as the Polynesian waters do; in large part, are shored by two great contrasting nations, as the Atlantic is; they furnish long maritime approaches to our numerous territorial colonies from the East, dotted all round their banks; here and there are frowned upon by batteries, and by the goat-like craggy guns of lofty Mackinaw; they have heard the fleet thunderings of naval victoriesMackinaw . . . naval victories: On his trip to Illinois in 1840, Melville passed the fort on the high cliffs of Mackinac Island (pronounced "MACK inaw") in Lake Huron, near the Straits of Mackinac connecting Lake Huron and Lake Michigan. Built by the French and having changed hands several times, it became American by treaty after the War of 1812. The Great Lakes were the scene of such naval victories as Oliver Hazard Perry’s defeat of a British fleet on Lake Erie in 1813.; at intervals, they yield their beaches to wild barbarians, whose red painted faces flash from out their peltrypeltry: made of animal pelts. wigwams; for leagues and leagues are flanked by ancient and unentered forests, where the gaunt pines stand like serried lines of kings in Gothic genealogiesgaunt pines stand like serried lines of kings in Gothic genealogies: Perhaps the gaunt pines are crowded together like the lines drawn in royal family trees (hence a remote pun), or perhaps, as Charles Feidelson, Jr. argues, they resemble the clustered, elongated human figures of Gothic statuary seen on the facades of churches (Symbolism and American Literature, 324). See also Bryant, Herman Melville: A Half Known Life, vol. 2, ch. 56.; those same woods harboring wild Afric beastsAfric beasts . . . Tartar Emperors: Just as there are no Afric beasts in North America, there had not been a Tartar Emperor anywhere for centuries; Ishmael seems to be pulling the legs of his Spanish listeners. of prey, and silken creatures whose exported furs give robes to Tartar Emperors; they mirror the paved capitals of Buffalo and Cleveland, as well as Winnebago villagescapitals of Buffalo and Cleveland, as well as Winnebago villages: The two cities were capitals in the sense of being the region’s largest municipalities. The Winnebago people lived on Lake Winnebago, Wisconsin.; they float alike the full-rigged merchant ship, the armed cruiser of the State, the steamer, and the beech canoe; they are swept by BoreanBorean: Boreas was the Greek god of the north wind. and dismasting blasts as direful as any that lash the salted wave; they know what shipwrecks are, for out of sight of land, however inland, they have drowned full many a midnight ship with all its shrieking crew. Thus, gentlemen, though an inlander, Steelkilt was wild-ocean born, and wild-ocean nurtured; as much of an audacious mariner as any. And for Radney, though in his infancy he may have laid him down on the lone Nantucket beach, to nurse at his maternal sea; though in after life he had long followed our austere Atlantic and your contemplative Pacific; yet was he quite as vengeful and full of social quarrel as the backwoods seaman, fresh from the latitudes of buck-horn handled Bowie-knivesthe latitudes of . . . Bowie-knives: The sword-like knife alluded to was designed and named for Arkansas rowdy James Bowie (who died at the Alamo). With blades up to 15-inches long and double-edged near the point, they were used on what was then called the southwestern frontier for hunting and brawling and are therefore associated with those latitudes, or region.. Yet was this Nantucketer a man with some good-hearted traits; and this Lakeman, a mariner, who though a sort of devil indeed, might yet by inflexible firmness, only tempered by that common decency of human recognition which is the meanest slave’s right; thus treated, this Steelkilt had long been retained harmless and docile. At all events, he had proved so thus far; but Radney was doomed and made mad, and Steelkilt—but, gentlemen, you shall hear.
“It was not more than a day or two at the furthest after pointing her prow for her island haven, that the Town-Ho’s leak seemed again increasing, but only so as to require an hour or more at the pumps every day. You must know that in a settled and civilized ocean like our Atlantic, for example, some skippers think little of pumping their whole way across it; though of a still, sleepy night, should the officer of the deck happen to forget his duty in that respect, the probability would be that he and his shipmates would never again remember it, on account of all hands gently subsiding to the bottom. Nor in the solitary and savage seas far from you to the westward, gentlemen, is it altogether unusual for ships to keep clanging at their pump-handles in full chorus even for a voyage of considerable length; that is, if it lie along a tolerably accessible coast, or if any other reasonable retreat is afforded them. It is only when a leaky vessel is in some very out of the way part of those waters, some really landless latitude, that her captain begins to feel a little anxious.
“Much this way had it been with the Town-Ho; so when her leak was found gaining once more, there was in truth some small concern manifested by several of her company; especially by Radney the mate. He commanded the upper sails to be well hoisted, sheeted homesheeted home: extended horizontally as far as possible by hauling on the sheets (ropes attached to the sails’ lower corners). anew, and every way expanded to the breeze. Now this Radney, I suppose, was as little of a coward, and as little inclined to any sort of nervous apprehensiveness touching his own person as any fearless, unthinking creature on land or on sea that you can conveniently imagine, gentlemen. Therefore when he betrayed this solicitude about the safety of the ship, some of the seamen declared that it was only on account of his being a part owner in her. So when they were working that evening at the pumps, there was on this head no small gamesomeness slily going on among them, as they stood with their feet continually overflowed by the rippling clear water; clear as any mountain spring, gentlemen—that bubbling from the pumps ran across the deck, and poured itself out in steady spouts at the lee scupper-holeslee scupper-holes: drain holes where the deck meets the side of the ship on the lee-side, away from the wind, and therefore closer to the sea..
“Now, as you well know, it is not seldom the case in this conventional world of ours—watery or otherwise; that when a person placed in command over his fellow-men finds one of them to be very significantly his superior in general pride of manhood, straightway against that man he conceives an unconquerable dislike and bitterness; and if he have a chance he will pull down and pulverize that subaltern’s tower, and make a little heap of dust of it. Be this conceit of mine as it may, gentlemen, at all events Steelkilt was a tall and noble animal with a head like a Romanhead like a Roman: like the idealized heads on Roman statuary or coins. , and a flowing golden beard like the tasseled housingstasseled housings of your last viceroy’s snorting charger: Decorated saddle-coverings (housings) for the war-horse of the most recent ruler (viceroy) of Peru and most of Spanish America under the King of Spain, whose colonial rule ended in 1821. of your last viceroy’s snorting charger; and a brain, and a heart, and a soul in him, gentlemen, which had made Steelkilt CharlemagneCharlemagne: King of the Franks and the first Holy Roman Emperor, Charles the Great or Charlemagne (742-814), united most of Europe. A legendary leader and model of knighthood, he lives on in the cycle of literary works known as The Matter of France., had he been born son to Charlemagne’s father. But Radney, the mate, was ugly as a mule; yet as hardy, as stubborn, as malicious. He did not love Steelkilt, and Steelkilt knew it.
“Espying the mate drawing near as he was toiling at the pump with the rest, the Lakeman affected not to notice him, but unawed, went on with his gay banterings.
“‘Aye, aye, my merry lads, it’s a lively leak this; hold a cannikincannikin: small drinking vessel. , one of ye, and let’s have a taste. By the Lord, it’s worth bottling! I tell ye what, men, old Rad’s investment must go for it! he had best cut away his part of the hull and tow it home. The fact is, boys, that sword-fish only began the job; he’s come back again with a gang of ship-carpenters, saw-fish, and file-fish, and what not; and the whole posse of ’em are now hard at work cutting and slashing at the bottom; making improvements, I suppose. If old Rad were here now, I’d tell him to jump overboard and scatter ’em. They’re playing the devil with his estate, I can tell him. But he’s a simple old soul,—Rad, and a beauty too. Boys, they say the rest of his property is invested in looking-glasses. I wonder if he’d give a poor devil like me the model of his nose.’
“‘Damn your eyes! what’s that pump stopping for?’ roared Radney, pretending not to have heard the sailor’s talk. ‘Thunder away at it!’
“‘Aye, aye, sir,’ said Steelkilt, merry as a cricket. ‘Lively, boys, lively, now!’ And with that the pump clanged like fifty fire-engines; the men tossed their hats off to it, and ere long that peculiar gasping of the lungs was heard which denotes the fullest tension of life’s utmost energies.
“Quitting the pump at last, with the rest of his band, the Lakeman went forward all panting, and sat himself down on the windlass; his face fiery red, his eyes bloodshot, and wiping the profuse sweat from his brow. Now what cozeningcozening: beguiling, seductive. fiend it was, gentlemen, that possessed Radney to meddle with such a man in that corporeally exasperated state, I know not; but so it happened. Intolerably striding along the deck, the mate commanded him to get a broom and sweep down the planks, and also a shovel, and remove some offensive matters consequent upon allowing a pig to run at large.
“Now, gentlemen, sweeping a ship’s deck at sea is a piece of household work which in all times but raging gales is regularly attended to every evening; it has been known to be done in the case of ships actually foundering at the time. Such, gentlemen, is the inflexibility of sea-usages and the instinctive love of neat-ness in seamen; some of whom would not willingly drown without first washing their faces. But in all vessels this broom business is the prescriptive province of the boys, if boys there be aboard. Besides, it was the stronger men in the Town-Ho that had been divided into gangs, taking turns at the pumps; and being the most athletic seaman of them all, Steelkilt had been regularly assigned captain of one of the gangs; consequently he should have been freed from any trivial business not connected with truly nautical duties, such being the case with his comrades. I mention all these particulars so that you may understand exactly how this affair stood between the two men.
“But there was more than this: the order about the shovel was almost as plainly meant to sting and insult Steelkilt, as though Radney had spat in his face. Any man who has gone sailor in a whale-ship will understand this; and all this and doubtless much more, the Lakeman fully comprehended when the mate uttered his command. But as he sat still for a moment, and as he steadfastly looked into the mate’s malignant eye and perceived the stacks of powder-casks heaped up in him and the slow-matchslow-match: fuse. silently burning along towards them; as he instinctively saw all this, that strange forbearance and unwillingness to stir up the deeper passionateness in any already ireful being—a repugnance most felt, when felt at all, by really valiant men even when aggrieved—this nameless phantom feeling, gentlemen, stole over Steelkilt.
“Therefore, in his ordinary tone, only a little broken by the bodily exhaustion he was temporarily in, he answered him saying that sweeping the deck was not his business, and he would not do it. And then, without at all alluding to the shovel, he pointed to three lads as the customary sweepers; who, not being billeted atbilleted at: assigned to. the pumps, had done little or nothing all day. To this, Radney replied with an oath, in a most domineering and outrageous manner unconditionally reiterating his command; meanwhile advancing upon the still seated Lakeman, with an uplifted cooper’s club hammercooper’s club hammer: barrel-maker’s axe-like hammer. which he had snatched from a cask near by.
“Heated and irritated as he was by his spasmodic toil at the pumps, for all his first nameless feeling of forbearance the sweating Steelkilt could but ill brook this bearing in the mate; but somehow still smothering the conflagration within him, without speaking he remained doggedly rooted to his seat, till at last the incensed Radney shook the hammer within a few inches of his face, furiously commanding him to do his bidding.
“Steelkilt rose, and slowly retreating round the windlass, steadily followed by the mate with his menacing hammer, deliberately repeated his intention not to obey. Seeing, however, that his forbearance had not the slightest effect, by an awful and unspeakable intimation with his twisted hand he warned off the foolish and infatuated man; but it was to no purpose. And in this way the two went once slowly round the windlass; when, resolved at last no longer to retreat, bethinking him that he had now forborne as much as comported with his humor, the Lakeman paused on the hatches and thus spoke to the officer:
“‘Mr. Radney, I will not obey you. Take that hammer away, or look to yourself.’ But the predestinated mate coming still closer to him, where the Lakeman stood fixed, now shook the heavy hammer within an inch of his teeth; meanwhile repeating a string of insufferable maledictions. Retreating not the thousandth part of an inch; stabbing him in the eye with the unflinching poniard of his glance, Steelkilt, clenching his right hand behind him and creepingly drawing it back, told his persecutor that if the hammer but grazed his cheek he (Steelkilt) would murder him. But, gentlemen, the fool had been branded for the slaughter by the gods. Immediately the hammer touched the cheek; the next instant the lower jaw of the mate was stove in his head; he fell on the hatch spouting blood like a whale.
“Ere the cry could go aft Steelkilt was shaking one of the backstaysbackstays: ropes supporting a mast to the rear, connected to the hull of the vessel. leading far aloft to where two of his comrades were standing their mast-heads. They were both Canallers.”
“‘Canallers!’ cried Don Pedro. ‘We have seen many whale-ships in our harbors, but never heard of your Canallers. Pardon: who and what are they?’
“‘Canallers, Don, are the boatmen belonging to our grand Erie CanalErie Canal: Completed in 1825 and connecting Buffalo on Lake Erie and Albany on the Hudson River, both in upstate New York, it was originally forty feet wide and four deep, with eighteen aqueducts and eighty-three locks. This engineering accomplishment, which is described as “grand” twice in this chapter and once again in Ch. 85, was called "America’s Grand Canal," evoking Venice’s Grand Canal and main thoroughfare. As a teenager, Melville lived in Lansingburgh, north of Troy, New York, across from the canal’s entrance into the Hudson River, and in 1838 he studied surveying, hoping to get one of the many jobs related to canal maintenance and expansion. That job did not materialize; instead, Melville and a friend took the canal on the first leg of their trip to Illinois in 1840. See Bryant, Herman Melville: A Half Known Life, vol. 2, ch. 55.. You must have heard of it.’
“‘Nay, Senor; hereabouts in this dull, warm, most lazy, and hereditary land, we know but little of your vigorous North.’
“‘Aye? Well then, Don, refill my cup. Your chichachicha: Fermented South American drink made from a variety of grains, mainly corn.’s very fine; and ere proceeding further I will tell yeREVISION NARRATIVE: I will tell ye // In both Harper’s New Monthly Magazine and the British edition, “ye” has been changed to “you.” Since both versions were prepared after the American version, but on separate occasions, the coincidence of the shift to “you” strongly suggests that Melville instructed, on the American proof sheets he sent to the Harper’s and British editors, that the revision in dialect be made. Throughout “The Town-Ho’s Story,” the working-class “ye” (probably pronounced yuh) is reserved almost exclusively for sailor dialogue, whereas Ishmael and the gentlemen Dons speak with more sophisticated diction, referring almost exclusively to each other as “you.” An exception, however, is that Ishmael uses “ye” twice in conversation with the Dons, here at the beginning of the story, with “I will tell ye,” and again at the end, with “the story I have told ye.” Chances are, Melville’s strategy in revising Ishmael’s “ye” to “you” was to make Ishmael speak only like the Dons in the tale’s frame, and never like the sailors featured in the tale. But while he made that revision in the first instance, he failed to do so in the second. As with the Vineyarder-Nantucketer problem (see above), the discrepancy indicates an incomplete revision. In keeping with its policy not to mix versions, but record revisions through annotation, MEL does not emend its reading text. To compare American and British pages, click the thumbnails in the right margin. what our Canallers are; for such information may throw side-light upon my story.’
“For three hundred and sixty miles, gentlemen, through the entire breadth of the state of New York; through numerous populous cities and most thriving villages; through long, dismal, uninhabited swamps, and affluent, cultivated fields, unrivalled for fertility; by billiard-room and bar-room; through the holy-of-holies of great forestsREVISION NARRATIVE: through the holy-of-holies of great forests // The Holy of Holies is the innermost sanctuary of the Temple of Solomon in ancient Jerusalem, and the British edition removes Melville's presumably irreverent use of the phrase to give simply “through great forests.” To compare American and British pages, click the thumbnails in the right margin.; on Roman archesRoman arches over Indian rivers: Engineers employed the Roman arch design to create elevated waterways (aqueducts) so that the canal could cross over swamps and unnavigable sections of rivers such as the Mohawk River. In addition to his 1840 trip on the canal, Melville could have witnessed his first "Roman arch" as early as 1834 on the day he took the train on a bank errand to Schenectady where one such aqueduct was located; see Bryant, Herman Melville: A Half Known Life, vol. 1, ch. 19. over Indian rivers; through sun and shade; by happy hearts or broken; through all the wide contrasting scenery of those noble Mohawk countiesMohawk counties: The Erie Canal follows the course of the Mohawk River through central and western New York's Mohawk Valley region, which consists of six counties (Schoharie, Montgomery, Fulton, Herkimer, Oneida, and Otsego). The valley was originally the territory of the Iroquois Confederacy, in particular the Mohawk people.; and especially, by rows of snow-white chapels, whose spires stand almost like milestones, flows one continual stream of Venetianly corrupt and often lawless life. There’s your true AshanteeAshantee: West African warrior tribe (also Asante, Ashanti) in what is now Ghana, known for their splendor and ferocious courage. Ashantees also appear in “Benito Cereno.” See also Bryant, Herman Melville: A Half Known Life, vol. 1, ch. 19., gentlemen; there howl your pagans; where you ever find them, next door to you; under the long-flung shadow, and the snug patronizing lee of churches. For by some curious fatality, as it is often noted of your metropolitan freebootersfreebooters: pirates. that they ever encamp around the halls of justice, so sinners, gentlemen, most abound in holiest vicinities.”
“‘Is that a friar passing?’ said Don Pedro, looking downwards into the crowded piazza, with humorous concern.
“‘Well for our northern friend, Dame Isabella’s InquisitionDame Isabella’s Inquisition wanes in Lima: The Spanish Inquisition, established under King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella in 1478 to identify, torture, kill, or expel heretics and Jews, lasted officially until 1820 and triggered emigration to South America, where heretics and Jews were also persecuted. The Spanish gentlemen are teasing Ishmael, saying that he is lucky the Inquisition has diminished because his impious remarks would have gotten him in trouble. wanes in Lima,’ laughed Don Sebastian. ‘Proceed, Senor.’
“‘A moment! Pardon!’ cried another of the company. ‘In the name of all us Limeese, I but desire to express to you, sir sailor, that we have by no means overlooked your delicacy in not substituting present Lima for distant Venice in your corrupt comparison. Oh! do not bow and look surprised; you know the proverb all along this coast—“Corrupt as Lima“Corrupt as Lima.”: The “proverb” has yet to be identified; it is probably Melville’s invention, based on his time spent in Lima, while his ship, United States, was stationed in Lima’s port city Callao in 1843–44. The corruption may be political, moral, or sexual. Allusions to the seductive dress and demeanor of the veiled Peruvian women recur throughout Melville’s work, but more with an air of mystery or allure as in Typee, where the beautiful Fayaway is compared to a Peruvian lady smoking a cigar. Lima also appears in White-Jacket, Mardi, and “Benito Cereno” (the latter two of which include hints of sexual intrigue), as well as in Chs. 42 and 100 of Moby-Dick..” It but bears out your saying, too; churches more plentiful than billiard-tables, and for ever open—and “Corrupt as Lima.” So, too, Venice; I have been there; the holy city of the blessed evangelist, St. Mark!—St. Dominic, purge it!St. Mark!—St. Dominic, purge it!: St. Mark, the author of the second gospel, is the patron saint of Venice. St. Dominic, founder of the Roman Catholic Dominican order of friars in 1215, is the patron saint of the Cathedral of Lima. In the fifteenth century, the Dominicans in Spain were responsible for organizing the Inquisition; hence, their role in “purging” corruption. Your cup! Thanks: here I refill; now, you pour out again.’
“Freely depicted in his own vocation, gentlemen, the Canaller would make a fine dramatic hero, so abundantly and picturesquely wicked is he. Like Mark Antony, for days and days along his green-turfed, flowery Nile, he indolently floats, openly toying with his red-cheeked Cleopatra, ripening his apricot thigh upon the sunny deckREVISION NARRATIVE: openly toying with his red-cheeked Cleopatra, ripening his apricot thigh upon the sunny deck // Melville’s line referring to the legendary love-making of Roman general Mark Antony and Egyptian queen Cleopatra echoes the description of Cleopatra’s barge on the Nile in Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra (2.2). However, his British editor expurgated the sensual reference to Mark Antony’s "apricot thigh," leaving him simply “openly toying with his red-cheeked Cleopatra.” To compare American and British pages, click the thumbnails in the right margin.. But ashore, all this effeminacy is dashed. The brigandish guise which the Canaller so proudly sports; his slouched and gaily-ribboned hat betoken his grand features. A terror to the smiling innocence of the villages through which he floats; his swart visage and bold swagger are not unshunned in cities. Once a vagabond on his own canal, I have received good turns from one of these Canallers; I thank him heartily; would fain be not ungrateful; but it is often one of the prime redeeming qualities of your man of violence, that at times he has as stiff an arm to back a poor stranger in a strait, as to plunder a wealthy one. In sum, gentlemen, what the wildness of this canal life is, is emphatically evinced by this; that our wild whale-fishery contains so many of its most finished graduates, and that scarce any race of mankind, except Sydney menSydney men: The first settlers of Sydney, Australia (1788), were British convicts who exchanged prison for exile on the other side of the world. Seventy years later their name still carried a stain., are so much distrusted by our whaling captains. Nor does it at all diminish the curiousness of this matter, that to many thousands of our rural boys and young men born along its line, the probationary life of the Grand Canal furnishes the sole transition between quietly reaping in a Christian corn-field, and recklessly ploughing the waters of the most barbaric seas.”
“‘I see! I see!’ impetuously exclaimed Don Pedro, spilling his chicha upon his silvery ruffles. ‘No need to travel! The world’s one Lima. I had thought, now, that at your temperate North the generations were cold and holy as the hills.—But the story.’
“I left off, gentlemen, where the Lakeman shook the backstay. Hardly had he done so, when he was surrounded by the three junior mates and the four harpooneers, who all crowded him to the deck. But sliding down the ropes like baleful comets, the two Canallers rushed into the uproar, and sought to drag their man out of it towards the forecastle. Others of the sailors joined with them in this attempt, and a twisted turmoil ensued; while standing out of harm’s way, the valiant captain danced up and down with a whale-pikewhale-pike: single-pronged pole used for moving pieces of blubber. , calling upon his officers to manhandle that atrocious scoundrel, and smoke him alongsmoke him along: drive or drag him swiftly. to the quarter-deck. At intervals, he ran close up to the revolving border of the confusion, and prying into the heart of it with his pike, sought to prick out the object of his resentment. But Steelkilt and his desperadoes were too much for them all; they succeeded in gaining the forecastle deck, where, hastily slewing about three or four large casks in a line with the windlass, these sea-Parisianssea-Parisians: Melville's phrasing evokes the Parisian workers who, rebelling in 1848, barricaded many streets. George Duyckinck (1823-1863), brother of Melville’s friend and editor Evert Duyckinck (1816-1878), witnessed the Paris rebellion firsthand and wrote home about it. entrenched themselves behind the barricade.
“‘Come out of that, ye pirates!’ roared the captain, now menacing them with a pistol in each hand, just brought to him by the steward. ‘Come out of that, ye cut-throats!’
“Steelkilt leaped on the barricade, and striding up and down there, defied the worst the pistols could do; but gave the captain to understand distinctly, that his (Steelkilt’s) death would be the signal for a murderous mutiny on the part of all hands. Fearing in his heart lest this might prove but too true, the captain a little desisted, but still commanded the insurgents instantly to return to their duty.
“‘Will you promise not to touch us, if we do?’ demanded their ringleader.
“‘Turn to!Turn to!: get to work! turn to!—I make no promise;—to your duty! Do you want to sink the ship, by knocking off at a time like this? Turn to!’ and he once more raised a pistol.
“‘Sink the ship?’ cried Steelkilt. ‘Aye, let her sink. Not a man of us turns to, unless you swear not to raise a rope-yarn against us. What say ye, men?’ turning to his comrades. A fierce cheer was their response.
“The Lakeman now patrolled the barricade, all the while keeping his eye on the Captain, and jerking out such sentences as these:—‘It’s not our fault; we didn’t want it; I told him to take his hammer away; it was boy’s business; he might have known me before this; I told him not to prick the buffalo; I believe I have broken a finger here against his cursed jaw; ain’t those mincing knivesmincing knives: long, two-handled blubber-slicing knives. down in the forecastle there, men? look to those handspikes, my hearties. Captain, by God,REVISION NARRATIVE: Captain, by God, // Melville’s British editor expurgated “by God” to remove a use of the Lord’s name in vain. To compare American and British pages, click the thumbnails in the right margin. look to yourself; say the word; don’t be a fool; forget it all; we are ready to turn to; treat us decently, and we’re your men; but we won’t be floggedflogged: Melville exposes the abuse of flogging in White-Jacket, Chs. 33-36..’
“‘Turn to! I make no promises, turn to, I say!’
“‘Look ye, now,’ cried the Lakeman, flinging out his arm towards him, ‘there are a few of us here (and I am one of them) who have shipped for the cruise, d’ye see; now as you well know, sir, we can claim our discharge as soon as the anchor is down; so we don’t want a row; it’s not our interest; we want to be peaceable; we are ready to work, but we won’t be flogged.’
“‘Turn to!’ roared the Captain.
“Steelkilt glanced round him a moment, and then said:—‘I tell you what it is now, Captain, rather than kill ye, and be hung for such a shabby rascal, we won’t lift a hand against ye unless ye attack us; but till you say the word about not flogging us, we don’t do a hand’s turn.’
“‘Down into the forecastle then, down with ye, I’ll keep ye there till ye’re sick of it. Down ye go.’
“‘Shall we?’ cried the ringleader to his men. Most of them were against it; but at length, in obedience to Steelkilt, they preceded him down into their dark den, growlingly disappearing, like bears into a cave.
“As the Lakeman’s bare head was just level with the planks, the Captain and his posse leaped the barricade, and rapidly drawing over the slide of the scuttle, planted their group of hands upon it, and loudly called for the steward to bring the heavy brass padlock belonging to the companion-way. Then opening the slide a little, the Captain whispered something down the crack, closed it, and turned the key upon them—ten in number—leaving on deck some twenty or more, who thus far had remained neutral.
“All night a wide-awake watch was kept by all the officers, forward and aft, especially about the forecastle scuttle and fore hatchwayfore hatchway: opening in the deck to the forward hold.; at which last place it was feared the insurgents might emerge, after breaking through the bulkheadbulkhead: partition wall below deck. below. But the hours of darkness passed in peace; the men who still remained at their duty toiling hard at the pumps, whose clinking and clanking at intervals through the dreary night dismally resounded through the ship.
“At sunrise the Captain went forward, and knocking on the deck, summoned the prisoners to work; but with a yell they refused. Water was then lowered down to them, and a couple of handfuls of biscuit were tossed after it; when again turning the key upon them and pocketing it, the Captain returned to the quarter-deck. Twice every day for three days this was repeated; but on the fourth morning a confused wrangling, and then a scuffling was heard, as the customary summons was delivered; and suddenly four men burst up from the forecastle, saying they were ready to turn to. The fetid closeness of the air, and a famishing diet, united perhaps to some fears of ultimate retribu-tion, had constrained them to surrender at discretion. Emboldened by this, the Captain reiterated his demand to the rest, but Steelkilt shouted up to him a terrific hint to stop his babbling and betake himself where he belonged. On the fifth morning three others of the mutineers bolted up into the air from the desperate arms below that sought to restrain them. Only three were left.
“‘Better turn to, now?’ said the Captain with a heartless jeer.
“‘Shut us up again, will ye!’ cried Steelkilt.
“‘Oh! certainly,’ said the Captain, and the key clicked.
“It was at this point, gentlemen, that enraged by the defection of seven of his former associates, and stung by the mocking voice that had last hailed him, and maddened by his long entombment in a place as black as the bowels of despair; it was then that Steelkilt proposed to the two Canallers, thus far apparently of one mind with him, to burst out of their hole at the next summoning of the garrison; and armed with their keen mincing knives (long, crescentic, heavy implements with a handle at each end) run a muck from the bowsprit to the taffrailfrom the bowsprit to the taffrail: from the farthest forward point of the ship to the farthest point aft. A bowsprit is the pole projecting from the bow of a vessel, to which lines securing sails forward of the foremast are attached.; and if by any devilishness of desperation possible, seize the ship. For himself, he would do this, he said, whether they joined him or not. That was the last night he should spend in that den. But the scheme met with no opposition on the part of the other two; they swore they were ready for that, or for any other mad thing, for anything in short but a surrender. And what was more, they each insisted upon being the first man on deck, when the time to make the rush should come. But to this their leader as fiercely objected, reserving that priority for himself; particularly as his two comrades would not yield, the one to the other, in the matter; and both of them could not be first, for the ladder would but admit one man at a time. And here, gentlemen, the foul play of these miscreants must come out.
“Upon hearing the frantic project of their leader, each in his own separate soul had suddenly lighted, it would seem, upon the same piece of treachery, namely: to be foremost in breaking out, in order to be the first of the three, though the last of the ten, to surrender; and thereby secure whatever small chance of pardon such conduct might merit. But when Steelkilt made known his determination still to lead them to the last, they in some way, by some subtle chemistry of villany, mixed their before secret treacheries together; and when their leader fell into a doze, verbally opened their souls to each other in three sentences; and bound the sleeper with cords, and gagged him with cords; and shrieked out for the Captain at midnight.
“Thinking murder at hand, and smelling in the dark for the blood, he and all his armed mates and harpooneers rushed for the forecastle. In a few minutes the scuttle was opened, and, bound hand and foot, the still struggling ringleader was shoved up into the air by his perfidious allies, who at once claimed the honor of securing a man who had been fully ripe for murder. But all three were collared, and dragged along the deck like dead cattle; and, side by side, were seized up seized up into the mizen rigging: lifted up and tied to the fixed ropes (“shrouds”) supporting the mizzenmast.into the mizen rigging, like three quarters of meat, and there they hung till morning. ‘Damn ye,’ cried the Captain, pacing to and fro before them, ‘the vultures would not touch ye, ye villains!’
“At sunrise he summoned all hands; and separating those who had rebelled from those who had taken no part in the mutiny, he told the former that he had a good mind to flog them all round—thought, upon the whole, he would do so—he ought to—justice demanded it; but for the present, considering their timely surrender, he would let them go with a reprimand, which he accordingly administered in the vernacular.
“‘But as for you, ye carrion rogues,’ turning to the three men in the rigging—‘for you, I mean to mincemince ye up for the try-pots: slice you up and boil you down. ye up for the try-pots;’ and, seizing a rope, he applied it with all his might to the backs of the two traitors, till they yelled no more, but lifelessly hung their heads sideways, as the two crucified thieves are drawn.
“‘My wrist is sprained with ye!’ he cried, at last; ‘but there is still rope enough left for you, my fine bantam, that wouldn’t give up. Take that gag from his mouth, and let us hear what he can say for himself.’
“For a moment the exhausted mutineer made a tremulous motion of his cramped jaws, and then painfully twisting round his head, said in a sort of hiss, ‘What I say is this—and mind it well—if you flog me, I murder you!’
“‘Say ye so? then see how ye frighten me’—and the Captain drew off with the rope to strike.
“‘Best not,’ hissed the Lakeman.
“‘But I must,’—and the rope was once more drawn back for the stroke.
“Steelkilt here hissed out something, inaudible to all but the Captain; who, to the amazement of all hands, started back, paced the deck rapidly two or three times, and then suddenly throwing down his rope, said, ‘I won’t do it—let him go—cut him down: d’ye hear?’
“But as the junior mates were hurrying to execute the order, a pale man, with a bandaged head, arrested them—Radney the chief mate. Ever since the blow, he had lain in his berth; but that morning, hearing the tumult on the deck, he had crept out, and thus far had watched the whole scene. Such was the state of his mouth, that he could hardly speak; but mumbling something about his being willing and able to do what the captain dared not attempt, he snatched the rope and advanced to his pinioned foe.
“‘You are a coward!’ hissed the Lakeman.
“‘So I am, but take that.’ The mate was in the very act of striking, when another hiss stayed his uplifted arm. He paused: and then pausing no more, made good his word, spite of Steelkilt’s threat, whatever that might have been. The three men were then cut down, all hands were turned to, and, sullenly worked by the moody seamen, the iron pumps clanged as before.
“Just after dark that day, when one watch had retired below, a clamor was heard in the forecastle; and the two trembling traitors running up, besieged the cabin door, saying they durst not consort with the crew. Entreaties, cuffs, and kicks could not drive them back, so at their own instance they were put down in the ship’s run for salvationREVISION NARRATIVE: ship’s run for salvation // The two former mutineers fear retribution from the rest of the crew, and, "for salvation" of them, they are placed in the “run” (a crawl space below decks where a ship begins to narrow and curve upward toward the stern). However, in the British edition, “salvation” is revised to “security.” While “salvation” is a suitable word, it also suggests exoneration, and Melville may have opted for the more neutral “security.” By the same token, an editor might have supplied the substitution, finding the religious implications of “salvation” to be inappropriate. (That said, three other instances of “salvation” in Moby-Dick were not expurgated.) To compare American and British pages, click the thumbnails in the right margin.. Still, no sign of mutiny reappeared among the rest. On the contrary, it seemed, that mainly at Steelkilt’s instigation, they had resolved to maintain the strictest peacefulness, obey all orders to the last, and, when the ship reached port, desert her in a body. But in order to insure the speediest end to the voyage, they all agreed to another thing—namely, not to sing out for whales, in case any should be discovered. For, spite of her leak, and spite of all her other perils, the Town-Ho still maintained her mast-heads, and her captain was just as willing to lower for a fish that moment, as on the day his craft first struck the cruising ground; and Radney the mate was quite as ready to change his berth for a boat, and with his bandaged mouth seek to gag in death the vital jaw of the whale.
“But though the Lakeman had induced the seamen to adopt this sort of passiveness in their conduct, he kept his own counsel (at least till all was over) concerning his own proper and private revenge upon the man who had stung him in the ventricles of his heart. He was in Radney the chief mate’s watch; and as if the infatuated man sought to run more than half way to meet his doom, after the scene at the rigging, he insisted, against the express counsel of the captain, upon resuming the head of his watch at night. Upon this, and one or two other circumstances, Steelkilt systematically built the plan of his revenge.
“During the night, Radney had an unseamanlike way of sitting on the bulwarks of the quarter-deck, and leaning his arm upon the gunwale of the boat which was hoisted up there, a little above the ship’s side. In this attitude, it was well known, he sometimes dozed. There was a considerable vacancy between the boat and the ship, and down between this was the sea. Steelkilt calculated his time, and found that his next tricktrick: In Two Years Before the Mast, Richard Henry Dana defines "trick" as the "time allotted to a man.” at the helm would come round at two o’clock, in the morning of the third daythird day from that in which he had been betrayed: The language evokes the betrayal of Jesus and his resurrection on the third day after the Crucifixion. The reference is reinforced by the two flogged mutineers whose slumped bodies resemble "the two crucified thieves," who, in paintings, are depicted one on each side of Jesus. from that in which he had been betrayed. At his leisure, he employed the interval in braiding something very carefully in his watches below.
“‘What are you making there?’ said a shipmate.
“‘What do you think? what does it look like?’
“‘Like a lanyardlanyard: handle. for your bag; but it’s an odd one, seems to me.’
“‘Yes, rather oddish,’ said the Lakeman, holding it at arm’s length before him; ‘but I think it will answer. Shipmate, I haven’t enough twine,—have you any?’
“But there was none in the forecastle.
“‘Then I must get some from old Rad;’ and he rose to go aft.
“‘You don’t mean to go a begging to him!’ said a sailor.
“‘Why not? Do you think he won’t do me a turn, when it’s to help himself in the end, shipmate?’ and going to the mate, he looked at him quietly, and asked him for some twine to mend his hammock. It was given him—neither twine nor lanyard were seen again; but the next night an iron ball, closely netted, partly rolled from the pocket of the Lakeman’s monkey jacket, as he was tucking the coat into his hammock for a pillow. Twenty-four hours after, his trick at the silent helm—nigh to the man who was apt to doze over the grave always ready dug to the seaman’s hand—that fatal hour was then to come; and in the fore-ordaining soul of Steelkilt, the mate was already stark and stretched as a corpse, with his forehead crushed in.
“But, gentlemen, a fool saved the would-be murderer from the bloody deed he had planned. Yet complete revenge he had, and without being the avenger. For by a mysterious fatality, Heaven itself seemed to step in to take out of his hands into its own the damning thing he would have done.
“It was just between daybreak and sunrise of the morning of the second day, when they were washing down the decks, that a stupid TeneriffeTeneriffe: Now spelled Tenerife, the largest of the Canary Islands, in the Atlantic and close to Morocco but part of Spain. man, drawing water in the main-chains, all at once shouted out, ‘There she rolls! there she rolls! Jesu, what a whale!’ It was Moby Dick.”
“‘Moby Dick!’ cried Don Sebastian; ‘St. Dominic! Sir sailor, but do whales have christenings? Whom call you Moby Dick?’
“‘A very white, and famous, and most deadly immortal monster, Don;—but that would be too long a story.’
“‘How? how?’ cried all the young Spaniards, crowding.
“‘Nay, Dons, Dons—nay, nay! I cannot rehearse that now. Let me get more into the air, Sirs.’
“‘The chicha! the chicha!’ cried Don Pedro; ‘our vigorous friend looks faint;—fill up his empty glass!’
“No need, gentlemen; one moment, and I proceed.—Now, gentlemen, so suddenly perceiving the snowy whale within fifty yards of the ship—forgetful of the compact among the crew—in the excitement of the moment, the Teneriffe man had instinctively and involuntarily lifted his voice for the monster, though for some little time past it had been plainly beheld from the three sullen mast-heads. All was now a phrensy. ‘The White Whale—the White Whale!’ was the cry from captain, mates, and harpooneers, who, undeterred by fearful rumors, were all anxious to capture so famous and precious a fish; while the dogged crew eyed askance, and with curses, the appalling beauty of the vast milky mass, that lit up by a horizontal spangling sun, shifted and glistened like a living opal in the blue morning sea. Gentlemen, a strange fatality pervades the whole career of these events, as if verily mapped out before the world itself was charted. The mutineer was the bowsmanbowsman: This important rower sits directly aft of the harpooneer (also called boatsteerer). If the harpooneer is demoted for any reason (that is, "disrated"; see Ch. 62), the bowsman is promoted to that position. Melville was a bowsman aboard the Acushnet. Similarly, Ishmael is Queequeg's bowsman (see Ch. 72, "The Monkey-Rope"), and on the novel's last day he is made Ahab's bowsman, fated to become the Pequod’s only survivor (see “Epilogue”). See also Ch. 61, “Stubb Kills a Whale.” of the mate, and when fast to a fish, it was his duty to sit next him, while Radney stood up with his lance in the prow, and haul in or slacken the line, at the word of command. Moreover, when the four boats were lowered, the mate’s got the start; and none howled more fiercely with delight than did Steelkilt, as he strained at his oar. After a stiff pull, their harpooneer got fast, and, spear in hand, Radney sprang to the bow. He was always a furious man, it seems, in a boat. And now his bandaged cry was, to beach him on the whale’s topmost back. Nothing loath, his bowsman hauled him up and up, through a blinding foam that blent two whitenesses together; till of a sudden the boat struck as against a sunken ledge, and keeling over, spilled out the standing mate. That instant, as he fell on the whale’s slippery back, the boat righted, and was dashed aside by the swell, while Radney was tossed over into the sea, on the other flank of the whale. He struck out through the spray, and, for an instant, was dimly seen through that veil, wildly seeking to remove himself from the eye of Moby Dick. But the whale rushed round in a sudden maelstrom; seized the swimmer between his jaws; and rearing high up with him, plunged headlong again, and went down.
“Meantime, at the first tap of the boat’s bottom, the Lakeman had slackened the line, so as to drop astern from the whirlpool; calmly looking on, he thought his own thoughts. But a sudden, terrific, downward jerking of the boat, quickly brought his knife to the line. He cut it; and the whale was free. But, at some distance, Moby Dick rose again, with some tatters of Radney’s red woollen shirt, caught in the teeth that had destroyed him. All four boats gave chase again; but the whale eluded them, and finally wholly disappeared.
“In good time, the Town-Ho reached her port—a savage, solitary place—where no civilized creature resided. There, headed by the Lakeman, all but five or six of the foremast-men deliberately deserted among the palms; eventually, as it turned out, seizing a large double war-canoe of the savages, and setting sail for some other harbor.
“The ship’s company being reduced to but a handful, the captain called upon the Islanders to assist him in the laborious business of heaving down the ship to stop the leak. But to such unresting vigilance over their dangerous allies was this small band of whites necessitated, both by night and by day, and so extreme was the hard work they underwent, that upon the vessel being ready again for sea, they were in such a weakened condition that the captain durst not put off with them in so heavy a vessel. After taking counsel with his officers, he anchored the ship as far off shore as possible; loaded and ran out his two cannon from the bows; stacked his muskets on the pooppoop: raised section of the deck at the stern. ; and warning the Islanders not to approach the ship at their peril, took one man with him, and setting the sail of his best whaleboat, steered straight before the wind for Tahiti, five hundred miles distant, to procure a reinforcement to his crew.
“On the fourth day of the sail, a large canoe was descried, which seemed to have touched at a low isle of corals. He steered away from it; but the savage craft bore down on him; and soon the voice of Steelkilt hailed him to heave toheave to: adjust the sails in order to stop the ship, or he would run him under water. The captain presented a pistol. With one foot on each prow of the yoked war-canoes, the Lakeman laughed him to scorn; assuring him that if the pistol so much as clicked in the lock, he would bury him in bubbles and foam.
“‘What do you want of me?’ cried the captain.
“‘Where are you bound? and for what are you bound?’ demanded Steelkilt; ‘no lies.’
“‘I am bound to Tahiti for more men.’
“‘Very good. Let me board you a moment—I come in peace.’ With that he leaped from the canoe, swam to the boat; and climbing the gunwale, stood face to face with the captain.
“‘Cross your arms, sir; throw back your head. Now, repeat after me. “As soon as Steelkilt leaves me, I swear to beach this boat on yonder island, and remain there six days. If I do not, may lightnings strike me!”’
“‘A pretty scholar,’ laughed the Lakeman. ‘Adios, Senor!’ and leaping into the sea, he swam back to his comrades.
“Watching the boat till it was fairly beached, and drawn up to the roots of the cocoa-nut trees, Steelkilt made sail again, and in due time arrived at Tahiti, his own place of destination. There, luck befriended him; two ships were about to sail for France, and were providentially in want of precisely that number of men which the sailor headed. They embarked; and so for ever got the start of their former captain, had he been at all minded to work them legal retribution.
“Some ten days after the French ships sailed, the whale-boat arrived, and the captain was forced to enlist some of the more civilized Tahitians, who had been somewhat used to the sea. Chartering a small native schooner, he returned with them to his vessel; and finding all right there, again resumed his cruisings.
“Where Steelkilt now is, gentlemen, none know; but upon the island of Nantucket, the widow of Radney still turns to the sea which refuses to give up its dead; still in dreams sees the awful white whale that destroyed him.” * * * *
“‘Are you through?’ said Don Sebastian, quietly.
“‘I am, Don.’
“‘Then I entreat you, tell meREVISION NARRATIVE: I entreat you, tell me // The British version reads "I entreat you to tell me.” The addition of “to” and the elimination of the comma correct the sentence’s comma splice but creates a repetition of “to” nearby in the sentence. Chances are an editor, not Melville, made the alteration in mechanics. To compare American and British pages, click the thumbnails in the right margin. if to the best of your own convictions, this your story is in substance really true? It is so passing wonderful! Did you get it from an unquestionable source? Bear with me if I seem to press.’
“‘Also bear with all of us, sir sailor; for we all join in Don Sebastian’s suit,’ cried the company, with exceeding interest.
“‘Is there a copy of the Holy EvangelistsHoly Evangelists: the four Gospels of the New Testament. in the Golden Inn, gentlemen?’
“‘Nay,’ said Don Sebastian; ‘but I know a worthy priest near by, who will quickly procure one for me. I go for it; but are you well advised? this may grow too serious.’
“‘Will you be so good as to bring the priest also, Don?’
“‘Though there are no Auto-da-FésAuto-da-Fés: Literally, “acts of the faith,” but actually, formal pronouncements of heresy by the Inquisition, followed by burnings of heretics at the stake. in Lima now,’ said one of the company to another; ‘I fear our sailor friend runs risk of the archiepiscopacy. Let us withdraw more out of the moonlight. I see no need of this.’
“‘Excuse me for running after you, Don Sebastian; but may I also beg that you will be particular in procuring the largest sized Evangelists you can.’”REVISION NARRATIVE:
Procuring the Evangelists //
The reason for the removal of this sentence from the British edition is not entirely clear. The evangelists are Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, the disciples of Jesus who wrote the four Gospels; and the book called The Evangelists that Ishmael is requesting is a New Testament containing these four scriptures and perhaps some other New Testament writings. (Such short-version Bibles are commonly found in English.) Ishmael is proposing to swear on such a Bible that he is telling the truth, and since there is no blasphemy in doing so, it is unlikely that an editor would cut the line for that reason. However, in this sentence, Ishmael insists upon procuring the largest Bible available, thus comically suggesting that the truth of his tale and his sincerity in telling it will be sanctioned by the size of the book he swears by. An editor might have found Ishmael’s flippancy to be irreverent and therefore removed the line. On the other hand, the line’s humor also undercuts the serious tone of the swearing scene to come, and its implications of insincerity undercut Ishmael’s credibility. With these problems in mind, we can argue that Melville is just as likely to have removed the line as an editor. To compare American and British pages, click the thumbnails in the right margin.
* * * * * *
“‘This is the priest, he brings you the Evangelists,’ said Don Sebastian, gravely, returning with a tall and solemn figure.
“‘Let me remove my hat. Now, venerable priest, further into the light, and hold the Holy Book before me that I may touch it.’
“‘So help me Heaven, and on my honor, the story I have told ye, gentlemen, is in substance and its great items, true. I know it to be true; it happened on this ball; I trod the ship; I knew the crew; I have seen and talked with SteelkiltREVISION NARRATIVE: I trod the ship; I knew the crew; I have seen and talked with Steelkilt // Ishmael’s final sentence is an intense series of main clauses; it is punctuated with semi-colons; its intensity is heightened by the punctuation. In the British edition, the conjunction “and” has been inserted between the last two clauses to give “I knew the crew; and I have seen and talked with Steelkilt.” The revision is purely stylistic, and it can be argued whether the insertion of “and” enhances or detracts from the power of the sentence, and whether it was made by Melville or his editor. To compare American and British pages, click the thumbnails in the right margin. since the death of Radney.’”