Moby-Dick: Chapters 120-127
The Deck Towards the End of the First Night Watch. Midnight.—The Forecastle Bulwarks. Midnight Aloft.—Thunder and Lightning. The Musket. The Needle. The Log and Line. The Life-Buoy. The Deck.
Moby Dick Summer note: this is sending a day late, apologies!
Chapter 120
The Deck Towards the End of the First Night Watch
Ahab standing by the helm. Starbuck approaching him.
“We must send down the main-top-sail yard, sir. The band is working loose and the lee lift is half-stranded. Shall I strike it, sir?”
“Strike nothing; lash it. If I had sky-sail poles, I’d sway them up now.”
“Sir!—in God’s name!—sir?”
“Well.”
“The anchors are working, sir. Shall I get them inboard?”
“Strike nothing, and stir nothing, but lash everything. The wind rises, but it has not got up to my table-lands yet. Quick, and see to it.—By masts and keels! he takes me for the hunch-backed skipper of some coasting smack. Send down my main-top-sail yard! Ho, gluepots! Loftiest trucks were made for wildest winds, and this brain-truck of mine now sails amid the cloud-scud. Shall I strike that? Oh, none but cowards send down their brain-trucks in tempest time. What a hooroosh aloft there! I would e’en take it for sublime, di…
