Day Fifty-One

5/22

The Book: Moby-Dick by Herman Melville

ISBN: 978-1-59308-018-1

Suggested By: Patrick Garcia

Where: Home

When: 4:50

Music: None

Company: The Dogs

Pages: 405-460(55)

The Lead In: I have often entered into debate with my friends as to if the current generation of humans could have hacked it in earlier periods of history. We have grown so soft (in the US and Europe, primarily) that I seriously doubt the ability for us to toughen up to the task of our fathers and grandfathers. I don’t think there are many whalers around now.

The 411 on the 55: A whale is spotted but another ship is giving chase. Undeterred, the Pequod lowers its boats and heads after it. Queequeg nails it with a harpoon and as the whale pulls, his boat knocks the opposing harpooner out of his boat. As the whale begins to tire, it rises to the surface. As he lies on the surface, Flask stabs him and blood shoots out with such force that everyone is dripping from head to toe. The whale is so heavy that when it is tied to the Pequod it pulls it over, forcing them to cut it lose.

As the ship passes around the coast of Java, they are chased by pirates, but the Pequod  is so quick, it easily out races them. The encounter a pod of whales when Queequeg notices a whale giving birth. They stand entranced for a moment, but soon the whales begin bumping the boat, but again, the Pequod narrowly escapes damage.

Several large sections of whale science, most interesting was the section on whale phrenology.

Line of the Day: “Hurrah! This whale carries the everlasting mail!” pg 416

The Fact on the Fiction: “Moby-Dick was first published by Richard Bentley in London on October 18, 1851 in an expurgated three-volume edition titled The Whale, and later as one massive volume, by New York City publisher Harper and Brothers as Moby-Dick; or, The Whale on November 14, 1851” Wikpedia