Moby Dick; Or, The Whale

CHAPTER 113. The Forge.

This chapter details Captain Ahab’s commissioning of a custom, unbreakable harpoon from the Pequod’s blacksmith Perth, the full forging and tempering process for the weapon (including the use of crew blood to temper the barbs), and Ahab’s departure with the finished harpoon, accompanied by the eerie, unsettling laugh of the ship’s boy Pip.

Perth Forges A Pike Head

At midday, the scarred, matted-bearded blacksmith Perth, swathed in a bristling shark-skin apron, stands between his forge and anvil placed on an iron-wood log, heating a pike-head in the coals while operating his forge’s bellows.

Ahab And Perth Discuss Madness And Scars

As Perth withdraws the hot iron to hammer it on the anvil, sending sparks flying near the approaching Ahab (who carries a small rusty leather bag), the pair discuss Perth’s fire-resistant scarred skin, and Ahab questions why Perth does not go mad, noting he is impatient of all others’ unhappiness that is not rooted in madness. Ahab then asks if Perth can smooth all dents and seams in forged metal.

Ahab Commissions A Custom Harpoon

Ahab reveals the one unsmoothable “seam” is the scar across his brow that has worked down into the bone of his skull, then abandons his request to repair the pike-head. He jingles the leather bag, reveals it holds nail-stubbs from the steel shoes of racing horses, and commands Perth to forge him a harpoon so strong a thousand fiends could not break it, one that will stick fast in a whale, starting with twelve rods for the harpoon’s shank.

Forging And Testing Harpoon Shank Rods

Perth forges the twelve shank rods per Ahab’s instructions, and Ahab tests each by spiraling it around a long, heavy iron bolt. He rejects the final rod as flawed and orders Perth to rework it.

Ahab Welds The Harpoon Shank

When Perth is ready to weld the twelve rods into a single shank, Ahab insists on performing the welding himself. He hammers the glowing rods passed to him by Perth as the forge shoots up an intense straight flame.

The Parsee Observes The Forging

As Ahab hammers the shank, the Parsee passes silently, bows over Ahab’s head toward the fire as if invoking a curse or blessing on the work, then slips aside when Ahab looks up.

Stubb Mocks The Parsee’s Fire Obsession

Stubb, watching the scene from the forecastle, mocks the Parsee for his obsession with fire, comparing him to a fusee (fire-lighting device) and saying he smells of fire like a hot musket’s powder-pan.

Tempering The Harpoon Shank

Once the shank is forged into a single complete rod and given its final heat, Perth plunges it hissing into a nearby cask of water to temper it, sending scalding steam into Ahab’s bent face. Ahab winces and jokes that he may have forged his own branding iron.

Perth Reluctantly Forges Harpoon Barbs

Ahab next orders Perth to make sharp harpoon barbs, handing him razors forged from the finest steel. Perth hesitates briefly at the sight of the razors, but Ahab insists, noting he no longer needs to shave, eat, or pray until his quest is complete. Perth fashions the barbs into an arrowy shape and welds them to the shank.

Tempering Harpoon Barbs With Crew Blood

Before tempering the barbs, Perth asks Ahab to move the water cask nearby, but Ahab refuses, insisting the barbs be tempered with “true death-temper” instead. He calls on the pagan crew members Tashtego, Queequeg, and Daggoo to provide blood for the tempering; the three allow small punctures in their flesh, and their blood is used to temper the heated barbs. Ahab deliriously chants a Latin phrase, baptizing the barbs in the name of the devil rather than God.

Attaching Harpoon Pole And Tow Line

Ahab selects a hickory pole with its bark still intact from the ship’s spares, fits it to the harpoon’s socket, and attaches a new tow line. He stretches the rope to great tension to test its strength, then braids the unstranded yarns of the rope around the harpoon socket and secures the rope halfway up the pole with twine, making the pole, iron, and rope inseparable.