Correcting the Course
Ahab deliberately stands before the binnacle, takes the precise bearing of the sun with his hand, and confirms the needles are exactly inverted. He shouts orders to change course accordingly. The yards are hard up, and the Pequod turns into the opposing wind, having been deceived by the reversed compasses.
The Crew’s Superstitious Awe
Starbuck silently issues orders while Stubb and Flask acquiesce without murmuring. Some sailors rumble lowly, but their fear of Ahab exceeds their fear of fate. The pagan harpooneers remain almost wholly unimpressed, or only affected by the magnetism Ahab projects from his inflexible will.
The Crushed Quadrant
Ahab walks the deck in rolling reveries until he slips and notices the crushed copper sight-tubes of the quadrant he destroyed the day before. He reflects that yesterday he wrecked the quadrant and today the compasses nearly wrecked him, but declares Ahab remains lord over the loadstone. He demands a lance without a pole, a top-maul, and the smallest sail-maker’s needle.
Forging a New Needle
Ahab’s motives include reviving the crew’s spirits through his subtile skill in a wondrous matter. He addresses the crew, declaring that though thunder turned his needles, he can make one of his own from steel that will point true. With the top-maul, he knocks off the lance’s steel head, then repeatedly strikes the upper end of the iron rod. He places the sail-needle endwise on top and hammers it blunt end. He performs mysterious motions over it, then suspends the needle horizontally by its middle over one compass card.
Ahab’s Triumph
The steel needle initially quivers and vibrates at both ends but finally settles pointing true. Ahab steps back, pointing at it triumphantly to declare that Ahab is lord of the level loadstone, and the sun is east with the compass swearing it. The sailors exchange glances of servile wonder and one by one peer in to witness the miracle before slinking away. In his fiery eyes of scorn and triumph, Ahab stands in all his fatal pride.
CHAPITRE 125. The Log and Line.
The log and line had seen little use throughout the voyage, as reliance on other navigation methods led many whalemen to neglect this traditional practice. The weathered equipment hung forgotten beneath the after bulwarks.
Pequod’s Long-Unused Log and Line
Captain Ahab glances at the neglected reel following the destruction of his quadrant in the magnet scene. He remembers his earlier oath to rely upon the level log and line as a failsafe navigation method.
Ahab Recalls His Quadrant Oath
With the ship sailing roughly through heavy seas, Ahab commands two seamen—the Tahitian and the Manxman—to prepare the log for heaving at the stern on the ship’s lee side.
Ahab Orders the Log Heaved
The Manxman carefully examines the line and cautions that prolonged exposure to heat and moisture has severely damaged it. Ahab dismisses these concerns with characteristic philosophizing before ordering the line thrown.
Manxman Warns of Spoiled Log Line
Ahab heaves the log overboard. The line streams out behind the vessel as the reel begins to spin, but the weakened line suddenly snaps under the strain. The log disappears into the churning sea.
Log Line Snaps Mid-Heave
As the crew hauls in the broken line, they discover it has snagged something beneath the surface. To their alarm, it appears to be Pip—the cabin boy who had previously vanished from a whaleboat—clinging desperately to the waterlogged rope.
Crew Searches for Missing Pip
The crew manages to haul the nearly-drowned Pip back aboard. The Manxman initially scolds him as a coward before recognizing his dire condition.
Pip Rescued from the Water
Ahab approaches Pip and, after a strange dialogue about identity and reflection, declares that his cabin shall be Pip’s home. Pip clutches Ahab’s hand, finding in this contact a lifeline he desperately needs.
Ahab Invites Pip to His Cabin
The old Manxman observes the pair descending to the cabin—remarking that one is daft with strength and the other with weakness—while the broken line drips across the deck.
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