CHAPITRE 126. The Life-Buoy.
The Pequod steers south-eastward toward the Equator, passing through unfrequented waters with no ships in sight. The journey feels like a prelude to some desperate scene.
Towards the Equator
The ship continues through monotonous waters, driven by trade winds, approaching the outskirts of the Equatorial fishing-ground.
The Unearthly Cry
In the darkness before dawn, sailing past rocky islets, the watch is startled by a cry so plaintively wild and unearthly that all stand transfixed, listening like carved figures. The sound resembles the wailings of ghosts.
Crew Superstitions
The Christian sailors believe it was mermaids and shudder. The pagan harpooneers remain unafraid, while the old Manxman declares the sounds are the voices of newly drowned men. The crew cherishes superstitious feelings about seals due to their human-like wails and semi-intelligent faces.
Ahab’s Explanation
When Ahab learns of the cries at grey dawn, he hollowly laughs and explains that the nearby rocky islands host many seals, and young seals separated from their dams must have been crying alongside the ship. He notes that mariners have often mistaken seals for men in the sea.
The Fallen Sailor
At sunrise, a sailor climbs to the fore mast-head, perhaps still half-asleep. A cry and rushing sound is heard, and the man falls from the mast, landing in the sea as a tossed heap of white bubbles.
The Lost Life-Buoy
The life-buoy—hung at the stern—was dropped, but no hand seized it. The cask, shrunk from long sun exposure, slowly filled with water through its pores, and the iron-bound buoy sank after the sailor, as if offering him a pillow.
An Omen Fulfilled
The crew regards this death not as foreshadowing evil, but as fulfillment of evil already presaged by the night’s shrieks. They believe they now know the reason for those sounds. The old Manxman, however, disagrees.
Replacing the Buoy
Starbuck is directed to replace the lost buoy, but no cask of sufficient lightness can be found. With all hands eager for the approaching crisis, they consider leaving the stern unprovided until Queequeg hints through strange signs at his coffin.
Queequeg’s Proposal
Starbuck exclaims at the suggestion of a “life-buoy of a coffin.” Stubb finds it queer, but Flask declares the carpenter can arrange it easily. After a melancholy pause, Starbuck orders the coffin brought up and rigged.
The Carpenter’s Objection
The carpenter grumbles about the indignity of “cobbling” work, preferring clean mathematical jobs. He questions whether to nail down the lid, caulk the seams, and pay with pitch—each question met with “Aye”—before being told to simply make a life-buoy of the coffin.
Rigging the Coffin
The carpenter resigns himself to the task, planning to add thirty separate Turk’s-headed life-lines, each three feet long, hanging all round the coffin so that thirty men might fight for one coffin if the ship goes down.
CHAPITRE 127. The Deck.
The chapter opens with the Carpenter at work on Queequeg’s coffin, positioned between the vice-bench and the open hatchway. He caulks its seams while unwinding oakum from a roll in his frock. Ahab emerges from the cabin-gangway, with Pip following behind him.
Carpenter Caulks Queequeg’s Coffin on Deck
The carpenter is actively caulking Queequeg’s coffin, which has been transformed from its original purpose into a life-buoy at Starbuck’s orders. The coffin rests on two line-tubs full of tow-lines, serving a dual function aboard the Pequod. The carpenter works methodically, the oakum unwinding slowly from its large roll.
Ahab Confronts Carpenter and Pip
Ahab notices Pip following him and sends the boy away, promising to return shortly. He then approaches the carpenter and comments on the coffin near the hatchway, warning “Beware the hatchway!” before noting how conveniently it sits near the vault. When the carpenter misunderstands, Ahab clarifies his morbid observation about the proximity of the coffin to danger.
Ahab Teases Carpenter Over His Trades
Ahab questions the carpenter about his various trades, recognizing the leg he lost was made by this same craftsman. He points out the contradiction of a man who makes legs one day, coffins to put them in the next, and then life-buoys from those same coffins. Ahab calls him an “arrant, all-grasping, intermeddling, monopolising, heathenish old scamp” and “jack-of-all-trades.” The carpenter remains unruffled, explaining simply that he “does as he do.”
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