Moby Dick; Or, The Whale

Dutch Whaling Provisions

Within the Dutch book, under the chapter headed “Smeer” or “Fat,” the narrator found a detailed list of provisions for the larders and cellars of 180 sail of Dutch whalemen. Dr. Snodhead translated the following: 400,000 lbs. of beef, 60,000 lbs. of Friesland pork, 150,000 lbs. of stock fish, 550,000 lbs. of biscuit, 72,000 lbs. of soft bread, 2,800 firkins of butter, 20,000 lbs. of Texel & Leyden cheese, 144,000 lbs. of inferior cheese, 550 ankers of Geneva, and 10,800 barrels of beer. The narrator spent three days digesting all this information, which suggested profound thoughts capable of transcendental application.

Beer and Beef Allowance

The narrator calculates the beer consumption: with 180 sail of Dutch whalemen, 30 men per ship totaling 5,400 seamen, and only about twelve weeks for a summer cruise to Spitzbergen and back, this yields precisely two barrels of beer per man for a twelve weeks’ allowance, plus a fair proportion of the 550 ankers of gin. The narrator ponders whether these gin-and-beer-fuddled harpooneers were the right sort to stand in a boat’s head and aim at flying whales—seemingly improbable, yet they succeeded. This was in very far North where beer agrees with constitutions; on the Equator in southern fisheries, beer would make harpooneers sleepy at the mast-head and boozy in their boats, causing grievous loss.

The Decanter

The old Dutch whalers of two or three centuries ago were high livers, and the English whalers have not neglected so excellent an example. The Dutch sailors believed that when cruising in an empty ship, if you can get nothing better out of the world, you should get a good dinner out of it, at least. This philosophy of provisioning empties the decanter—drinking heartily from the ship’s liquor supply. The chapter title refers metaphorically to this tradition of Dutch-influenced whaling hospitality and abundance.