Deck First Night Watch
The scene opens during the First Night Watch on the deck, where the Carpenter is busily filing an ivory joist for Captain Ahab’s replacement leg. His workbench is cluttered with slabs of ivory, leather straps, pads, screws, and various tools. The glow of the blacksmith’s forge is visible forward, where Smut works on the buckle-screw for the leg.
Carpenter Files Ivory Leg
The Carpenter struggles with the filing work, cursing the file and the bone alternately. He sneezes repeatedly from the ivory dust, musing that working with dead lumber produces irritating dust while live trees and bones do not. He is relieved there is no knee-joint to construct, as that would be more challenging. He intends to create an exceptional leg and wishes he had more time to give it a proper finish. He decides to call the Captain to verify the length before cutting.
Ahab Visits the Carpenter
Captain Ahab arrives at the bench, and the Carpenter greets him with “Well, manmaker!” He informs Ahab he is ready to mark the length of the new leg. Ahab is unfazed at being measured for a leg, remarking it is not his first time. He examines the carpenter’s vice and praises its grip, expressing his preference for things that can “hold” in “this slippery world.”
Measuring the Replacement Leg
Ahab submits to having his finger placed on the measurement point while the Carpenter marks the leg length. Ahab comments approvingly on the vice’s grip, then asks about the blacksmith’s work on the buckle-screw, noting the fierce red flame of the forge.
Ahab Discusses the Blacksmith
Ahab ponders the meaning of the blacksmith Prometheus creating men and animating them with fire. He suggests that what is made in fire properly belongs to fire, and therefore hell is probable. He remarks that the soot flying must be the remainder from when the Greeks made Africans. He then orders the carpenter to have the blacksmith forge a pair of steel shoulder-blades for a pedlar aboard who carries a crushing pack.
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