Moby Dick; Or, The Whale

The Canallers

The Canallers are explained to Don Pedro as boatmen from the grand Erie Canal, and the narrator offers to elaborate further on them, as their identity may shed more light on the events of the tale.

第五十四章 The Town-Ho’s Story.

The Town-Ho’s Story, told through a nested narrative by the Lakeman, recounts a mutiny aboard the whaling ship Town-Ho, where Steelkilt, a Canaller boatswain, leads a rebellion against the captain’s cruelty. After his allies betray him, Steelkilt is locked in the hold, but ultimately engineers a patient, vengeful plot against Chief Mate Radney, who had earlier violently struck him. The chapter weaves together commentary on the corrupt, picturesque life of the Canallers, a sharp satirical exchange with Lima gentlemen about corruption, and a slow-building tragedy of betrayal, punishment, and retribution at sea.

The Venetian Corruption of the Canaller

The Venetian Corruption of the Canaller The narrator describes the 360-mile Grand Canal of New York as a stream of “Venetianly corrupt and often lawless life,” where sinners flourish beside churches much as freebooters gather near halls of justice. The Canaller is depicted as picturesquely wicked on the water but rugged and masculine ashore, a vagabond capable of both plundering and helping strangers. The canal life is presented as a perilous transitional stage between quiet Christian farming and the barbaric whaling seas.

The Interruption of the Lima Gentlemen

The Interruption of the Lima Gentlemen As the Lakeman’s story begins, Don Pedro, Don Sebastian, and another Lima gentleman interrupt with playful but pointed objections, noting the proverb “Corrupt as Lima” and refusing to let their city be replaced by Venice in the comparison. The exchange blends humor, national pride, and shared cynicism about corruption, before Don Pedro at last urges the narrator onward with “The story.”