Queequeg’s remarks on shark creation
Queequeg reflected on the nature of sharks with characteristic philosophical resignation: “Queequeg no care what god made him shark… wedder Fejee god or Nantucket god; but de god wat made shark must be one dam Ingin,” expressing his view that only a cruel or mischievous deity could have created such ferocious creatures.
第六十七章 Cutting In.
This chapter describes the process of rendering a dead whale into useable blubber aboard the Pequod, depicting it as a grimly ceremonial industrial operation that transforms sailors into butchers and violates the Sabbath.
Whalemen’s Cutting-In Sabbath
The cutting-in occurs on a Saturday night, when whalemen become “ex officio professors of Sabbath breaking.” The ivory Pequod is turned into what resembles a shambles, with every sailor functioning as a butcher. The scene is likened to offering “ten thousand red oxen to the sea gods,” establishing the brutal and ritualistic nature of the work.
Rigging Cutting Tackles
The enormous cutting tackles—comprising a cluster of green-painted blocks that no single man can lift—are hoisted to the main-top and lashed firmly to the lower mast-head, deemed the strongest point above deck. A hawser-like rope winds through the block system, leading to the windlass. The huge lower block, fitted with a blubber hook weighing some one hundred pounds, is swung over the whale in preparation for extraction.
Hauling First Blubber Strip
The mates Starbuck and Stubb cut a semicircular line around an insertion point above the side-fin, then insert the hook while the crew strikes up a wild chorus and heaves at the windlass. The ship careens dramatically, trembling and nodding as the strain builds. When the snap of release comes, the ship rolls back and the first strip of blubber rises, peeling from the whale’s body like an orange’s rind being spiralized. The massive blood-dripping mass sways overhead, requiring workers to dodge its swing or risk being thrown overboard.
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