Moby Dick; Or, The Whale

Queequeg Begins Recounting His Island Origins

The narrator suspects the undulating smoke tester may have stirred Queequeg’s memories, prompting him to speak of his native island. Eager to hear his history, the narrator requests that Queequeg continue his tale. Though the narrator admits he initially struggled to comprehend much of Queequeg’s broken English, later familiarity with his speech patterns allows him to later reconstruct and present the story.

第十二章 Biographical.

This chapter provides the narrator’s biographical account of Queequeg, his harpooneer, chronicling the man’s noble origins on a remote island and his journey toward the Western world. The chapter explores themes of cultural exchange, disillusionment with civilization, and the deep friendship forming between the narrator and his exotic shipmate.

Queequeg’s Island Origins and Noble Lineage

Queequeg hails from the island of Rokovoko, an unmapped place that exists “not down in any map; true places never are.” Born the son of a High Chief and King, with an uncle who was a High Priest and aunts married to unconquerable warriors, Queequeg possesses excellent royal blood in his veins. However, his lineage is noted to include a cannibal propensity that was nurtured during his untutored youth. From childhood—described as a “new-hatched savage running wild about his native woodlands in a grass clout” followed by nibbling goats—Queequeg harbored an ambitious desire to see more of Christendom beyond merely observing passing whalers.

Journey to Join the Sag Harbor Whaling Ship

When a Sag Harbor ship visited his father’s bay, Queequeg sought passage to Christian lands. Despite his father’s royal influence, the ship rejected him due to having its full complement of seamen. Undeterred, Queequeg made a bold vow: he paddled his canoe alone to a distant strait where the ship would have to pass upon leaving. There he hid among mangrove thickets with his canoe prow seaward, and when the vessel glided by, he darted out, capsized and sank his own canoe, climbed the chains, threw himself upon the deck, and grappled a ring-bolt—swearing not to let go even if cut to pieces. After the captain threatened him with a cutlass, he relented at the sight of Queequeg’s desperate dauntlessness.