Moby Dick

As the chapters discussing whaling pile up in the novel, Melville reveals the unrelenting nature of whaling and the constant work involved to make the ship sail and the whaling operation run. Many of these middle chapters examine minute parts of the whaling or sailing operation in great detail, conveying the massive amount of work intrinsic to whaling and the various knowledge needed by each seaman in order to be a successful whaler. It is a job requiring round-the-clock readiness, as each man is somewhat of an indentured servant to the whims of a whale. The sighting of the whale that Stubb eventually kills springs everyone into compulsive and complete response:

“As if struck by some enchanter’s wand, the sleepy ship and every sleeper in it all at once started into wakefulness; and more than a score of voices from all parts of the vessel, simultaneously with the three notes from aloft, shouted forth the accustomed cry” (255)

Once the whale is hauled in (a grueling process for which they must “toil hour after hour” (262)) the sailors have a few hours rest before the morning, when they will take apart the whale, but even their rest is interrupted by “anchor-watches,” which “shall be kept; that is, two and two for an hour, each couple, the crew in rotation shall mount the deck to see that all goes well” (271).

Even without considering the grueling, slave-like devotion that the sailors must show towards the whaling operation, regardless of any personal need or problem (witness the harpooneer, who must paddle hard with the company and then try to harpoon the whale, who have been driven to ‘”burst their blood-vessels in the boat” (260)), the sailor’s life on the ship is a constant need to work. The long chapter “The Town-Ho’s Story” examines the labor hierarchy and the consequences of an overworked company. Ishmael alludes many times to the workload on board and the captain and mates’ penchant to overwork their men, but for the time being, at least, the labor hierarchy is balanced enough to keep all the men content in their position (at least content enough not to mutiny). “The Town-Ho’s Story” finds the seamen under pressure from the constant work attending to the leaking ship. The mate Radney directly contradicts the labor hierarchy aboard the ship, demanding that Steelkilt sweep the deck, the “broom business” which is the “prescriptive province of the boys” (222). Labor is divided amongst the equal-ranking men according to ability:

“it was the stronger men in the Town-Ho that had been divided into gangs, taking turns at the pumps; and being the most athletic seaman of them all, Steelkilt had been regularly assigned captain of one of the gangs; consequently he should have been freed from any trivial business not connected with truly nautical duties” (222-3).

In a space that always demands work, work itself must be hierarchized; everything else is dropped once a whale is sighted, and after that ship duties, according to capability, involve keeping the ship afloat first and foremost, and then the other duties that involve general cleaning and maintenance. When Radney violates the hierarchy of labor on a ship, it becomes violent. The length of this chapter stresses the importance of preserving the hierarchy of work and the workers in order for the voyage to remain successful. Perhaps Ishmael is foreshadowing the problems the Pequod will face as their voyage grows longer and Ahab abandons convention in his maniacal pursuit.

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