# LXXVIII: Cistern and Buckets explained — Moby-Dick

> Chapter companion for Moby-Dick by Herman Melville.

## What happens

The crew of the Pequod attempts to extract spermaceti from the severed head of a sperm whale, which is suspended alongside the ship. Tashtego, working atop the head, accidentally falls into the 'tun' or cistern within it. As the head begins to sink, Daggoo attempts a rescue from above, but the head breaks free and plunges into the sea. Queequeg dives after it, cuts a hole in the sinking head, and pulls Tashtego out headfirst, performing a daring underwater 'delivery'.

## Themes in this chapter

### Man vs. Nature

The crew's precarious work on the massive, unstable whale head highlights the constant physical danger and unpredictability of extracting resources from the natural world.

### Friendship and Human Bonding

Queequeg's brave, selfless dive to save Tashtego exemplifies the profound bonds of loyalty and sacrifice that form among the crew in the face of mortal peril.

## Character check-ins

### Tashtego

The harpooneer who falls into the spermaceti cistern of the whale's head while baling it out, requiring a dramatic rescue.

### Queequeg

Dives after the sinking head and, with his sword and great skill, performs an underwater rescue, extracting Tashtego from the cistern.

### Daggoo

First to cry 'man overboard,' is hoisted to the sinking head to attempt a rescue, and later spots the successful divers.

### Stubb

Watches the rescue attempt and shouts a warning to Daggoo about ramming the bucket onto Tashtego's head.

### Ishmael

The narrator who describes the entire perilous operation and Queequeg's heroic 'obstetrics,' offering philosophical reflections on the event.

## Key lines

> How many, think ye, have likewise fallen into Plato’s honey head, and sweetly perished there?

Ishmael muses that many have been lured to their doom by alluring but dangerous philosophical or intellectual pursuits, just as Tashtego nearly perished in the whale's head.

_A philosophical reflection comparing the whale's head to a tempting but deadly trap of knowledge or pleasure._

> Midwifery should be taught in the same course with fencing and boxing, riding and rowing.

Ishmael argues that the skills of a midwife—requiring dexterity and calm in crisis—are as practically vital as traditional masculine arts of combat and sport.

_A humorous yet earnest conclusion drawn from Queequeg's successful, surgical rescue of Tashtego._

> But, peradventure, it may be sagaciously urged, how is this? We thought the tissued, infiltrated head of the Sperm Whale, was the lightest and most corky part about him; and yet thou makest it sink...

Ishmael anticipates and counters a scientific objection: the whale's head sank because its buoyant spermaceti had been mostly removed, leaving only the dense, heavy tendinous wall of the well.

_Demonstrates the book's encyclopedic attention to the material reality and physics of whaling._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/moby_dick_se/chapters/lxxviii-cistern-and-buckets
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/moby_dick_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/moby_dick_se/chapters