# XC: Heads or Tails explained — Moby-Dick

> Chapter companion for Moby-Dick by Herman Melville.

## What happens

Ishmael examines an arcane English law, still in force, which decrees that any whale caught on the coast belongs to the Crown: the King receives the head and the Queen the tail. He illustrates the law's modern application with an anecdote about poor mariners from the Cinque Ports who, after capturing a whale, see it seized by the Lord Warden (the Duke of Wellington) who claims it as a 'Fast-Fish' for the sovereign. The mariners' pleas and a clergyman's appeal are coldly dismissed. The chapter then humorously dissects the purported legal and symbolic justifications for this royal division, questioning the logic behind assigning specific anatomical parts.

## Themes in this chapter

### Interpretation and Perception

The entire chapter is a satire on legal interpretation, showing how ancient, illogical laws are selectively applied and justified by authorities.

### Race and Cultural Difference

Implicitly contrasts the arbitrary, codified property laws of English civilization with the more primal 'law of Fast and Loose-Fish' discussed earlier, highlighting cultural constructs of ownership.

## Character check-ins

### Ishmael

Narrates the legal treatise and anecdote, providing sardonic commentary on English law and royal privilege.

## Key lines

> “Hands off! this fish, my masters, is a Fast-Fish. I seize it as the Lord Warden’s.”

A legal official claims the mariners' hard-won whale for the Duke of Wellington, invoking the law of 'Fast-Fish.'

_Demonstrates the cold, bureaucratic enforcement of an archaic privilege._

> “It is his.”

The official's only reply to every plea and question from the distressed mariners.

_Repeated phrase emphasizing the inflexibility and injustice of the law._

> “because of its superior excellence.”

Plowdon's reason why the whale belongs to the King and Queen.

_A vague, pompous legal justification satirized by Ishmael._

> “Ye tail is ye Queen’s, that ye Queen’s wardrobe may be supplied with ye whalebone.”

William Prynne's explanation for why the Queen gets the tail.

_Ishmael points out the factual error (whalebone is in the head), mocking the absurdity of legal reasoning._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/moby_dick_se/chapters/xc-heads-or-tails
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/moby_dick_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/moby_dick_se/chapters