Moby-Dick · Chapter
Merry Christmas explained
The Pequod finally sets sail from Nantucket on a cold Christmas day.
What happens
The Pequod finally sets sail from Nantucket on a cold Christmas day. Captains Peleg and Bildad oversee the departure with a mix of profane urgency and pious concern, giving final orders and farewells. The crew, including Ishmael and Queequeg, heave up the anchor as the ship plunges into the lone Atlantic. After the pilots are dropped off, the emotional parting of Peleg and Bildad from the ship and its crew underscores the perilous voyage ahead.
Themes in this chapter
Religion and Spirituality
Embodied in the stark contrast between Bildad's pious psalm-singing and practical religious admonitions ('Don't forget your prayers') and Peleg's profane commands, highlighting the tension between spiritual concern and worldly enterprise.
Isolation and Community
The emotional farewells between the owners and the crew, and the ship's final severance from the shore, mark the transition from the community of land to the isolated, communal fate of the voyage 'into the lone Atlantic.'
Characters to notice
- Ishmael
Narrates the departure, pausing at his work out of fear of Peleg's piloting, receives his 'first kick' from Peleg, and finds solace in Bildad's psalmody.
- Captain Peleg
Actively commands the crew with roaring profanity and physical kicks to get the ship underway; shows a philosophical but tearful emotion when leaving the Pequod.
- Captain Bildad
Serves as pilot, singing dismal psalmody; is deeply loath to leave the ship, giving a long, anxious, and pious farewell full of practical and spiritual advice.
- Starbuck
The chief mate, receiving final orders from the departing owners regarding supplies and conduct.
- Works at the windlass with Ishmael and is specifically shouted at by Peleg ('Quohog! spring').
Queequeg
- Aunt Charity
Gives final gifts via whaleboat: a nightcap for Stubb and a spare Bible for the steward, embodying the 'ever-thoughtful' shore connection.
Key passages
“we gave three heavyhearted cheers, and blindly plunged like fate into the lone Atlantic.”
The crew gave three cheers filled with foreboding, and the ship committed itself to the vast, empty Atlantic as if driven by destiny.
Highlights the moment of definitive departure, emphasizing the crew's somber mood and the overarching force of fate.
“Don’t whale it too much a’ Lord’s days, men; but don’t miss a fair chance either, that’s rejecting Heaven’s good gifts.”
Don't hunt whales excessively on Sundays, but also don't pass up a good opportunity, as that would be refusing gifts from God.
Encapsulates Bildad's (and the whaling industry's) pragmatic blend of piety and profit-seeking.
“loath to say goodbye to a thing so every way brimful of every interest to him—poor old Bildad lingered long...”
Reluctant to bid farewell to a venture that engaged all his concerns—financial, personal, and sentimental—Bildad delayed his leaving.
Illustrates the deep, multifaceted attachment the Nantucket owners had to their ships and voyages.