Short Fiction · Chapter
Chapter XXVI explained
The chapter reflects on how the spar from which Billy Budd was hanged becomes a relic for the sailors, who venerate it despite their ignorance of the true circumstances.
What happens
The chapter reflects on how the spar from which Billy Budd was hanged becomes a relic for the sailors, who venerate it despite their ignorance of the true circumstances. It emphasizes their instinctive belief in Billy's innocence and his pure nature. The chapter concludes with a ballad composed by a fellow foretopman, titled 'Billy in the Darbies,' which imagines Billy's final thoughts and his peaceful acceptance of death.
Themes in this chapter
Innocence vs. Evil
Billy's innate innocence is highlighted by the sailors' instinctive belief that he was incapable of mutiny or murder, contrasting with the evil of his execution.
Justice and Injustice
The crew's veneration of the spar and their ballad reflect a sense of injustice, as they sense the penalty was unavoidable from a naval perspective yet mourn the loss of an innocent man.
Characters to notice
- Billy Budd
The executed foretopman, remembered by the crew as the Handsome Sailor, innocent and incapable of mutiny or murder.
- The Narrator (Billy Budd)
The narrative voice that recounts the sailors' veneration of the spar and the creation of the ballad.
Key passages
“The spar from which the foretopman was suspended, was for some few years kept trace of by the bluejackets. Then knowledge followed it from ship to dockyard and again from dockyard to ship, still pursuing it even when at last reduced to a mere dockyard boom. To them a chip of it was as a piece of the Cross.”
The yardarm from which Billy was hanged was treasured by sailors as a relic, passed from ship to dockyard and back, with any fragment considered as sacred as a piece of the Cross.
Highlights the sailors' reverence for the instrument of Billy's death, treating it as a holy object.
“They recalled the fresh young image of the Handsome Sailor, that face never deformed by a sneer or subtler vile freak of the heart within!”
The sailors remembered Billy's youthful, handsome appearance, his face never marred by a sneer or any hidden malice.
Emphasizes Billy's pure and innocent nature as remembered by the crew.
“The tarry hands made some lines, which, after circulating among the shipboard crew for a while, finally got rudely printed at Portsmouth as a ballad. The title given to it was the sailor’s. Billy in the Darbies”
The sailors composed a poem that spread among the crew and was later roughly printed in Portsmouth as a ballad titled 'Billy in the Darbies.'
Describes the creation and dissemination of the ballad that imagines Billy's final moments.