It chanced within my youth that I had the misfortune to have pressed upon me by the importunes of my Schoolmaster, the onerous duty of a close examination of that literary classic, Moby Dick.
Now, at the tender age of perhaps a dozen years, and not more than a baker's, despite being of a physical maturity that in the times of the good master Melville, would have seen me sent off as Ship's Boy on the vessels of which he wrote, I was in no wise a Scholar, regardless of what I might, unseasoned as I was, claim.
As such, it was not given to me to lend his work the appreciation due it. However, in recent days, I have again chanced upon the novel, and taken it upon myself to grant it a chance at redemption, the chance all things deserve to face. And I must state that, insofar as I have yet to complete my perusal, as far as I have gone, it has held up under scrutiny, for its part.
The work centers around one Ishmael, a man who, it is implied, has some claim to station, being kinsfolk to some noted captains and indeed, it is suggested, one of the aforementioned Schoolmasters. And yet, good Ishmael is taken oft by the urge to travel, generally to sea.
So it is noted that in his past, he has shipped often in the Merchant Marine, but for now is taken by the urge to sail on that much maligned craft, the Whaler. But not for him, the more populous port of New Beford. Not will do but that he sail aboard a Nantucketer, from the port whence the American side of that venture sprang.
It should, perhaps, be noted, that Melville sailed upon such a craft in his youth, and it is from his adventures therefrom, it is believed, that the tale of Ishmael and the Pequod, of the ivory-legged Captain Ahab, locked in his vengeful pursuit, and the tattooed cannibal Queequeg, that stoic and taciturn harpooner who bore himself with such nobility, did issue forth.
So it is that it can be believed that Melvilles depiction of life aboard a whaleboat should be mostly accurate, and from my understanding of such vessels, they seem to be. His treatment of the Harpooners certainly seems to be spot on. For the Caucasian, the man of European descent, barring those from the far northern latitudes, from whom the crew of such ships was generally drawn, is ill-suited to the role, being far removed, in general, from the days when such a task was a regular occurence.
And yet, it was an important duty. The role of Harpooner, was in those days, perhaps, the highest honour to which the Inuit, the Maori, the Pacific Islander, might aspire amongst the so-called 'Civilised' world so dominated by Europe and her colonies. If one's hand was steady and arm strong. If one's aim was true, one's lance reliably pierced Leviathan's proud hide, and one's barb stuck, that was all that mattered.
The Harpooner, so Melville related, ate at the Captain's table, albeit after the Captain and his officers departed, and were served by the Captain's steward. They were spared the most onerous of the ships duties, and the harshest of the bosun's discipline, being almost officers themselves, and once in the Whaleboat, it was the Harpooner who chose what whale to strike, and when the spear was cast.
As to the nature of the whale, it is, perhaps, Melville's discourse on such beasts that has presented me with the most amusement. Any student of Cetology will know, the Whale, or Cetacean, is in fact classed amongst the Kingdom Mammalia, being as it is, of terrestrial descent, warm-blooded, with four-chambered heart, a breather of air, with lungs of small air-sacs. All these things, bar the descent, Melville describes, relating, even contemporary sources of such information. He further describes how, unlike the true fishes the flukes on a whale are horizontal, unlike the vertical caudal fin the fishes can all be seen to sport. And yet still, he classes the Whale amongst the fishes, for reason that it never sets upon the shore but it dies. He states a similar classifacation for the Manatee or Dugong, but holds them seperate for reason that they do not spout.
So, he states, this is how a whale shall be described, as a spouting fish with a horizontal tail. He then goes on to describe three classes of whale, measured by size. The greatest of whales he labels a book, Folio, of which he describes six distinct chapters.
First, The Sperm Whale, he accurately identifies, and describes, for that is the species hunted out of Nantucket in his time, for the value of the Oil of it's blubber, and the Spermaceti wax derived from it's skull.
Secondy, The Right Whale, again an accurate identification, and description, even to the smaller Greenlandic species, known to modern Cetologists as the Bowhead Whale. And again, this accuracy can be put down to the fact that the Right Whales were common prey of those who hunted the great beasts of the deeps.
From there on, his descriptions get less and less fine. His Third chapter, the Finbacks, are well described, perhaps as Rorquals, although those species could also, perhaps, be assigned to his Fifth and Sixth chapters, the Razor Back and Sulphur-Bottom whales, respectivelly, of which little description is given.
His Fourth Chapter, the Humpback, it must be said, is an accurate identifier by chance alone, his description also, barely suitable to tell the beast on sight, and more concerned with the economic implications of his slaying.
Thus ends the book 'Folio' and begins that 'Octavo', which he has split into five chapters.
The first, Grampus, I think refers, perhaps to the Minke whale, although I arrive at this belief by his description of the whale as possessing all the distinctive features of the grand Leviathan bar size. Whilst I am uncertain as to whether his description of size is accurate, and I have never seen the Minke aggregate in herds, this is perhaps due to the hunting the beast encountered in the years between Melville and Myself.
His Chapter the Second, the Blackfish I suspect refers to the various species of Pilot and Beaked whales, although again, description is lacking.
The third chapter of Octavo, The Narwhal, is again, accurate by but chance, the beast described being so singular as to be impossible to mistake, for no other Cetacean bears the lance of the Narwhale, the spiraled Ivory tusk.
Octavo, Chapter IV, the Killer Whale, or Orcinus, cannot be mistaken, for there is but a single species that will feed on the great whales, the Folio he mentions previously.
As for his fifth chapter, the Threshers, whilst a preliminary consideration will consider his mention of Whales that work passage by flogging the Folio and a pairing with Orcinus in the end of the description supplies the illusion that they are one and the same, closer examination leads to the conclusion that he erroneously classes juvenile whales that should fall into his Folio class as seperate species' altogether, a fallacy most amusing. If, perhaps worrying at the extent of his failure as a taxonomist.
Finally we come to the third book, Duodecima, with three chapters.
The first, the Huzza Porpoise, lacks a physiological description, but the descriptions of the behaviours attributed to this chapter leads to the belief that he speaks of Dolphins, a belief borne out by mention at the end of the description of the creatures spouting, something never seen but only heard, in true porpoises.
Secondly, he describes the Algerine Porpoise, which is describe as a pacific version of the Huzza Porpoise, and mentioned to 'set to' or attack sharks, a behaviour recorded in the larger dolphins, further supporting my previous claim.
Finally, he describes the Mealymouthed Porpoise, a creature larger than those categorised by the previous two chapters, with no fin on his back, unlike the other two chapters (Further bearing out the theory that he refers to dolphin species and never to true porpoise, who are bare-backed, for the most part, or posessed of only the most rudimentary fins) and describes his colouration. Sadly, I am uncognisant of the beast described here, save to suggest perhaps, that one of the smaller beaked whales or the pygmy killer whale, is what is described.
He then goes on to explain that the Duodecimo are the smallest of whales, though in truth the shy true porpoises are smaller yet, and gives mention of 'a rabbler of uncertain, fugitive, half-fabulous whales, which, as an American Whalemen I (Ishmael) know by reputation, but not personally.' He then enumerates various common appelations given such beasts, and suggests that should they be caught and marked, they be incorporated into his system, not realising how flawed it is.
A shame, given that early in the chapter, he mentioned by name, one Linnaeus, the father of modern biology, who created the system of classification used today for all organisms that live and have been identified, and fitted into the kingdoms of living things.
