Moby-Dick Ch. 108: Ahab and the Carpenter

Herman Melville

Ahab and the Carpenter

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Summary

On the first night watch the carpenter files an ivory piece for Ahab's new leg at his vice-bench. Two lanterns light the work. The blacksmith forges ahead at the red forge. The carpenter curses the whale bone. It is hard where it should be soft and soft where it should be hard. Bone dust makes him sneeze again and again. He says dead lumber is worse to work than live wood.

Captain Ahab arrives and calls him manmaker. He tests the grip of the wooden vice and says he likes something in this slippery world that can hold. He jokes about Prometheus the blacksmith and orders a ridiculous fifty-foot giant man. He gets angry when the carpenter thrusts a lantern into his face. Then he asks a serious question. Will the new leg still feel like his old lost leg in the same spot? He puts the carpenter's live leg beside the ivory and says there is one leg to the eye but two to the soul.

Ahab also asks riddles about invisible listeners and hell. Then he curses owing a blockhead for a bone to stand on and storms off. The carpenter mutters that Stubb always says Ahab is queer. He thinks of Ahab's whale-jaw wife and finishes the leg with an ivory slate for figuring latitude. He works on before the resurrection horn might call for all legs, true or false.

In this chapter: Terms Characters Key Quotes Modern Story

Why This Matters

Expecting Phantom Overlap After Replacements

Installing a fix does not delete the felt old wound. Ahab tests a new ivory leg at the carpenter's vice, rejects thrusted lanterns, and still feels two legs to the soul while cursing that he owes a blockhead for bone to stand on.

Before you promise a replacement will feel complete, plan for phantom overlap and gratitude toward the craft labor that keeps the proud upright.

Coming Up in Chapter 109

Next morning while the crew pumps, oil leaks from the hold into the sea. Starbuck reports the disaster to Ahab in the cabin. Ahab refuses to hoist Burtons, then levels a musket at his first mate, but orders the Burtons hoisted after Starbuck leaves anyway.

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Original text

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Chapter 108

Ahab and the Carpenter

Ahab and the Carpenter. The Deck—First Night Watch. (Carpenter standing before his vice-bench, and by the light of two lanterns busily filing the ivory joist for the leg, which joist is firmly fixed in the vice. Slabs of ivory, leather straps, pads, screws, and various tools of all sorts lying about the bench. Forward, the red flame of the forge is seen, where the blacksmith is at work.) Drat the file, and drat the bone! That is hard which should be soft, and that is soft which should be hard. So we go, who file old jaws and shinbones. Let’s…

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Critical Thinking Exercise

10 minutes

Name the Phantom

When did a new system leave you feeling two versions at once?

Consider:

•Old Adam?
•Thrust light?
•Ledger shame?

Journaling Prompt

Write about thanking the bench without rage at dependence.

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Ahab and the Carpenter

Summary