The Forge — Moby-Dick

At midday Perth stands at his deck forge welding an old pike-head. Captain Ahab walks up carrying a small rusty leather bag. Sparks fly from the anvil like birds called Mother Carey's chickens. Some sparks burn Ahab's skin, but Perth says he is already scorched all over. Old scars cannot be burned again.

Ahab hates how calmly sad Perth sounds. He asks why the blacksmith is not mad like him. Then he sweeps his hand across the deep wrinkles on his brow. He asks Perth to smooth that seam. Perth says he can fix all dents but one. Ahab says the wrinkle has worked down into the bone of his skull. Then he orders a special harpoon made from racing horse-shoe nail stubbs. Twelve steel rods must be twisted and welded together. Ahab rejects one flawed rod and welds the metal himself while Fedallah bows over the fire.

When Perth dips the hot shank in water, steam blasts Ahab's face. Ahab asks if he is forging his own branding iron. For the barbs he refuses water. He takes blood from Tashtego, Queequeg, and Daggoo to temper the steel. He howls a Latin curse baptizing the barbs in the devil's name, not God's. The harpoon is fitted to a hickory pole and bound with rope like the Three Fates. Ahab walks away as the pole and his ivory leg ring on the deck. Pip's sad laugh follows him.