Midnight Aloft.—Thunder and Lightning — Moby-Dick

After Ahab refused to strike the main-top-sail yard, someone had to secure it from above. At midnight Tashtego the harpooneer climbs to the main-top-sail yard in the typhoon. The storm still howls all around the ship below him. The stage direction says he is passing new lashings around the yard to hold it in place while the storm still owns the ship.

Thunder rolls constantly around him. Tashtego mutters to himself as he works. He says um, um, um. He tells the thunder to stop. He says there is plenty too much thunder up here where he works alone in the dark. He asks what use thunder is when a man needs something human instead of cosmic noise.

He says they do not want thunder. They want rum. He asks for a glass of rum while his hands keep lashing. The chapter is very short but important. It shows that real work continues aloft even when the captain will not reduce sail. Human jokes about rum appear right before Starbuck will face a loaded musket in Ahab's cabin. Comedy does not make the storm safe. It shows where people still have voices while doing dangerous work someone else ordered. The typhoon night is not over yet.