The Deck — Moby-Dick

The coffin rests on two line-tubs between the vice-bench and the open hatch while the Carpenter caulks seams and oakum unwinds from his frock. Ahab leaves the cabin-gangway and sends Pip back, saying he will return soon. A sailor warns him to beware the hatchway. Ahab nearly walks into the open grave below and thanks the man.

He jokes the life-buoy lies handy to the vault by the open hatch. He grills the leg-maker turned undertaker turned jack-of-all-trades who says he does as he does without meaning anything. The caulking mallet rings because the empty lid is a sounding-board with naught beneath. Ahab notes a filled coffin would sound much the same to the ear. Alone in thought he broods that the dreaded symbol of grim death by mere hap became the expressive sign of help and hope for most endangered life. Maybe the coffin is an immortality-preserver in some spiritual sense. Yet his dark side makes bright theory only uncertain twilight.

He orders silence and goes below to draw wondrous philosophies from Pip. The Carpenter mutters that an equator cuts Ahab's middle, hot squalls come sudden in hot latitudes, and resumes tap-tap on the coffin cork while oakum work continues unfinished on the stern float.