The Honor and Glory of Whaling — Moby-Dick

Ishmael says some kinds of work need careful disorderliness. That means you follow a messy but serious method instead of forcing everything into neat boxes. The more he studies whaling's history, the more honored and ancient the trade seems. Great heroes and gods have been connected to it. He feels proud to belong to that fraternity, even in a small way.

He says Perseus was the first whaleman. Perseus saved Princess Andromeda from a sea monster with one harpoon throw. In those knightly days, whalers fought to rescue people, not just to sell lamp oil. People in old Joppa even kept a whale skeleton they said was Perseus's kill. Jonah left from that same port.

St. George's famous dragon was really a whale, Ishmael argues. Old books mix up whales and dragons. Killing a land snake is nothing special. Only brave whalemen march up to a real leviathan. St. George is England's guardian, so Ishmael jokes that Nantucket harpooners deserve the cross more than knights who never touched a whale.

Hercules was swallowed by a whale and thrown up again. He may not have harpooned from the outside, but Ishmael still claims him for the club. The Jonah story is similar, so the prophet belongs on the list too.

The grand master of whaling is Vishnoo, a Hindu god. When sacred books sank to the bottom of the sea, Vishnoo became a whale and dove down to bring them up. That act forever made the whale holy.

Ishmael ends with a boastful roll call: Perseus, St. George, Hercules, Jonah, and Vishnoo. What other job can start its member list with heroes and gods like that?