(The main-top-sail yard.—Tashtego passing new lashings around it.)
“Um, um, um. Stop that thunder! Plenty too much thunder up here. What’s the use of thunder? Um, um, um. We don’t want thunder; we want rum; give us a glass of rum. Um, um, um!”
Moby-Dick; or, The Whale - Chapter 122: Midnight Aloft.—Thunder and Lightning
Published in 1851
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Moby-Dick; or, The Whale
Characters
- Ishmael
- The narrator, a schoolmaster turned sailor who goes to sea when he feels gloomy. "Call me Ishmael."
- Queequeg
- A tattooed harpooneer from a South Sea island, a prince who left home to see the world. Ishmael's bedfellow at the inn, then his closest friend.
- Captain Ahab
- Captain of the Pequod. Moby Dick took his leg, and he has sworn to hunt the whale to the ends of the earth.
- Moby Dick
- A huge white sperm whale, famous among whalemen for his wrinkled brow, his crooked jaw and the boats he has smashed.
- Starbuck
- The first mate, a careful, religious Quaker from Nantucket, and the one man who stands up to Ahab.
- Stubb
- The second mate, a cheerful, easy-going man who is never without his pipe.
- Flask
- The third mate, short and stout, who kills whales as if they were enemies.
- Tashtego and Daggoo
- The harpooneers of Stubb's and Flask's boats: Tashtego a Native American from Martha's Vineyard, Daggoo a tall African.
- Fedallah
- A mysterious turbaned man whom Ahab smuggled aboard with his own secret boat crew.
- Pip
- A little Black cabin boy from Alabama who is left alone in the sea and is never the same again.
- Captains Peleg and Bildad
- The Quaker owners of the Pequod, who sign Ishmael and Queequeg on.
- Father Mapple
- The old sailor turned preacher whose sermon on Jonah opens the voyage.
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