Plot Summary
Chapter 113 of Moby-Dick opens at midday with Perth, the Pequod's blacksmith, working at his forge. Captain Ahab approaches carrying a small leather bag and pauses to watch sparks fly from Perth's anvil, likening them to "Mother Carey's chickens" -- birds of omen that burn others but leave the scorched blacksmith untouched. Perth replies that he is "past scorching" because he is already "scorched all over," a quiet allusion to the personal tragedies that drove him to sea. Ahab, impatient with any sorrow that is not "mad," demands to know how Perth can endure his suffering without going insane.
The Unsmoothable Seam
The conversation turns to Perth's craft. He is mending an old pike-head, and Ahab asks whether the blacksmith can smooth out any seam or dent. Perth answers that he can fix all flaws "but one." Ahab seizes on this, pressing his hand to his own furrowed brow and asking Perth to smooth the wrinkle there -- the visible mark of his obsession. Perth acknowledges that this is the one seam he cannot repair. Ahab concedes: the wrinkle has "worked down into the bone of my skull." This exchange crystallizes the idea that Ahab's monomania has left a wound no human skill can heal.
Forging the Diabolical Harpoon
Ahab then reveals his true purpose. He empties a bag of horseshoe nail-stubs onto the anvil -- "the best and stubbornest stuff" a blacksmith can work -- and orders Perth to forge a special harpoon. He demands twelve iron rods be wound and twisted together for the shank, personally tests each one for flaws, and insists on welding them himself. As Ahab hammers the glowing rods, Fedallah the Parsee silently hovers nearby, bowing toward the fire as though invoking a curse or blessing. Stubb watches uneasily from the forecastle.
The Blasphemous Baptism
When Perth prepares to temper the finished harpoon in water, Ahab refuses: "No, no -- no water for that; I want it of the true death-temper." He calls upon Tashtego, Queequeg, and Daggoo, who each allow their flesh to be punctured so their blood can cool the barbs. As the "malignant iron" devours the "baptismal blood," Ahab howls his infamous anti-baptism: "Ego non baptizo te in nomine patris, sed in nomine diaboli!" -- "I baptize you not in the name of the Father, but in the name of the Devil." Ahab then fits the harpoon to a hickory pole and lashes it with new tow-line, binding pole, iron, and rope together "like the Three Fates." As he stalks away, the hollow ringing of his ivory leg and hickory pole echoes across the deck, followed by the wretched, piteous laugh of Pip, whose madness mirrors and mocks the dark ceremony that has just taken place.