Chapter 127 - The Deck Moby-Dick; or, The Whale

Q: What is the Carpenter doing at the beginning of Chapter 127?

The Carpenter is caulking the seams of Queequeg's coffin, which is being converted into a life-buoy on Mr. Starbuck's orders. The coffin sits on two line-tubs between the vice-bench and an open hatchway, and the Carpenter unwinds twisted oakum from a large roll tucked in the bosom of his frock as he works.

Q: How does Chapter 127 echo Shakespeare's Hamlet?

Melville directly alludes to the gravedigger scene in Hamlet (Act V, Scene 1). Ahab asks the Carpenter whether he ever sings while working on a coffin, then references "the grave-digger in the play" who "sings, spade in hand." Both scenes feature a craftsman treating death's instruments with casual indifference while a brooding protagonist looks on, drawing philosophical conclusions about mortality. The Carpenter's remark that "the caulking mallet is full of" music parallels the gravedigger's songs, and both scenes use dark comedy to explore the gap between practical labor and metaphysical dread.

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Chapter 127 - The Deck from Moby-Dick; or, The Whale

The coffin laid upon two line-tubs, between the vice-bench and the open hatchway; the Carpenter caulking its seams; the string of twisted oakum slowly unwinding from a large roll of it placed in the bosom of his frock.- Ahab comes slowly from the cabin-gangway, and hears Pip following him.

Back lad; I will be with ye again presently. He goes! Not this hand complies with my humor more genially than that boy.- Middle aisle of a church! What's here?"

"Life-buoy, sir. Mr. Starbuck's orders. Oh, look, sir! Beware the hatchway!"

"Thank ye, man. Thy coffin lies handy to the vault."

"Sir? The hatchway? oh! So it does, sir, so it does."

"Art not thou the leg-maker? Look, did not this stump come from thy shop?"

"I believe it did, sir; does the ferrule stand, sir?"

"Well enough. But art thou not also the undertaker?"

"Aye, sir; I patched up this thing here as a coffin for Queequeg; but they've set me now to turning it into something else."

"Then tell me; art thou not an arrant, all-grasping, intermeddling, monopolizing, heathenish old scamp, to be one day making legs, and the next day coffins to clap them in, and yet again life-buoys out of those same coffins? Thou art as unprincipled as the gods, and as much of a jack-of-all-trades."

"But I do not mean anything, sir. I do as I do."

"The gods again. Hark ye, dost thou not ever sing working about a coffin? The Titans, they say, hummed snatches when chipping out the craters for volcanoes; and the grave-digger in the play sings, spade in hand. Dost thou never?"

"Sing, sir? Do I sing? Oh, I'm indifferent enough, sir, for that; but the reason why the grave-digger made music must have been because there was none in his spade, sir. But the caulking mallet is full of it. Hark to it."

"Aye, and that's because the lid there's a sounding-board; and what in all things makes the sounding-board is this- there's naught beneath. And yet, a coffin with a body in it rings pretty much the same, Carpenter. Hast thou ever helped carry a bier, and heard the coffin knock against the churchyard gate, going in?

"Faith, sir, I've-"

"Faith? What's that?"

"Why, faith, sir, it's only a sort of exclamation-like- that's all, sir."

"Um, um; go on."

"I was about to say, sir, that-"

"Art thou a silk-worm? Dost thou spin thy own shroud out of thyself? Look at thy bosom! Despatch! and get these traps out of sight."

"He goes aft. That was sudden, now; but squalls come sudden in hot latitudes. I've heard that the Isle of Albermarle, one of the Gallipagos, is cut by the Equator right in the middle. Seems to me some sort of Equator cuts yon old man, too, right in his middle. He's always under the Line- fiery hot, I tell ye! He's looking this way- come, oakum; quick. Here we go again. This wooden mallet is the cork, and I'm the professor of musical glasses- tap, tap!"

(Ahab to himself)

"There's a sight! There's a sound! The greyheaded wood-pecker tapping the hollow tree! Blind and dumb might well be envied now. See! that thing rests on two line-tubs, full of tow-lines. A most malicious wag, that fellow. Rat-tat! So man's seconds tick! Oh! how immaterial are all materials! What things real are there, but imponderable thoughts? Here now's the very dreaded symbol of grim death, by a mere hap, made the expressive sign of the help and hope of most endangered life. A life-buoy of a coffin! Does it go further? Can it be that in some spiritual sense the coffin is, after all, but an immortality-preserver! I'll think of that. But no. So far gone am I in the dark side of earth, that its other side, the theoretic bright one, seems but uncertain twilight to me. Will ye never have done, Carpenter, with that accursed sound? I go below; let me not see that thing here when I return again. Now, then, Pip, we'll talk this over; I do suck most wondrous philosophies from thee! Some unknown worlds must empty into thee!"

Frequently Asked Questions about Chapter 127 - The Deck from Moby-Dick; or, The Whale

What is the Carpenter doing at the beginning of Chapter 127?

The Carpenter is caulking the seams of Queequeg's coffin, which is being converted into a life-buoy on Mr. Starbuck's orders. The coffin sits on two line-tubs between the vice-bench and an open hatchway, and the Carpenter unwinds twisted oakum from a large roll tucked in the bosom of his frock as he works.

Why does Ahab call the Carpenter unprincipled as the gods?

Ahab is struck by the irony that the same craftsman who made his ivory leg is now converting a coffin into a life-buoy—and previously built the coffin itself for Queequeg. Ahab calls him "an arrant, all-grasping, intermeddling, monopolizing, heathenish old scamp" because his willingness to create instruments of both life and death—legs for walking, coffins for burial, and life-buoys for survival—mirrors the indifferent versatility of the gods themselves, who give life and take it without moral distinction.

What is the significance of the coffin becoming a life-buoy in Moby-Dick?

The transformation of the coffin into a life-buoy is one of the novel's most powerful symbolic inversions. As Ahab reflects, "the very dreaded symbol of grim death" has been "made the expressive sign of the help and hope of most endangered life." He even wonders whether "in some spiritual sense the coffin is, after all, but an immortality-preserver." This paradox foreshadows the novel's climax, where the coffin life-buoy ultimately saves Ishmael's life after the destruction of the Pequod.

How does Chapter 127 echo Shakespeare's Hamlet?

Melville directly alludes to the gravedigger scene in Hamlet (Act V, Scene 1). Ahab asks the Carpenter whether he ever sings while working on a coffin, then references "the grave-digger in the play" who "sings, spade in hand." Both scenes feature a craftsman treating death's instruments with casual indifference while a brooding protagonist looks on, drawing philosophical conclusions about mortality. The Carpenter's remark that "the caulking mallet is full of" music parallels the gravedigger's songs, and both scenes use dark comedy to explore the gap between practical labor and metaphysical dread.

What does Ahab mean when he says how immaterial are all materials?

In his closing soliloquy, Ahab reflects on the paradox that physical objects have no fixed meaning—a coffin can become a life-buoy, and the same wood serves death or salvation depending on context. His exclamation "how immaterial are all materials! What things real are there, but imponderable thoughts?" expresses a philosophical idealism: that the physical world is less real than the ideas and meanings humans project onto it. This reflects Ahab's growing detachment from material reality as he becomes consumed by his obsessive quest.

What role does Pip play in Chapter 127?

Pip appears briefly at the beginning and is referenced at the end. He follows Ahab from the cabin gangway, but Ahab gently sends him away: "Back lad; I will be with ye again presently." Ahab privately notes that "not this hand complies with my humor more genially than that boy," revealing the affection he has developed for Pip since the boy's psychological breakdown at sea. The chapter closes with Ahab declaring he will go to talk with Pip, saying "I do suck most wondrous philosophies from thee! Some unknown worlds must empty into thee!"—suggesting Pip's madness has given him access to truths unavailable to the sane.