Plot Summary
After arriving late in Nantucket aboard the packet schooner Moss, Ishmael and Queequeg set out to find lodging at the Try Pots inn, recommended by Peter Coffin of the Spouter-Inn. Following Coffin's confusing nautical directions through the dark streets, they eventually locate the establishment, marked by two enormous black pots hanging from an old top-mast in front of the door. The sign reminds Ishmael uncomfortably of a gallows, adding to a growing list of death omens he has encountered—a landlord named Coffin, tombstones in the chapel, and now this ominous image.
They are greeted by Mrs. Hussey, a freckled, yellow-haired woman who is busy scolding a man in a purple shirt. With her husband Hosea away, she runs the inn with brisk efficiency. When she asks the pair “Clam or Cod?” Ishmael is baffled, assuming she means a cold clam for supper, but she is simply asking which chowder they prefer. The clam chowder arrives and proves magnificent—small juicy clams mixed with pounded ship biscuits, salted pork, butter, and generous seasoning. Delighted, Ishmael orders a second round of cod chowder, which proves equally superb.
Ishmael then describes the fish-saturated atmosphere of the Try Pots: chowder is served at every meal, the yard is paved with clamshells, Mrs. Hussey wears a necklace of codfish vertebrae, and even the milk tastes fishy because the cow feeds on fish remnants along the beach. At bedtime, Mrs. Hussey confiscates Queequeg's harpoon, explaining that a previous boarder named young Stiggs was found dead with his own harpoon after returning from a disastrous voyage. The chapter closes with Ishmael cheerfully ordering both clam and cod chowder for breakfast, plus smoked herring for variety.
Character Development
Mrs. Hussey emerges as one of the novel's memorable minor characters—a no-nonsense Nantucket innkeeper who reduces all conversation to the essential binary of “Clam or Cod.” Her practical authority contrasts with her absent husband and establishes the capable, self-reliant nature of whaling wives who managed businesses while their husbands were at sea. Ishmael continues to develop as a witty, self-aware narrator who oscillates between superstitious anxiety and good-humored appetite. Queequeg remains a steady, comfortable presence, his fondness for the fishing food and his easy compliance with Mrs. Hussey's harpoon rule revealing his adaptability.
Themes and Motifs
The chapter deepens the novel's motif of death omens and foreshadowing, as Ishmael catalogs the ominous signs accumulating around him—Coffin, tombstones, gallows, and the black pots that hint at “Tophet” (a biblical place of burning). The culture of whaling pervades every detail of the Try Pots, from the clamshell pavement to the shark-skin account books, illustrating how completely the sea economy shapes Nantucket life. The theme of fellowship and sustenance runs through the shared meal, as chowder becomes a symbol of communal warmth before the hardships of the voyage ahead.
Literary Devices
Melville employs hyperbole and comic accumulation in the catalog of fishy details—the vertebrae necklace, the shark-skin ledgers, the cow in cod heads—building an absurdist portrait of a town wholly consumed by the sea. Dramatic irony operates through Ishmael's gallows imagery, which foreshadows the crew's eventual fate while the narrator remains cheerfully oblivious. The chapter's apostrophe (“Oh! sweet friends, hearken to me”) breaks the fourth wall to draw readers into the sensory pleasure of the chowder. Melville also uses nautical language for landlocked directions (starboard, larboard, cross-trees), blurring the line between sea and shore and reinforcing the idea that Nantucket exists in a world defined entirely by the ocean.