Plot Summary
Chapter 60 of Moby-Dick pauses the narrative to deliver a detailed technical and philosophical meditation on the whale-line—the rope attached to the harpoon during a whale hunt. Ishmael explains that the line was originally made of the best hemp, lightly treated with tar, but that Manilla rope has largely replaced hemp in the American fishery because it is stronger, more elastic, and more handsome. Though only two-thirds of an inch thick, the line can bear a strain of nearly three tons and measures over two hundred fathoms in length.
Technical Details
Ishmael describes how the line is carefully coiled into a tub in the stern of the whaleboat, forming a dense, cheese-shaped mass of concentric spirals. He warns that the slightest tangle could take off a limb or kill a man, so harpooneers sometimes spend an entire morning stowing the line. He contrasts the English practice of using two smaller tubs with the American single large tub, which he compares humorously to a “prodigious great wedding-cake.” Both ends of the line are left exposed: the lower end hangs free so it can be fastened to another boat’s line if needed, and so the whale cannot drag the boat under; the upper end runs the full length of the boat, resting across every oarsman’s oar handle and passing between the crew.
Themes and Motifs
The chapter’s central theme is the omnipresence of mortal danger. The whale-line folds the entire boat in its complicated coils, enveloping every man in perilous contortions that Ishmael likens to “Indian jugglers, with the deadliest snakes sportively festooning their limbs.” Yet the whalers, habituated to the danger, tell jokes and exchange merry repartees even while surrounded by these “hangman’s nooses.” Ishmael extends the metaphor universally: “All men live enveloped in whale-lines. All are born with halters round their necks,” recognizing death’s constant proximity only when it strikes.
Literary Devices
Melville employs extended metaphor, comparing the coiled line to snakes, hangman’s nooses, and the machinery of a steam engine. He uses simile extensively—the whale is “shifted like a mug of ale,” the boat bottom is “like critical ice,” and the calm before the line plays out is compared to the calm before a storm and a loaded rifle. The chapter also features apostrophe, directly addressing the reader (“Perhaps a very little thought will now enable you…”), and allusion to the six burghers of Calais and the legendary Mazeppa. The tone shifts from encyclopedic precision to existential meditation, a hallmark of Melville’s digressive style.