Chapter 77 - The Great Heidelburgh Tun Practice Quiz — Moby-Dick; or, The Whale
by Herman Melville — tap or click to flip
Practice Quiz: Chapter 77 - The Great Heidelburgh Tun
What two main sections is the sperm whale's head divided into?
The lower bony structure (cranium and jaws) and the upper unctuous mass (boneless), which forms the vertical forehead.
What is a "quoin" as Melville defines it?
A solid that differs from a wedge in having its sharp end formed by the steep inclination of one side, instead of the mutual tapering of both sides. It belongs to "pure nautical mathematics."
What are the two subdivisions of the upper quoin?
The lower part is called the junk, and the upper part is called the Case.
What separates the junk from the Case?
An internal wall of thick tendinous substance divides them horizontally.
How does Melville describe the junk?
As "one immense honeycomb of oil, formed by the crossing and recrossing, into ten thousand infiltrated cells, of tough elastic white fibres."
What is the "Great Heidelburgh Tun"?
A famous enormous wine cask housed in Heidelberg Castle in Germany, used by Melville as a metaphor for the whale's Case.
What substance fills the whale's Case?
Spermaceti, in its absolutely pure, limpid, and odoriferous state.
Where else in the whale can pure spermaceti be found?
Nowhere. Melville states this precious substance is "found unalloyed in any other part of the creature" only in the Case.
What happens to spermaceti when exposed to air after the whale's death?
It begins to concrete (solidify), sending forth "beautiful crystalline shoots, as when the first thin delicate ice is just forming in water."
How many gallons of sperm does a large whale's Case generally yield?
About five hundred gallons, though considerable amounts are lost through spillage and leakage.
What fraction of the whale's total body length does the head comprise?
One third of the whole length of the creature.
How deep is the Case when hoisted alongside the ship?
More than twenty-six feet, based on an eighty-foot whale whose head is one third of its length.
What does Melville compare the inner lining of the Case to?
A "silken pearl-colored membrane, like the lining of a fine pelisse" (a fur-lined coat or cloak).
What wine did the real Heidelburgh Tun contain?
The most excellent wines of the Rhenish valleys.
Why must the operator be "uncommonly heedful" when decapitating the whale?
Because the instrument comes close to where an entrance to the spermaceti magazine will be forced, and a careless stroke could wastefully let out the invaluable contents.
What does the chapter's closing line promise?
"That marvellous and—in this particular instance—almost fatal operation whereby the Sperm Whale's great Heidelburgh Tun is tapped."
What does Melville compare the whale's "vast plaited forehead" to?
The mystical carvings on the front of the Heidelburgh Tun, calling the forehead's features "innumerable strange devices for emblematical adornment."
What are the "enormous cutting tackles" mentioned at the end of the chapter?
The hempen rope systems used to hoist the decapitated whale head out of the water and hold it against the ship's side.
In Melville's terms, what is the state of spermaceti while the whale is alive?
It remains perfectly fluid.
What broader thematic pattern does this chapter continue?
Melville's sustained probing deeper into the whale—from outer surfaces to inner structures—which mirrors the novel's theme of seeking hidden truths beneath outward appearances.