Wick (John More): Week 8 – 5 December

I’ve been reading Moby-Dick again, one of my all-time favourite gloomy novels (of which I have a surprisingly large number). But what I didn’t know was that academics have recently discovered an early draft, an unfinished manuscript in which Melville evidently first set the novel in the herring fishing, and not that of the whale. In this extract Ahab addresses the skipper of another boat:

“That ship ahoy! This is Captain Ahab of the Pequod out of Nantucket!”
“The who of the what now?”
“The Pequod! Out of Nantucket.”
“It says ‘Saucy Sue’ on the side.”
“Aye, well, I’ve been meaning to get that painted.”
“And the registration’s a Wick number.”
“Avast there! Hast seen the White Herring?”
“The what?”
“The White Herring! Hast thou seen Spotted Dick?”
“Look, mate, herrings are sort of silvery and scaly. You know, as in that’s why they’re called the silver darlings?”
“This one has a snow-white head, a crooked jaw and a hump shaped like a pyramid on his back.”

Contrejour phragmites

“We’re still talking about a herring, here? Thing about the size and shape of a large carrot?”
“Aye, and we’re on a damned cruise to hunt him down.”
“But what on earth dost thou—I mean, do you—want with him?”
“Seest thou this leg? That devil in piscine form dismasted me off Japan.”
“Now, when you say he dismasted you…?”
“Took this leg clean off.”
“A herring did that?”
“They’re vicious beggers when you arouse their hunting instincts.”
“And this herring took off your leg?”
“Aye.”
“That leg you’re standing on, you mean?”
“Aye.”
“But, and I want you to follow me closely here, it looks fine.”
“No it doesn’t.”
“Yes it does. Look, there’s a great big tear in your trousers! I can see your leg clean through it.”
[An awkward pause ensues]

Glowing in the afternoon

“Ahahaha, well, when I say he dismasted me, I mean he gave me a nasty nip on the finger once. Broke the skin and everything.”
“Really.”
“Stung rather a lot, I can tell thee. For, oh, at least a minute. And so I’m hunting him down in his capacity as God’s agent in order to wreak my vengeance on God himself!”
“Um, no offence but has it ever occurred to you that you might be over-thinking this?”
“Bah! I see thou canst tell me nothing.”
[Other skipper to himself, muttering] “Thou’rt a looney, I can tell thee that much.”
“Avast!” [Ahab turns to his crew] “Ship oars, Queequeg.”
“I keep telling you, my name’s Sebastian and I just paid for a short cruise around the harbour.”
“Hush, Queequeg, never be ashamed of who thou art. Now, Starbuck, where’s my coffee..?”

Sadly the manuscript breaks off there; and so it remains one of the great, tantalising what-ifs of literature…

Afternoon walk by the river

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TECHNICAL STUFF

I’ve finished the back, my standard eight inches from dividing front and back to the start of the shoulder straps. And now we can see it whole, the simple repetition of the pattern really pays off; and very striking it looks.

I usually divide each side into threes at the shoulders, one-third each for the two shoulders and the collar. As there are 179 stitches per side I’d intended to make the shoulders 60 stitches each and the collar 59, but owing to taking my eye off the ball at the crucial moment (reader, I just lost concentration) I have 58 stitches on each shoulder and a slightly wider collar of 63; not that it matters, especially as I don’t like tight necklines. Next week we turn it over and do it all again for the front.