Now, as the lightning rod to a spire on shore is intended to carry off
the perilous fluid into the soil; so the kindred rod which at sea some
ships carry to each mast, is intended to conduct it into the water.
But as this conductor must descend to considerable depth,
that its end may avoid all contact with the hull; and as moreover,
if kept constantly towing there, it would be liable to many mishaps,
besides interfering not a little with some of the rigging, and more
or less impeding the vessel's way in the water; because of all this,
the lower parts of a ship's lightning-rods are not always overboard;
but are generally made in long slender links, so as to be the more
readily hauled up into the chains outside, or thrown down into the sea,
as occasion may require.
"The rods! the rods!" cried Starbuck to the crew, suddenly admonished
to vigilance by the vivid lightning that had just been darting flambeaux,
to light Ahab to his post. "Are they overboard? drop them over,
fore and aft. Quick!"
"Avast!" cried Ahab; "let's have fair play here, though we be
the weaker side. Yet I'll contribute to raise rods on the Himmalehs
and Andes, that all the world may be secured; but out on privileges!
Let them be, sir.
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