When in working with his hands at some lofty almost isolated place
in the rigging, which chances to afford no foothold, the sailor
at sea is hoisted up to that spot, and sustained there by the rope;
under these circumstances, its fastened end on deck is always given
in strict charge to some one man who has the special watch of it.
Because in such a wilderness of running rigging, whose various
different relations aloft cannot always be infallibly discerned
by what is seen of them at the deck; and when the deck-ends of these
ropes are being every few minutes cast down from the fastenings,
it would be but a natural fatality, if, unprovided with a
constant watchman, the hoisted sailor should by some carelessness
of the crew be cast adrift and fall all swooping to the sea.
So Ahab's proceedings in this matter were not unusual;
the only strange thing about them seemed to be, that Starbuck,
almost the one only man who had ever ventured to oppose him
with anything in the slightest degree approaching to decision--
one of those too, whose faithfulness on the look-out he had seemed
to doubt somewhat; it was strange, that this was the very man
he should select for his watchman; freely giving his whole life
into such an otherwise distrusted person's hands.
Pages:
837
838
839
840
841
842
843
844
845
846
847
848
849
850
851
852
853
854
855
856
857
858
859
860
861