Avast ye Harpooneers!

How is your reading of Moby Dick? I just finished this week’s allotment of chapters, and I will admit it was a lot. But then I consider it was a busy week with work and whatnots, and my Moby reading was confined to Friday and Saturday. It seemed like these chapters (13-23) were concerned with preparation of the Pequod for a three-year voyage. I considered spending three years on boats and ships I’m familiar with. Could I spend three years on a Viking River Cruise ship? You betcha, if they took good care of me as they did on the Danube. But wait, my dogs would probably not be allowed so that is a no-go. A tourist whale watch boat? Dogs would be allowed, but there’s no galley for food prep so we’d be eating pizza, donuts and snacks. There are no comfy beds and chairs, either. The winner would have to be the Cape May-Lewes Ferry fleet. Those ships have almost all the comforts of home, recliners, deck chairs, a small restaurant, and room underneath for my car should we stop at a port with interesting shops beckoning. Maybe they’d let me, my dogs, my car, and some books stowaway for three years for a publicity stunt.

Speaking of Cape May, that’s where I am this weekend. Specifically, I’m in a warm cozy house adjacent to the area called Townbank. This area was originally settled by whalers from New England who hunted whales in the Delaware Bay. They’d sit on the beach and look for whale spouts. Depending how close the spouts were they’d either throw their harpoons from the beach (Queequeg could do it!), or jump in their small boats and harpoon from the water. Then they’d drag the whale back to the beach for processing. This is interesting history, of course, but I fell bad for the whales. I’ve never been in dire need of whale oil, whale bone, or any other product derived from a deceased whale, so I say LET THEM LIVE!

Anyway, it’s the history and mystery of this area. Here’s one of the commemorative signs which stand in front of one of our local pizzerias, readable from the road if you are stuck at the traffic light:

Another sign, at the bay end of Townbank Road, looks like this:

The mystery is one sign says settled in 1635 and the other says “around 1685.” I wasn’t there, so I don’t know. This could be an interesting research question for the Cape May County Library or the Cape May County Museum, but at the moment it seems to much like work to me. Just for fun, here’s another local sign, updated each year for the Whale of a Day Street Festival:

I’m in town that week, almost always, but I don’t go because it’s usually the hottest day of the summer. Maybe this year.

Back to the Moby Dick read-along, I’m going to start on the next chunk of chapters today, 24-36. Now that we’re on the ship, this section should pick up the action and be more like what we were expecting. We’ve heard a lot about Captain Ahab, but we haven’t met him yet. Does anyone want to comment about the characters we have met so far? Elijah? Peleg and Bildad? Ishmael? Queequeg? Come on, I know you have thoughts! Comment on this post or any of the notes I’ve been posting, or the chat! I’m dying to hear from you!!