Chapter 124: CXXIII

CXXIII The Musket During the most violent shocks of the Typhoon, the man at the Pequod’s jawbone tiller had several times been reelingly hurled to the deck by its spasmodic motions, even though preventer tackles had been attached to it—for they were slack—because some play to the tiller was indispensable. In a severe gale like this, while the ship is but a tossed shuttlecock to the blast, it is by no means uncommon to see the needles in the compasses, at intervals, go round and round…