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"Ginger? ginger? and will you have the goodness to tell me, Mr. Dough-Boy, where lies the virtue of ginger? Ginger! is ginger the sort of fuel you use, Dough-boy, to kindle a fire in this shivering cannibal? Ginger!—what the devil is ginger? Sea-coal? firewood?—lucifer matches?—tinder?—gunpowder?—what the devil is ginger, I say, that you offer this cup to our poor Queequeg here." Herman Melville – Moby-Dick (Chap. 72: The Monkey-Rope)

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Ginger is actually quite a wonderful herbal remedy for a variety of ailments.

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But poor Queequeg, I suppose, straining and gasping there with that great iron hook—poor Queequeg, I suppose, only prayed to his Yojo, and gave up his life into the hands of his gods. Herman Melville – Moby-Dick (Chap. 72: The Monkey-Rope)

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Ishmael assumes that Queequeg is more spiritually mature than he–rather than pondering the limits of free will, Queequeg accepts that it is limited and does his job without worrying too much about what is going on around him (even though what’s going around him is a whir of blades and teeth). This is poise.

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in order to afford the imperilled harpooneer the strongest possible guarantee for the faithfulness and vigilance of his monkey-rope holder. Herman Melville – Moby-Dick (Chap. 72: The Monkey-Rope)

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Either that or to give Melville a nice metaphor…one of the two though, definitely.

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And yet still further pondering—while I jerked him now and then from between the whale and ship, which would threaten to jam him—still further pondering, I say, I saw that this situation of mine was the precise situation of every mortal that breathes; only, in most cases, he, one way or other, has this Siamese connexion with a plurality of other mortals. Herman Melville – Moby-Dick (Chap. 72: The Monkey-Rope)

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Ishmael pondered fate and free will in chapter 47 and came to a similar conclusion about the limits of an individual’s agency.

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It was a humorously perilous business for both of us. For, before we proceed further, it must be said that the monkey-rope was fast at both ends; fast to Queequeg's broad canvas belt, and fast to my narrow leather one. So that for better or for worse, we two, for the time, were wedded; and should poor Queequeg sink to rise no more, then both usage and honour demanded, that instead of cutting the cord, it should drag me down in his wake. So, then, an elongated Siamese ligature united us. Queequeg was my own inseparable twin brother; nor could I any way get rid of the dangerous liabilities which the hempen bond entailed. Herman Melville – Moby-Dick (Chap. 72: The Monkey-Rope)

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Not much to decipher here as Ishmael breaks it down for us himself. The friendship and interdependence that has been building between Ish and Que since chapter 3 is realized, metaphorically and actually, in the monkey rope.

A monkey rope

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The “Siamese ligature” is a reference to Chang and Eng Bunker, the famous conjoined twins who were a popular sideshow act in the early 19th C. They were joined by a narrow, rope-like connection that contained their fused liver.

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Queequeg figured in the Highland costume—a shirt and socks— Herman Melville – Moby-Dick (Chap. 72: The Monkey-Rope)

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Highland as in the Scottish Highlands, where men traditionally wear a kilt, or skirt, not a shirt and socks.

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Straightway, then, Gabriel once more started to his feet, glaring upon the old man, and vehemently exclaimed, with downward pointed finger—"Think, think of the blasphemer—dead, and down there!—beware of the blasphemer's end!" Herman Melville – Moby-Dick (Chap. 71: Jeroboam's Story)

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Ishmael dismisses Gabriel as a fake, but Melville grants him this accurate prophecy. Ishmael presents himself as being resolutely skeptical of prophets, beginning with Elijah, and now continuing with Gabriel. But Melville gives the reader plenty of reason to believe the prophecies.

We are left to ponder the two contradictory possibilities, which work like an optical illusion—now a duck, now a rabbit. One of the major themes of the book is the impossibility of absolute truth, and the effects of perspective. Here, Melville does more than talk about that idea, he lets us experience it, just as mystery writer gives readers the experience of trying to solve the crime themselves rather than merely describing the process. Perhaps he is just getting lucky, or perhaps doom is written so plainly on Ahab that it’s plain even to a false prophet.

Wonder what Gabriel would predict here?

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This terrible event clothed the archangel with added influence; because his credulous disciples believed that he had specifically fore-announced it, instead of only making a general prophecy, which any one might have done, and so have chanced to hit one of many marks in the wide margin allowed. Herman Melville – Moby-Dick (Chap. 71: Jeroboam's Story)

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWyHiV3l3MA

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8 years

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It is well to parenthesize here, that of the fatal accidents in the Sperm-Whale Fishery, this kind is perhaps almost as frequent as any. Sometimes, nothing is injured but the man who is thus annihilated; oftener the boat's bow is knocked off, or the thigh-board, in which the headsman stands, is torn from its place and accompanies the body. But strangest of all is the circumstance, that in more instances than one, when the body has been recovered, not a single mark of violence is discernible; the man being stark dead. Herman Melville – Moby-Dick (Chap. 71: Jeroboam's Story)

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At first it seems that Ishmael is playing the skeptic: we should not ascribe to Moby Dick the human intelligence and intention necessary to kill precisely the man who spotted him. By doing so we risk becoming slaves to fantasy, like the crew of the Jeroboam who is under the spell of a false prophet. But then he ends the paragraph with an inexplicable or at least inconclusive circumstance

But strangest of all is the circumstance, that in more instances than one, when the body has been recovered, not a single mark of violence is discernible; the man being stark dead.

As usual, Ishmael is torn between skepticism and belief (in the supernatural, or forces that humans cannot apprehend). He dismisses awe with logic one minute and invites wonder the next.

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But by attributing this strange circumstance to other incidents involving other whales, he seems to suggest that Moby Dick is not a remarkable whale so much as whales are remarkable generally.

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But this did by no means prevent all communications. Preserving an interval of some few yards between itself and the ship, the Jeroboam's boat by the occasional use of its oars contrived to keep parallel to the Pequod, as she heavily forged through the sea (for by this time it blew very fresh), with her main-topsail aback; though, indeed, at times by the sudden onset of a large rolling wave, the boat would be pushed some way ahead; but would be soon skilfully brought to her proper bearings again. Herman Melville – Moby-Dick (Chap. 71: Jeroboam's Story)

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It is difficult to aligning two huge ships on the open ocean in order to carry on a shouted conversation back and forth. But Ahab is greedy for news of the White Whale, so he’s willing to put up with the inconvenience. The constant interruptions in dialogue caused by the unusual arrangement becomes something of a comedic device that reminds us that human intent does not control the world–the wind and water have no interest in Ahab’s conversation with the Pequod, and they continue their usual movements without concern for the trouble they are causing.

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