chapter 1 The Spouter Inn Call me Ishmael By training I am a country schoolmaster but my heart often longs for waves and water Whenever I find myself growing gloomy and short-tempered I must take to the sea I ship as a sailor Being ordered about takes some getting used to but I do it They pay me and I very much like to be paid Though I had always sailed on merchant ships I decided to sign on a whaler for a new adventure So I stuffed a shirt or two into my carpet bag and headed for Massachusetts I arrived in New Bedford on a Saturday night too late to catch the ferry to Nantucket I wanted a cheap place to stay and I knew the 4
cheapest lodging would lie in the deepest gloom Blocks of blackness lined the streets Once or twice I saw a candle move through the night like a ghost in a tomb Finally I came to a crooked building where a sign swung on rusty chains It read The Spouter Inn Peter Coffin Lodging with a man named Coffin must surely be cheap I thought I entered the public room and looked around Whaling lances and harpoons hung on the smoke-stained walls On the far side the bar was made from the arched bone of a whale’s jaw I told the landlord I wanted a room He said they were full But he added if you don’t mind sharing there’s room to bunk in with a harpooner staying here Since I had no desire to wander in the cold night I agreed I ate my meal with other shivering boarders in a room with no fire We lingered over our scalding tea warming our frozen fingers on the mugs 5
Landlord I whispered as the man passed which one is the harpooner Oh none of these he said grinning The harpooner is a dark chap And he eats nothing but rare steak Groups of rowdy seamen came and went but the harpooner was never among them Finally I called to the landlord What sort of chap keeps such late hours as this harpooner He’s not normally so late the landlord said It must be that he couldn’t sell his head Do you mean to say that this harpooner is actually out peddling his head around town The landlord nodded I told him not to The market’s flooded At this I lost my temper I come to your house and want a bed You tell me you’ll give me half a bed but a harpooner fills the other half Now he’s out selling his head Do you think I would sleep with a madman Or give money to a trickster 6
Be easy the landlord said calmly The harpooner just returned from the South Seas He brought up a lot of shrunken heads from New Zealand Why had he not spoken plainly before The landlord chuckled The harpooner’s never been this late He must have found other lodgings Let me show you the bed I followed him to another freezing room with a huge bed The landlord placed his candle on the old sea chest that served as a table Then he bid me good night and left A tall harpoon leaned against one wall with a seaman’s bag close by I wasted no more time looking around and tumbled into bed I had drifted into a light doze when I heard heavy footfalls in the passage A glimmer of light came from under the door The harpooner I lay perfectly still The stranger came into the room with a candle in one hand and a shrunken head in the other 7
