The Passage Out: biography of Herman Melville; born into
well-to-do family; father dies when Herman was 12 years old; good
schooling up to a point; teaches, writes; out to sea; first voyage,
Liverpool to NYC; second voyage from the Whaling City (New Bedford)
itself; relating the story of Moby Dick; modern New Bedford; Seaman's Bethel; the Whaling Museum; only bull sperm whales venture to the far North Sea.
Born 1819, lower Manhattan.
Middle class and things seemed to be going well, when all of a sudden, it seems, out of nowhere, the dad declares bankruptcy; the family moves up to the Hudson to Albany. Two years later, 1832, the father dies in a "maniacal fever" (cocaine?); wife/mother left with eight children; Herman was 12 years old. Wow.
Considered himself a misanthrope -- p. 44. Wants to go to sea.
1839; 19 years old; books passage on cargo of cotton destined for Lancashire mills.
The crew detested him, made fun of him -- that's where he first felt he was "Ishmael." His mother was a strict Calvinist. He says his mother hated him.
Liverpool: the second city of the Empire. Saw a floating chapel -- converted from an old sloop-of-war.
He returned to NYC but the city was unchanged; he was changed. Ready to go to the Whaling City itself, 1840, or thereabouts.
The transition: from a schoolmaster (loosely used) to a sailor (loosely used).
Queequeg: his traveling companion; met in New Bedford. Waiting for ship to take them to Nantucket where they would catch whaling ship.
The description of the tattooed Queequeg and the window pane is startling like open pages of Wuthering Heights.
The author says the chapter in Moby-Dick is written so well one would think that actually happened; in fact, it did not. Herman stayed elsewhere and he traveled with his brother Gansevoort.
December 30, 1840: the crew list.
Melville to sail on the Acushnet; named after the river from which it was launched.
There really was a first mate named Starbuck -- page 50.
New Bedford: strong ties with Quakers of Nantucket.
Route 6, from New Bedford to the tip of Cape Cod; King's road; crosses the Acushnet by a 19th-century turntable bridge, a Meccano construction that pivots to permit more important traffic to pass. This would be the New Bedford - Fairhaven bridge -- Highway 6 -- swing bridge (see wiki).
Seaman's Bethel. Melville said he did not visit that church -- p. 53.
I will stop here. So much to write. I wish I had had this book -- and had read it -- before visiting New Bedford. I've long forgotten when I bought this book ---
... again, so much on Herman Melville and Moby-Dick, it's hard to remember this book is about "the whale." Or is it?
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