Ahab's Paradise

In tempestuous times like these, after everything and aloft has been secured, nothing more can be done but passively to await the issue of the gale. Ahab would stand gazing dead to windward while an occasional squall of sleet or snow all but congeal his very eyelashes together. Meantime, the crew, driven from the forward part of the ship by the perilous seas that burstingly broke over its bows, stood in a line along the bulwarks in the waist. Few or no words were spoken. And the silent ship, as if manned by painted sailors in wax, day after day, tore on through all the swift madness and gladness of