Debbie’s Comments (group member since Sep 11, 2011)

Debbie’s comments from the Moby-Dick group.

I'm with Bill in #2.....so glad I made the effort and I would also like to re-visit it in a year or two......

I finished before Christmas....loved it, but have moved on......

...or take what you will from this....
http://www.wordswarm.net/dictionary/f...

What?

...from Wikipedia...."The excavation was also hazardous. The tunnel flooded suddenly on 18 May 1827 after 549 feet (167 m) had been dug.[3] Isambard Kingdom Brunel lowered a diving bell from a boat to repair the hole at the bottom of the river, throwing bags filled with clay into the breach in the tunnel's roof. Following the repairs and the drainage of the tunnel, he held a banquet inside it."

I knew about diving bells....didn't they use them in London to construct a tunnel under the Thames?

Certainly was.....a very Victorian craze!

Not yet Kitty, but I aim to sometime......this is one of the reasons we get so upset about commercial whalers venturing into our part of the world, and the Japanese are the worst offenders.

http://www.whalewatch.co.nz/

They are wild whales at Kaikoura! No whales in captivity in this country!

You need to come to Kaikoura then!

NE said "According to this article, whales are still hunted in Japan, Norway, and Iceland.

If only the Japanese hunted whales only in Japan. The fact is that they come downunder to where whale-catching is easier - there have been some pretty violent stoushes between Japanese whalers and Greenpeace in my neck of the woods. Kitty, you said it is hard to beleieve that the Japanese use that many whales in scientific experiments....that is because they don't. It is a commercial operation and the meat is sold in Japanese restaurants.

....and when I googled it, it brought up another startling hypothesis. It seems that it has been thought that the Dutch sailor was speaking to another sailor who was.....ahem....giving him head.

Scuttle-butt is in common use downunder....grew up knewing it meant gossip, but not why until I read this!

Finishing report-writing.......gimme another few days.....

It's all in the title :-/
Whalers were the first white people to 'settle' New Zealand. In fact, they were established here and intermarrying happily with Maori well before missionaries decided they needed sorting out in the 18-teens and twenties. 'Proper' settlement via the Wakefield scheme did not begin until 1839 or so. Relics from NZ's whaling past can still be found on South Island beaches.
I am having trouble re-reading. My kindle edition (free) has no table of contents for ease of flipping back and forth. I have had to make notes as I read and trying to navigate those is somewhat timeconsuming as they refer to page nos and not chapters! I only got 13 reports written this weekend so am pulling up the drawbridge until I have finished them (hopefully by the end of next weekend)!

I have found myself skimming a couple of chapters too, but that was because of guilty thoughts about school reports waiting.......

I AM the beached white whale....in summer.....

Me either Kitty! I am in the 80's I'm afraid.....

But was that chapter in Ishmael's voice? In that chapter, and in a couple of others it seems as though Melville has allowed his own voice to come in (as an aside) to lecture the reader on current notions and knowledge concerning whales and whaling in general. As for getting it wrong.....I think that even now, in spite of all our technological advances, there is still an awful lot we don't know.....even if it is a lot more than was known in Melville's time.