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This is Moby Dick Chapter 43: Hark (summary)
Vocabulary Words found in this chapter: Moby Dick Chapter 43: Hark! (Vocabulary Words)

In a fair moonlight, the middle-watch, the seamen stood in a cordon1a line of persons or objects around a person or place. from the waist up to the scuttlebutt near the taffrail of the boat. They carefully passed the buckets to fill the scuttlebutt without speaking and without rustling their feet.

A scuttlebutt in Moby Dick Chapter 43 summary.
A scuttlebutt.

Additionally, they were so quiet while they did this, that only the occasional flap of a sail breaks the silence. Then, Archy, of the cordon near the after-hatches, whispered to Cabaco, a Cholo, about him hearing a noise. However, Cabaco didn’t hear it.

For the second time, he heard the noise that sounded like a cough from under the hatches. But Cabaco still didn’t hear it and didn’t seem to believe Archy. 

Finally, for the third time, Archy heard the noise again but this time, it sounded like two or three sleepers turning over. In reply, Cabaco said it was just the sound of the three soaked biscuits in Archy’s stomach that he ate for supper. 

Nevertheless, Archy said he has sharp ears. Then, Cabaco jested that Archy’s the one who heard the hum of the old Quakeress’s knitting-needles fifty miles at sea from Nantucket. In turn, he said to Cabaco to hark or listen carefully because he feels like somebody’s down in the after-hold that they’ve not seen yet. 

Moreover, he suspected that Ahab knows something about it. Furthermore, he recalled that he heard Stubb tell Flask, that there was something like that in the wind. But, Cabaco ignored it and asked for the bucket.

End of Moby Dick Chapter 43: Hark (summary)

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