Not P but Moby-Dick (32)

[Johnny Marr]

Probably a boiler that has suffered a burst and is lying on its side

On Tuesday, October 24, 2023, Mike Jing <gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com>
wrote:

> From Chapter 48:
>
> Meantime, Ahab, out of hearing of his officers, having sided the furthest
> to windward, was still ranging ahead of the other boats; a circumstance
> bespeaking how potent a crew was pulling him. Those tiger yellow creatures
> of his seemed all steel and whalebone; like five trip-hammers they rose and
> fell with regular strokes of strength, which periodically started the boat
> along the water like a horizontal burst boiler out of a Mississippi
> steamer.
>
> What is a "horizontal burst boiler"? Does it mean that it works in bursts,
> or is it something else?
> --
> Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>