Not P but Moby-Dick (32)

[Ian Livingston]

If a boiler burst in a 19th Century Mississippi Steamer, it could blow
itself right out the hull of the boat. Depending upon the nature of
rupture, the evacuating steam and water might propel the burst boiler
through the hull and a distance across the water before sinking. I wonder
what Melville knew of boilers bursting. It is quite an image!

On Tue, Oct 24, 2023 at 1:46 AM Johnny Marr <marrja at gmail.com> wrote:

> 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
> >
> --
> Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>