Not P but Moby-Dick (32)

[Mike Jing]

Thanks, Johnny and Ian.


On Wed, Oct 25, 2023 at 12:29 AM Ian Livingston <igrlivingston at gmail.com>
wrote:

> 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
>>
>