Ishmael Narrates The Meeting Of The Pequod And The Jungfrau Poem by Dennis Ryan

Sunday afternoon, July 21,2019 at 4: 20 p.m.; Thursday afternoon, April 23,2020 at 2 p.m.

"The predestined day arrived, and we duly met the ship Jungfrau, Derick De Deer, master, of Bremen."
- Ishmael, common sailor, narrates the meeting of the Pequod and Jungfrau in Chapter LXXXI of Herman Melville's Moby-Dick

Why De Deer wanted the gam, and came aboard
was the subject of speculation amongst the mates—
was it for a social gathering or a plea of some sort?
Flask discerneda lamp-feeder and oil can held aloft:
"He's out of oil and has come a-begging."Well,
De Deer got the oil his lamps so desperately needed,
telling Ahab he knew nothing of the whereabouts
of Moby\Dick, the White Whale, and deboarded
when a pod of whales were spotted from the mast-heads.
De Deer slew around his boat and made after, and it
became a race for the prize between the German boats
and ours, at fifteen and a quarter minutes past two o'clock,
p.m. on this fifteenth day of December,1851 A.D.
These cetacean murders are perfectly legal and licenced
by our federal government, theirs, by the Dutch, Swedes
and Norwegians.Because the largest of the pod swam slowest
and last due to old age, this solitary bull became our object,
and, we made after... from the rear as the German boats
held the advantage.They did everything in their power
to hold us off so that they could plant the first dart,
but luck was with us as we landed the first harpoons
from behind in this competition for money and what
"honor" and "glory" we might assign it—the subject
of later discussion—our three boat-headers urging on
their crews in this "blue noon", the old bull hiding
somewhere below, "writhing and wrenching in agony".
Pity and mercy were none.When he arose, we set
to killing, urged on: "There goes three thousand dollars! "
And thus, in old age, he died to light "gay bridals",
other merry-makings... The old bull rolled over,
drowning in its own blood—no sign from its spout.
Then, within our grasp, the whale began to sink
of its own weight! Nothing could be done to stop it
lest the Pequod itself capsize, so the fluke-chains
were cut and down the carcass went! And so,
with maximum effort, money was lost—there would be
other pods, other mild days to hunt.The gam long over,
the Jungfrau disappeared leewards in the vain pursuit
of Fin-Backs that had been mistaken for Sperm whales.