In Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick, the Pequod‘s journey gets underway on Christmas Day. Captains Peleg and Bildad accompany the ship out of harbor. Bildad takes the first watch. As he does so, he sings. Ishmael, the narrator, describes it, in Chapter 22 (“Merry Christmas”): Lank Bildad, as pilot, headed the first watch, and ever and anon, as the […]
