#the gam

[chengoeshonk]

It is i cat

[dodger-chan]

Having reread both chapters now, I find myself considering their order and juxtaposition.

The Albatross is bleak. Vaguely unreal. A sharp pang of loneliness as human contact is teased but not permitted. But most interestingly, it is an atypical meeting of ships, which we don't find out until the following chapter.

The Gam is humorous. It is clearly all from Ishmael; no jumping from the fore-mast-head to Ahab's side. It is light and pleasant. And by coming after The Albatross it really drives home the wrongness of the previous chapter.

Most of Melville's audience were not whalers, and would not know what a gam was. So logic would dictate swapping the two chapters around; defining a gam before showing us one. But we don't actually see one in The Albatross. We see its unexpected absences.

[charlietheskonk]

hey, where’s that leg??

theeeerrrrrrre it is

[rapversal]

[mobydickeveryday]

GAM. NOUN - A social meeting of two (or more) Whale-ships, generally on a cruising-ground; when, after exchanging hails, they exchange visits by boats' crews: the two captains remaining, for the time, on board of one ship, and the two chief mates on the other.

Chapter 53, The Gam

The alumni magazine for the maritime studies program I did in college is called The Gam, and I think that’s pretty cool.