{"id":"01KJNXJQZA6X3K92KDWP3XQMXH","cid":"bafkreic5arohlkb25jdusklzdxaqv6vi4mmbk24jrdttky4t7nclou4idm","type":"text_chunk","properties":{"char_end":541311,"char_start":533396,"chunk_index":75,"chunk_total":178,"estimated_tokens":1979,"source_file_key":"moby-dick","text":"than any Cyclades or Islands of King Solomon, then there were promise\r\nin the voyage. But in pursuit of those far mysteries we dream of, or in\r\ntormented chase of that demon phantom that, some time or other, swims\r\nbefore all human hearts; while chasing such over this round globe, they\r\neither lead us on in barren mazes or midway leave us whelmed.\r\n\r\n\r\nCHAPTER 53. The Gam.\r\n\r\nThe ostensible reason why Ahab did not go on board of the whaler we had\r\nspoken was this: the wind and sea betokened storms. But even had this\r\nnot been the case, he would not after all, perhaps, have boarded\r\nher—judging by his subsequent conduct on similar occasions—if so it had\r\nbeen that, by the process of hailing, he had obtained a negative answer\r\nto the question he put. For, as it eventually turned out, he cared not\r\nto consort, even for five minutes, with any stranger captain, except he\r\ncould contribute some of that information he so absorbingly sought. But\r\nall this might remain inadequately estimated, were not something said\r\nhere of the peculiar usages of whaling-vessels when meeting each other\r\nin foreign seas, and especially on a common cruising-ground.\r\n\r\nIf two strangers crossing the Pine Barrens in New York State, or the\r\nequally desolate Salisbury Plain in England; if casually encountering\r\neach other in such inhospitable wilds, these twain, for the life of\r\nthem, cannot well avoid a mutual salutation; and stopping for a moment\r\nto interchange the news; and, perhaps, sitting down for a while and\r\nresting in concert: then, how much more natural that upon the\r\nillimitable Pine Barrens and Salisbury Plains of the sea, two whaling\r\nvessels descrying each other at the ends of the earth—off lone\r\nFanning’s Island, or the far away King’s Mills; how much more natural,\r\nI say, that under such circumstances these ships should not only\r\ninterchange hails, but come into still closer, more friendly and\r\nsociable contact. And especially would this seem to be a matter of\r\ncourse, in the case of vessels owned in one seaport, and whose\r\ncaptains, officers, and not a few of the men are personally known to\r\neach other; and consequently, have all sorts of dear domestic things to\r\ntalk about.\r\n\r\nFor the long absent ship, the outward-bounder, perhaps, has letters on\r\nboard; at any rate, she will be sure to let her have some papers of a\r\ndate a year or two later than the last one on her blurred and\r\nthumb-worn files. And in return for that courtesy, the outward-bound\r\nship would receive the latest whaling intelligence from the\r\ncruising-ground to which she may be destined, a thing of the utmost\r\nimportance to her. And in degree, all this will hold true concerning\r\nwhaling vessels crossing each other’s track on the cruising-ground\r\nitself, even though they are equally long absent from home. For one of\r\nthem may have received a transfer of letters from some third, and now\r\nfar remote vessel; and some of those letters may be for the people of\r\nthe ship she now meets. Besides, they would exchange the whaling news,\r\nand have an agreeable chat. For not only would they meet with all the\r\nsympathies of sailors, but likewise with all the peculiar\r\ncongenialities arising from a common pursuit and mutually shared\r\nprivations and perils.\r\n\r\nNor would difference of country make any very essential difference;\r\nthat is, so long as both parties speak one language, as is the case\r\nwith Americans and English. Though, to be sure, from the small number\r\nof English whalers, such meetings do not very often occur, and when\r\nthey do occur there is too apt to be a sort of shyness between them;\r\nfor your Englishman is rather reserved, and your Yankee, he does not\r\nfancy that sort of thing in anybody but himself. Besides, the English\r\nwhalers sometimes affect a kind of metropolitan superiority over the\r\nAmerican whalers; regarding the long, lean Nantucketer, with his\r\nnondescript provincialisms, as a sort of sea-peasant. But where this\r\nsuperiority in the English whalemen does really consist, it would be\r\nhard to say, seeing that the Yankees in one day, collectively, kill\r\nmore whales than all the English, collectively, in ten years. But this\r\nis a harmless little foible in the English whale-hunters, which the\r\nNantucketer does not take much to heart; probably, because he knows\r\nthat he has a few foibles himself.\r\n\r\nSo, then, we see that of all ships separately sailing the sea, the\r\nwhalers have most reason to be sociable—and they are so. Whereas, some\r\nmerchant ships crossing each other’s wake in the mid-Atlantic, will\r\noftentimes pass on without so much as a single word of recognition,\r\nmutually cutting each other on the high seas, like a brace of dandies\r\nin Broadway; and all the time indulging, perhaps, in finical criticism\r\nupon each other’s rig. As for Men-of-War, when they chance to meet at\r\nsea, they first go through such a string of silly bowings and\r\nscrapings, such a ducking of ensigns, that there does not seem to be\r\nmuch right-down hearty good-will and brotherly love about it at all. As\r\ntouching Slave-ships meeting, why, they are in such a prodigious hurry,\r\nthey run away from each other as soon as possible. And as for Pirates,\r\nwhen they chance to cross each other’s cross-bones, the first hail\r\nis—“How many skulls?”—the same way that whalers hail—“How many\r\nbarrels?” And that question once answered, pirates straightway steer\r\napart, for they are infernal villains on both sides, and don’t like to\r\nsee overmuch of each other’s villanous likenesses.\r\n\r\nBut look at the godly, honest, unostentatious, hospitable, sociable,\r\nfree-and-easy whaler! What does the whaler do when she meets another\r\nwhaler in any sort of decent weather? She has a “_Gam_,” a thing so\r\nutterly unknown to all other ships that they never heard of the name\r\neven; and if by chance they should hear of it, they only grin at it,\r\nand repeat gamesome stuff about “spouters” and “blubber-boilers,” and\r\nsuch like pretty exclamations. Why it is that all Merchant-seamen, and\r\nalso all Pirates and Man-of-War’s men, and Slave-ship sailors, cherish\r\nsuch a scornful feeling towards Whale-ships; this is a question it\r\nwould be hard to answer. Because, in the case of pirates, say, I should\r\nlike to know whether that profession of theirs has any peculiar glory\r\nabout it. It sometimes ends in uncommon elevation, indeed; but only at\r\nthe gallows. And besides, when a man is elevated in that odd fashion,\r\nhe has no proper foundation for his superior altitude. Hence, I\r\nconclude, that in boasting himself to be high lifted above a whaleman,\r\nin that assertion the pirate has no solid basis to stand on.\r\n\r\nBut what is a _Gam?_ You might wear out your index-finger running up\r\nand down the columns of dictionaries, and never find the word. Dr.\r\nJohnson never attained to that erudition; Noah Webster’s ark does not\r\nhold it. Nevertheless, this same expressive word has now for many years\r\nbeen in constant use among some fifteen thousand true born Yankees.\r\nCertainly, it needs a definition, and should be incorporated into the\r\nLexicon. With that view, let me learnedly define it.\r\n\r\nGAM. NOUN—_A social meeting of two_ (_or more_) _Whaleships, generally\r\non a cruising-ground; when, after exchanging hails, they exchange\r\nvisits by boats’ crews: the two captains remaining, for the time, on\r\nboard of one ship, and the two chief mates on the other._\r\n\r\nThere is another little item about Gamming which must not be forgotten\r\nhere. All professions have their own little peculiarities of detail; so\r\nhas the whale fishery. In a pirate, man-of-war, or slave ship, when the\r\ncaptain is rowed anywhere in his boat, he always sits in the stern\r\nsheets on a comfortable, sometimes cushioned seat there, and often\r\nsteers himself with a pretty little milliner’s tiller decorated with\r\ngay cords and ribbons. But the whale-boat has no seat astern, no sofa\r\nof that sort whatever, and no tiller at all."},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KJNXEDHZCC8DR4EPSQD0QP4P","peer_label":"moby-dick","peer_type":"text","predicate":"derived_from"},{"peer":"01KJNXECF9R1EZKS5Z7J8A8ZSB","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"}],"ver":1,"created_at":"2026-03-02T00:01:15.754Z","ts":"2026-03-02T00:01:15.754Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KJ6WPT018SDDANE6N7Q8E428"}}