All 3 Uses of
ballast
in
Moby Dick
- Then, again, it would never do in plain sight of the world's riveted eyes, it would never do, I say, for this straddling captain to be seen steadying himself the slightest particle by catching hold of anything with his hands; indeed, as token of his entire, buoyant self-command, he generally carries his hands in his trowsers' pockets; but perhaps being generally very large, heavy hands, he carries them there for ballast.†
Chpt 52-54
- Where unrecorded names and navies rust, and untold hopes and anchors rot; where in her murderous hold this frigate earth is ballasted with bones of millions of the drowned; there, in that awful water-land, there was thy most familiar home.†
Chpt 70-72 *
- She is ballasted with utilities; not altogether with unusable pig-lead and kentledge.†
Chpt 85-87
Definition:
-
(ballast) something that helps to stabilize -- especially heavy material in the bottom of an empty ship