Image: Ishmael stands among crowds of people in the "insular city of the Manhattoes" (Manhattan) at the edge of the wharf, looking out at the water. He holds a cup in his hand and carries his carpet bag in the other.
Text: Chapter 1- Loomings
Posted like silent sentinels all around the town, stand thousands upon thousands of mortal men fixed in ocean reveries. Some leaning against the spiles; some seated upon the pier-heads; some looking over the bulwarks of ships from China; some high aloft in the rigging, as if striving to get a still better seaward peep. But these are all landsmen; of week days pent up in lath and plaster—tied to counters, nailed to benches, clinched to desks. How then is this? Are the green fields gone? What do they here?
But look! here come more crowds, pacing straight for the water, and seemingly bound for a dive. Strange! Nothing will content them but the extremest limit of the land; loitering under the shady lee of yonder warehouses will not suffice. No. They must get just as nigh the water as they possibly can without falling in.
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Comments: Not an important part of the book, but this passage is the first confirmation that the sea is Ishmael's chief source of inspiration and motivation.
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