Meaning: Curiosity, gossip
Depiction: Sailors Archy and Cabaco are passing buckets to each other on the quarterdeck under an evening sky. Archy, hearing noises, draws Cabaco's attention to the aft-hatches. A whaling lance is propped up on the deck in the same position as on the original card.
Text: Chapter 43- Hark!
“HIST! Did you hear that noise, Cabaco?”
It was the middle-watch: a fair moonlight; the seamen were standing in a cordon, extending from one of the fresh-water butts in the waist, to the scuttle-butt near the taffrail. In this manner, they passed the buckets to fill the scuttle-butt. Standing, for the most part, on the hallowed precincts of the quarter-deck, they were careful not to speak or rustle their feet. From hand to hand, the buckets went in the deepest silence, only broken by the occasional flap of a sail, and the steady hum of the unceasingly advancing keel.
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| Image by R.D. Farrell, date unknown. |
Comments: Just as I did with the Knight of Cups, I am breaking the rules here by having more than one figure on a court card. But who conveys gossip better than the duo of Archy and Cabaco, who've unwittingly stumbled on Ahab's secret crew?
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