Three of Pentacles

Meaning: The coming together of different kinds of knowledge in order to build something together (Labyrinthos)

Depiction: Under a night sky, the three harpooners Tashtego, Daggoo and Queequeg are stoking the fires of the try-works while supervised by Stubb. In the background, at the helm of the ship, Ishmael has the tiller turned backwards (sternwards) as he gazes, mesmerized, at the flames. There is a doubloon figure  etched on each of the three try-pots.

Text: Chapter 96 - The Try-Works
Standing on this were the Tartarean shapes of the pagan harpooneers, always the whale-ship’s stokers. With huge pronged poles they pitched hissing masses of blubber into the scalding pots, or stirred up the fires beneath, till the snaky flames darted, curling, out of the doors to catch them by the feet.

***
Convulsively my hands grasped the tiller, but with the crazy conceit that the tiller was, somehow, in some enchanted way, inverted. My God! what is the matter with me? thought I. Lo! in my brief sleep I had turned myself about, and was fronting the ship’s stern, with my back to her prow and the compass. In an instant I faced back, just in time to prevent the vessel from flying up into the wind, and very probably capsizing her.

Comments: This is a good chapter for showcasing the different roles for the crew as they work together.  Except Ishmael, whose job is apparently losing himself in reveries, as usual.