King of Pentacles

Meaning: High ambition, materialistic satisfaction, and worldly success. (Labyrinthos)

Depiction: The bespectacled Captain Bildad, in the cabin, sitting upright, reading from a large book, as described in the text. A doubloon is balanced on his lap.

Text: Chapter 16, The Ship

The space between the decks was small; and there, bolt-upright, sat old Bildad, who always sat so, and never leaned, and this to save his coat tails. His broad-brim was placed beside him; his legs were stiffly crossed; his drab vesture was buttoned up to his chin; and spectacles on nose, he seemed absorbed in reading from a ponderous volume.

Comments: This "fighting Quaker" is loath to spend any more than absolutely needed to protect his investment; although not strictly "materialistic" he certainly cares a great deal about wealth.

Queen of Pentacles

Meaning: A reliable woman.

Depiction: Bildad's sister Charity boards the Pequod as it sits in harbor, carrying a long oil ladle, a whaling lance, and a doubloon.

Text: Chapter 20 - All Astir
Chief among those who did this fetching and carrying was Captain Bildad’s sister, a lean old lady of a most determined and indefatigable spirit, but withal very kindhearted, who seemed resolved that, if she could help it, nothing should be found wanting in the Pequod, after once fairly getting to sea. At one time she would come on board with a jar of pickles for the steward’s pantry; another time with a bunch of quills for the chief mate’s desk, where he kept his log; a third time with a roll of flannel for the small of some one’s rheumatic back. Never did any woman better deserve her name, which was Charity—Aunt Charity, as everybody called her. And like a sister of charity did this charitable Aunt Charity bustle about hither and thither, ready to turn her hand and heart to anything that promised to yield safety, comfort, and consolation to all on board a ship in which her beloved brother Bildad was concerned, and in which she herself owned a score or two of well-saved dollars.

But it was startling to see this excellent hearted Quakeress coming on board, as she did the last day, with a long oil-ladle in one hand, and a still longer whaling lance in the other.

Old Quaker woman, Civil War era. Provenance unknown. (Pinterest)

Comments:  No one appreciated Charity's jug of lukewarm ginger-water when grog was what they really needed, but I'm sure many of her other contributions came in handy.

By the way, I just had a really great idea for a fanfiction story, which I'm not going to write. Just imagine if when Ahab's secret crew was discovered, it turned out to be not Fedallah & Co., but  Charity and a hardy group of whaling widows from her Temperance League and quilting circle.  You know they could handle a harpoon, and they'd never forget the pickles.

Knight of Pentacles

Meaning: Daily tasks and responsibility. (Labyrinthos)

Depiction: Fleece the cook stands at the stove, turning a steak with his long tongs made out of straightened iron hoops; one of these hoops holds a doubloon.

Text: Chapter 64 - Stubb's Supper
The old black, not in any very high glee at having been previously roused from his warm hammock at a most unseasonable hour, came shambling along from his galley, for, like many old blacks, there was something the matter with his knee-pans, which he did not keep well scoured like his other pans; this old Fleece, as they called him, came shuffling and limping along, assisting his step with his tongs, which, after a clumsy fashion, were made of straightened iron hoops..

Comments: Chapter 64 is a hard chapter to get through, as it's unpleasant to read about Stubb abusing his privilege as an officer to force the elderly Black cook to get up and make  (and remake) him a steak, especially when Fleece can barely walk due to his bad knees. Admittedly, it's nothing unusual for any sailor to be ordered around, but this seems different in light of the cook's age and physical condition. Then there's all that stereotypical dialect when Stubb insists that Fleece preach to the sharks.  Although it's clear there is some sympathy for Fleece, I sense this scene may have been intended to be humorous to Melville's contemporary audience in the Civil War era. Reading it now, it's difficult not to think of anything but racism, exploitation and abuse of power. With this card, I see the stove as Fleece's horse; he does his work every day, performs his role on the ship as required, and gets through life as best he can.

Page of Pentacles

Meaning: Energy, passion, progress and adventure.

Depiction: Tashtego sings out, having spotted a whale, standing high  at the top of the mast,  leaning forward with his hand outstretched as described in the text. There is a doubloon in his pointing hand.

Text: Chapter 47 - The Mat-Maker
High aloft in the cross-trees was that mad Gay-Header, Tashtego. His body was reaching eagerly forward, his hand stretched out like a wand, and at brief sudden intervals he continued his cries. To be sure the same sound was that very moment perhaps being heard all over the seas, from hundreds of whalemen’s look-outs perched as high in the air; but from few of those lungs could that accustomed old cry have derived such a marvellous cadence as from Tashtego the Indian’s.

As he stood hovering over you half suspended in air, so wildly and eagerly peering towards the horizon, you would have thought him some prophet or seer beholding the shadows of Fate, and by those wild cries announcing their coming.

“There she blows! there! there! there! she blows! she blows!”

Comments: Finally a Tashtego solo card! This scene stood out to me when I thought about the meaning of the card.

Ten of Pentacles

Meaning: Legacy, roots, family, tradition (Labyrinthos)

Depiction: In a scene that predates the events of the book, Captain Gardiner, the captain of the Rachel, stands on the deck of his ship with one arm over the shoulder of each son, one 12, the other around  18. Ten doubloons decorate the side of the ship.

Text: Chapter 128 - The Pequod Meets the Rachel
But the captain, for some unknown constitutional reason, had refrained from mentioning all this, and not till forced to it by Ahab’s iciness did he allude to his one yet missing boy; a little lad, but twelve years old, whose father with the earnest but unmisgiving hardihood of a Nantucketer’s paternal love, had thus early sought to initiate him in the perils and wonders of a vocation almost immemorially the destiny of all his race.

Comments: Other than Starbuck talking about his wife Mary and referencing Ahab's unnamed wife, this is the most notable chapter in which family ties comes up. It was only when I reread the chapter that I noticed that Captain Gardiner originally had two sons aboard with him, not just the one that was lost.

Nine of Pentacles

Meaning: Abundance, material security, rewarded efforts.

Depiction: The Bachelor and its merry crew bound for home, as described in the passage below. Nine doubloons adorn the side of the ship.

Text: Chapter 115, The Pequod Meets the Bachelor

It was a Nantucket ship, the Bachelor, which had just wedged in her last cask of oil, and bolted down her bursting hatches; and now, in glad holiday apparel, was joyously, though somewhat vain-gloriously, sailing round among the widely-separated ships on the ground, previous to pointing her prow for home.

The three men at her mast-head wore long streamers of narrow red bunting at their hats; from the stern, a whale-boat was suspended, bottom down; and hanging captive from the bowsprit was seen the long lower jaw of the last whale they had slain. Signals, ensigns, and jacks of all colours were flying from her rigging, on every side. Sideways lashed in each of her three basketed tops were two barrels of sperm; above which, in her top-mast cross-trees, you saw slender breakers of the same precious fluid; and nailed to her main truck was a brazen lamp.

Comments: This was originally the description for the Empress, but I determined that that the sort of material abundance represented by the Bachelor was more appropriate here.  One of the miniseries - I believe it was the 1998 version with Patrick Stewart-  has a lively scene of the Bachelor approaching with the sailors dancing on the deck and their Fijian brides playing flutes.

Eight of Pentacles

Meaning:  Work, craftsmanship, steady patience (Wikipedia)

Depiction: From his  open air vice-bench across from the try-works, the carpenter plies his trade. Just like in the RWS card (but on a ship!), he chisels a gold coin. The other seven  doubloons of the suit are scattered about him on the deck.

Text: Chapter 107- The Carpenter
But, besides the application to him of the generic remark above, this carpenter of the Pequod was singularly efficient in those thousand nameless mechanical emergencies continually recurring in a large ship, upon a three or four years’ voyage, in uncivilized and far-distant seas. For not to speak of his readiness in ordinary duties:—repairing stove boats, sprung spars, reforming the shape of clumsy-bladed oars, inserting bull’s eyes in the deck, or new tree-nails in the side planks, and other miscellaneous matters more directly pertaining to his special business; he was moreover unhesitatingly expert in all manner of conflicting aptitudes, both useful and capricious.

Axes and adzes - USS Constitution Museum

Comments: This card could not be a more perfect fit for the unnamed carpenter of the Pequod.