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CHAPTER 20 . All Astir . A day or two passed , and there was great activity aboard the Pequod . Not only were the old sails being mended , but new sails were coming on board , and bolts of canvas , and coils of rigging ; in short , everything betokened that the ship’s preparations were hurrying to a close . Captain Peleg seldom or never went ashore , but sat in his wigwam keeping a sharp look - out upon the hands : Bildad did all the purchasing and providing at the stores ; and the men employed in the hold and on the rigging were working till long after night - fall . On the day following Queequeg’s signing the articles , word was given at all the inns where the ship’s company were stopping , that their chests must be on board before night , for there was no telling how soon the vessel might be sailing . So Queequeg and I got down our traps , resolving , however , to sleep ashore till the last . But it seems they always give very long notice in these cases , and the ship did not sail for several days . But no wonder ; there was a good deal to be done , and there is no telling how many things to be thought of , before the Pequod was fully equipped . Every one knows what a multitude of things — beds , sauce - pans , knives and forks , shovels and tongs , napkins , nut - crackers , and what not , are indispensable to the business of housekeeping . Just so with whaling , which necessitates a three - years ’ housekeeping upon the wide ocean , far from all grocers , costermongers , doctors , bakers , and bankers . And though this also holds true of merchant vessels , yet not by any means to the same extent as with whalemen . For besides the great length of the whaling voyage , the numerous articles peculiar to the prosecution of the fishery , and the impossibility of replacing them at the remote harbors usually frequented , it must be remembered , that of all ships , whaling vessels are the most exposed to accidents of all kinds , and especially to the destruction and loss of the very things upon which the success of the voyage most depends . Hence , the spare boats , spare spars , and spare lines and harpoons , and spare everythings , almost , but a spare Captain and duplicate ship . At the period of our arrival at the Island , the heaviest storage of the Pequod had been almost completed ; comprising her beef , bread , water , fuel , and iron hoops and staves . But , as before hinted , for some time there was a continual fetching and carrying on board of divers odds and ends of things , both large and small . 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 .
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