Moby Dick - The Chase
radio version with animated script
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download original 1995 script pdf

Moby Dick - The Chase - First Day
radio version with animated script
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Moby Dick - The Chase - Second Day
radio version with animated script
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Moby Dick - The Chase - Third Day
radio version with animated script
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AUTHOR'S NOTES FOR:
MOBY DICK - THE CHASE (radio version)

FROM: Moby Dick, Chapter 133, The Chase - First Day
RE: actual phrases quoted in the script

AHAB: Be dumb, man! Stand by the braces! Hard down the helm! Brace up! Shiver her! Shiver her! So; well that! Boats! Boats!

The above quoted dialog essentially means:
Stand by the ropes, turn the wheel, tighten certain ropes, steer close to the wind and hurry up and lower the harpoon boats.

Our script originally reads:
AHAB: Pull harder on the ropes and point the ship at the whale and go faster, okay?
Our radio performance has:
AHAB: Just hurry up and lower the boats.

• Be dumb, man! = be quiet
• Stand by the braces! = stand by the ropes (used for trimming the sails) that lead aft (toward the stern of a ship) from each yardarm (the outermost tip of the yard, which is the horizontal piece of timber or steel that holds the sails and is attached to the vertical masts)
• Hard down the helm! = turn the ship’s steering wheel
• Brace up! = tighten the ropes leading aft from each yardarm
• Shiver her! = steer close to the wind so that the mainsail is edge-on to the wind; this will make the sail shiver
• Boats! Boats! = hurry up and lower the harpoon boats

Oxford English Dictionary (second edition):
• Shiver (nautical) intransitive verb - of a sail: to flutter or shake (in the wind).
• Shiver (nautical) transitive verb - To cause (a sail) to flutter or shake in the wind, to bring a sail edge-on to the wind
1769: Falconer Dictionary Marine (1780) - s.v. Tack, the head sails are immediately made to shiver in the wind.
1891: Patterson Nautical Dictionary - a vessel sails are said to shiver when she is luffed so close that the wind is spilled out of them
• Luff (original nautical) verb - to bring the head of a ship near to the wind; to steer or sail near the wind; to sail in a specified direction with the head, kept close to the wind

FROM: Moby Dick, Chapter 135, The Chase - Third Day
RE: actual phrases quoted in the script

AHAB: There she blows! Forehead to forehead I meet thee, this third time, Moby Dick! On deck there! Brace sharper up! Crowd her into the wind’s eye! Stand over that helmsman with a topmaul!

The above quoted dialog comes from the following:
“Forehead to forehead I meet thee, this third time, Moby Dick! On deck there!- brace sharper up; crowd her into the wind's eye. He's too far off to lower yet, Mr. Starbuck. The sails shake! Stand over that helmsman with a top-maul!”

Our script originally reads:
AHAB: Pull harder on the ropes and point the ship at the whale and go faster, okay?
Our radio performance has:
AHAB: Point the ship at the whale and go faster, okay?

• Brace sharper up! = pull harder on the ropes (used for trimming the sails) that lead aft (toward the stern of a ship) from each yardarm (the outermost tip of the yard, which is the horizontal piece of timber or steel that holds the sails and is attached to the vertical masts)
• Crowd her into the wind’s eye! = point the ship directly toward the point from which the wind is blowing
• Stand over that helmsman with a topmaul! = stand over the person steering the ship with a heavy hammer (that has a steel or wooden head and is used in shipbuilding)

• topmaul: a heavy hammer with a steel or wooden head, used in shipbuilding
• helmsman: a person who steers a ship or boat
• braces: ropes used for trimming the sails leading aft from each yardarm
• tack: changing course by turning a vessel's head into and through the wind, so as to bring the wind on the opposite side

FROM: Moby Dick, Chapter 135, The Chase - Third Day
RE: actual phrases quoted in the script

AHAB: About! About! Man the braces!

The above quoted dialog essentially means:
Turn the ship around and grab the ropes used for controlling the sails.

Our script originally reads:
AHAB: Turn the ship around and pull the ropes that help operate the sails.
Our radio performance has:
AHAB: Turn the ship around.

About! About! = turn so as to face the opposite direction
Man the braces! = grab the ropes (used for trimming the sails) that lead aft (toward the stern of a ship) from each yardarm (the outermost tip of the yard, which is the horizontal piece of timber or steel that holds the sails and is attached to the vertical masts)

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