Description:
Part of portfolio of 26 lithographs and accompanying book by Lawrance Thompson.
Text from accompanying book by Lawrance Thompson, 6: The Town-Ho:

"...so the next night
an iron ball, closely netted,
partly rolled from the pocket
of the Lakeman's monkey jacket...
and in the fore-ordaining soul
of Steelkilt,
the mate was already
stark and stretched as a corpse,
with his forehead crushed in.
But, gentlemen,
a fool saved the would-be murderer
from the bloody deed he had planned.
Yet complete revenge he had,
and without being the avenger.
For by a mysterious fatality,
Heaven itself seemed to step in
to take out of his hands into its own
the damning thing he would have done...
the whale
rushed round in a sudden maelstrom;
seized the swimmer between his jaws;
and reaing high up with him,
plunged headlong again,
and went down."

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