THIS MARBLE
Is here placed by their surviving
SHIPMATES.

SACRED
TO THE MEMORY
OF
The late
CAPTAIN EZEKIEL HARDY,
Who in the bows of his boat was killed by a
Sperm Whale on the coast of Japan,
August 3d, 1833.
THIS TABLET
Is erected to his Memory
BY
HIS WIDOW.


Shaking off the sleet from my ice-glazed hat and jacket, I seated
myself near the door, and turning sideways was surprised to see
Queequeg near me. Affected by the solemnity of the scene, there was
a wondering gaze of incredulous curiosity in his countenance.
This savage was the only person present who seemed to notice
my entrance; because he was the only one who could not read,
and, therefore, was not reading those frigid inscriptions on the wall.
Whether any of the relatives of the seamen whose names
appeared there were now among the congregation, I knew not;
but so many are the unrecorded accidents in the fishery,
and so plainly did several women present wear the countenance
if not the trappings of some unceasing grief, that I feel sure