# The Carpenter — Moby-Dick character guide

> The Carpenter in Moby-Dick by Herman Melville.

**Role:** minor

**Also known as:** Carpenter

**First appearance:** 0110-cvii-the-carpenter

## Who they are

The pragmatic, unemotional craftsman aboard the Pequod who repairs gear and fashions Ahab's ivory leg.

## In the story

### [XCVI: The Try-Works](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/moby_dick_se/chapters/xcvi-the-try-works)

Mentioned as having prepared the fires by thrusting shavings into the furnace during the passage.

### [CVI: Ahab’s Leg](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/moby_dick_se/chapters/cvi-ahab-s-leg)

Summoned by Ahab and ordered to immediately begin crafting a new ivory leg.

### [CVII: The Carpenter](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/moby_dick_se/chapters/cvii-the-carpenter)

The central subject of the chapter. Described as an omnitooled, stolid, and strangely impersonal figure whose brain seems to have 'oozed along into the muscles of his fingers.' He is a pure practical manipulator, indifferent to the world.

### [CVIII: Ahab and the Carpenter](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/moby_dick_se/chapters/cviii-ahab-and-the-carpenter)

The practical craftsman, bewildered by Ahab's talk, focuses on the technical task of building a new ivory leg while sneezing from bone dust.

### [Queequeg in His Coffin](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/moby_dick_se/chapters/cx-queequeg-in-his-coffin)

Indifferently follows orders to build Queequeg's coffin, taking his measurements with professional promptitude.

### [CXXVI: The Life-Buoy](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/moby_dick_se/chapters/cxxvi-the-life-buoy)

Grumblingly follows orders to convert the coffin into a life-buoy, expressing disdain for the 'cobbling' job.

### [The Deck](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/moby_dick_se/chapters/cxxvii-the-deck)

Caulking Queequeg's coffin to turn it into a life-buoy. He is pragmatic and unprincipled in his trades, provoking Ahab's ire with his indifferent hammering, which Ahab compares to a woodpecker or a ticking clock.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/moby_dick_se/characters/the_carpenter
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/moby_dick_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/moby_dick_se/characters