Moby-Dick; or, The Whale · Moby-Dick, ch. 71 · block 22

Every whale-ship takes out a goodly number of letters for various ships, whose delivery to the persons to whom they may be addressed, depends upon the mere chance of encountering them in the four oceans. Thus, most letters never reach their mark; and many are only received after attaining an age of two or three years or more.

Herman Melville · 1851
Project Gutenberg #15, credited to Eugene F. Irey; updated 10 June 2026. Based on the first American edition, Harper & Brothers, 1851, according to the source catalog.
Mapped print edition: Herman Melville, Moby-Dick; or, The Whale (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1851; First American edition).
Passage ¶1674: pp. 353–354 (Scanned p. 353 · Scanned p. 354)
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Gloss address: 71.22 · chapter.paragraph · global ¶1674
Frozen text and counting rules: g1-582503627a093f94.
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