A distant French enemy ship is spied but makes its escape. Claggart appears to Vere to warn him that there is a dangerous person aboard and hints of possible mutiny. A subterranean fire 'was eating its way deeper and deeper in him'. Claggart is melancholy, and has 'a touch of soft yearning, as if Claggart could even have loved Billy but for fate and ban.' (i.e., homosexual yearnings). Dansker again interprets this as Claggart's doing and warns Budd. A mysterious sailor appears to Budd one night and speaks veiled but mutinous ideas, offering him money. He was moved by Budd's beauty and resolves to foment ill blood. He finds himself getting in trouble with Claggart-the old sailor Dansker, who calls him Baby, warns him that 'Jemmy Legs is down on you.' Claggart takes an inexplicable dislike for Budd, perhaps because he himself is evil, has Natural Depravity, etc.

Billy is horrified to see the back of a sailor who has been whipped. John Claggart is the master-at-arms, a sort of police chief who maintains order below decks, 35 y/o, of somewhat mysterious origins. He is beautiful and 'in the nude might have posed for a statue of a young Adam before the Fall.' The captain is Captain Edward Fairfax Vere, called 'Starry Vere' for his intellectual bookish and sometimes dreamy ways, a bachelor of 40 years or so.

Budd is illiterate and a foundling, and has a stammer which affects him under stress. Mutiny is on the minds of the ship's officers since the recent mutiny at the Nore in May. On departing, he innocently says 'And goodbye to you too, old Rights-of-Man', which raises concern because of the potentially mutinous idea it contains. He is happy to be taken aboard, though Captain Graveling is grieved to lose him. The English are at war with Napoleonic France. Billy Budd is a young 21 y/o former foundling serving on a merchant ship Rights-of-Man returning to England, when he is impressed to serve on the H.M.S. Overall Impression: This is a bleak but moving work, the inspiration Quotations are for the most part taken from that work, as Summary by Michael McGoodwin, prepared 2001Īcknowledgement: This work has been summarized using the Penguin 1986 edition.

Billy budd foretopman