Moby Dick

Chapter 15

"Chowder"

The packet pulled into the dock at Nantucket too late to do anything but sup and go to bed. The keeper of the Spouter-Inn had reccommended them to his cousin's inn, the Try-Pots, which was famous for it's chowders. The directions weren't completely clear, however (to keep "a yellow warehouse on our starboard hand till we opened a white church on the larboard, and then" keep "that on the larboard hand till we made a corner three points to the starboard, and that done, then ask the first man we met where the place was"), but after much confusion and directon-asking, they made it to the inn.

There were two pots hanging in front of the inn, in such a manner as to remind Ishmael of gallows. That image was soon dispelled by the arrival of Mrs. Hosea Hussy, the wife of the innkeeper, who was busy berating someone. She took a break to show the pair inside, where she asked, about the chowder, "Clam or Cod?" Ishmael practiced his wit a little, and the innkeeper soon left, sending them out clam chowder. After finishing that fine dish, Ishmael requested 'cod' in the kitchen, and they finished that too. When they went up to bed, Mrs. Hussy stopped Queequeg from carrying up his harpoon, since another fellow had commitied suicide with his.

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References:
chowder:a thick soup or stew of seafood
"by asses-ears"
"What's that stultifying saying about chowderheaded people?":a chowderhead is a dolt or blockhead.
"very slipshod":shabby, perhaps, or maybe 'shod in loose slippers'