Chapters 1, and 2, pp. 1-20 Summary

In chapter one, the narrator, later known as Tommo, is on a whaling ship for about six months without seeing land. There's nothing green on the ship except for some of the rotten wood. As the last pig and chicken are killed and fed to the captain, the narrator hopes that Captain Vangs will finally steer for land. The narrator becomes happy as he hears the ship is steering for the Marquesas Islands. When the narrator arrives as a seaman in a whaling ship, the French are in the process of taking over the islands. The King Mowanna and Queen of Nukuheva Bay at the harbor of Nukuheva are brought from a French warship to the American warship that the narrator is on and cause a bad scene.

In chapter two, the ship Dolly has been sailing...