- The old blacksmith, Perth, has plenty of other work to do after he finishes his portion of Ahab’s new leg: he’s working constantly on new harpoons and lances and other weapons for the men.
- Perth limps slightly, and the men pester him until he tells them his story: one winter night he was traveling on the road and had to take refuge in a barn, and the tips of both his feet were lost to frostbite.
- For most of his life, Perth was a well-to-do artisan with a nice family, but he was robbed—by his own alcoholism.
- His drinking weakened him until he could manage less and less blacksmithing.
- Eventually, he had to sell his house, his wife and two of his three children died, and Perth began to wander the streets.
- Perth escapes all this by joining a whaling ship.