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Captain
The oiler (that is, someone who oils machinery in a ship’s engine room) is a quiet, tired man named Billie who rides on the lifeboat with his fellow survivors: the captain, the correspondent, and the cook. Throughout the story, the oiler takes turns rowing with the correspondent and speaks very little, save for echoing the captain’s instructions or making the occasional short comment. He is the most exhausted of the four men, having worked a double shift of challenging physical labor in the ship’s engine room just before the Commodore sank. Despite his fatigue, he is strong, empathetic, and always willing to relieve the correspondent from his rowing shift. In the end, the oiler is the only one who drowns. He is found face-down in shallow waters by the life-saving man. The oiler is also the only character with a name, further differentiating him from the others.
Oiler Quotes in The Open Boat
The The Open Boat quotes below are all either spoken by Oiler or refer to Oiler. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Part III
Quotes
It would be difficult to describe the subtle brotherhood of men that was here established on the seas. No one said that it was so. No one mentioned it. But it dwelt in the boat, and each man felt it warm him. They were a captain, an oiler, a cook, and a correspondent, and they were friends, friends in a more curiously iron-bound degree than may be common.
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Explanation and Analysis:
Part IV
Quotes
If I am going to be drowned—if I am going to be drowned—if I am going to be drowned, why, in the name of the seven mad gods who rule the sea, was I allowed to come thus far and contemplate sand and trees? Was I brought here merely to have my nose dragged away as I way about to nibble the sacred cheese of life?
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Explanation and Analysis:
If this old ninny-woman, Fate, cannot do better than this, she should be deprived of the management of men’s fortunes. She is an old hen who knows not her intention. If she has decided to drown me, why did she not do it at the beginning and save me all this trouble? The whole affair is absurd… But no, she cannot mean to drown me. She dare not drown me. She cannot drown me. Not after all this work.
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Explanation and Analysis:
Part VI
Quotes
For it was certainly an abominable injustice to drown a man who had worked so hard, so hard. The man felt it would be a crime most unnatural. Other people had drowned at sea since galleys swarmed with painted sails, but still—
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Explanation and Analysis:
When it occurs to a man that nature does not regard him as important…he at first wishes to throw bricks at the temple, and he hates deeply the fact that there are no bricks and no temples. Any visible expression of nature would surely be pelleted with his jeers.
Part VII
Quotes
Afterward he saw his companions in the sea. The oiler was ahead in the race. He was swimming strongly and rapidly.
Get the entire The Open Boat LitChart as a printable PDF.
Oiler Quotes in The Open Boat
The The Open Boat quotes below are all either spoken by Oiler or refer to Oiler. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Part III
Quotes
It would be difficult to describe the subtle brotherhood of men that was here established on the seas. No one said that it was so. No one mentioned it. But it dwelt in the boat, and each man felt it warm him. They were a captain, an oiler, a cook, and a correspondent, and they were friends, friends in a more curiously iron-bound degree than may be common.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis:
Part IV
Quotes
If I am going to be drowned—if I am going to be drowned—if I am going to be drowned, why, in the name of the seven mad gods who rule the sea, was I allowed to come thus far and contemplate sand and trees? Was I brought here merely to have my nose dragged away as I way about to nibble the sacred cheese of life?
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Related Literary Devices:
Explanation and Analysis:
If this old ninny-woman, Fate, cannot do better than this, she should be deprived of the management of men’s fortunes. She is an old hen who knows not her intention. If she has decided to drown me, why did she not do it at the beginning and save me all this trouble? The whole affair is absurd… But no, she cannot mean to drown me. She dare not drown me. She cannot drown me. Not after all this work.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Related Literary Devices:
Explanation and Analysis:
Part VI
Quotes
For it was certainly an abominable injustice to drown a man who had worked so hard, so hard. The man felt it would be a crime most unnatural. Other people had drowned at sea since galleys swarmed with painted sails, but still—
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Related Literary Devices:
Explanation and Analysis:
When it occurs to a man that nature does not regard him as important…he at first wishes to throw bricks at the temple, and he hates deeply the fact that there are no bricks and no temples. Any visible expression of nature would surely be pelleted with his jeers.
Part VII
Quotes
Afterward he saw his companions in the sea. The oiler was ahead in the race. He was swimming strongly and rapidly.
