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Silver Melville
Diddy Shovel is the Killick-Claw harbormaster. A large, powerful man even in his older years, Diddy started a club in his 20s for men who were strong enough to hang from a beam by one pinky finger. He went to sea when he was still a teenager—on family members’ fishing boats—and later served in the Merchant Navy during World War II.
Diddy Shovel Quotes in The Shipping News
The The Shipping News quotes below are all either spoken by Diddy Shovel or refer to Diddy Shovel. 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:
).
Chapter 9: The Mooring Hitch
Quotes
“The way Jack carried on. Shocking. Thought if Dennis was a carpenter he’d be safe ashore. He was afraid, you see, afraid for him. And what we fear we often rage against. And Jack was right. See, he knows the sea has its mark on all Buggits.
“In due course, we had one of our winter storms. As the bad luck would have it the Polar Grinder as caught out. About two hundred miles east of St. John’s. February storm, savage as they come. Cold, forty-foot seas, hurricane-force wind roaring at fifty knots. Have you been at sea in a storm, Mr. Quoyle?”
“No,” said Quoyle. “And don’t want to be.”
“It never leaves you. You never hear the wind after that without you remember that banshee moa, remember the watery mountains, crests torn into foam, the poor ship groaning.”
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Diddy Shovel Quotes in The Shipping News
The The Shipping News quotes below are all either spoken by Diddy Shovel or refer to Diddy Shovel. 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:
).
Chapter 9: The Mooring Hitch
Quotes
“The way Jack carried on. Shocking. Thought if Dennis was a carpenter he’d be safe ashore. He was afraid, you see, afraid for him. And what we fear we often rage against. And Jack was right. See, he knows the sea has its mark on all Buggits.
“In due course, we had one of our winter storms. As the bad luck would have it the Polar Grinder as caught out. About two hundred miles east of St. John’s. February storm, savage as they come. Cold, forty-foot seas, hurricane-force wind roaring at fifty knots. Have you been at sea in a storm, Mr. Quoyle?”
“No,” said Quoyle. “And don’t want to be.”
“It never leaves you. You never hear the wind after that without you remember that banshee moa, remember the watery mountains, crests torn into foam, the poor ship groaning.”
Related Characters:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
