.was never recovered after his Navy destroyer, Turner, sank from an accidental explosion in New York harbor during World War II."
Section I describes the discovery, by a fleet of warships, of a sailor's corpse at sea on the North Atlantic "off Madaket" (which is a harbor on Nantucket Island) and its reburial with military honours, ending with the gun salute.
It also makes the first reference to Herman Melville's Moby-Dick, specifically to the fictional character Captain Ahab.
Section III muses on the death of his cousin and on the dying thoughts and beliefs of the Quaker sailors buried there.
Lowell also cryptically references Moby-Dick as "IS, the whited monster" which the critic Hugh Staples interprets as a comparison of the whale with God.