A Dead Whale or a Stove Boat

Why?
"DEAD WHALE or a STOVE BOAT"?

Something peculiar to the ARMY OF THE PACIFIC is it's yell, "A dead whale or a stove boat!" It has been heard from California to Maryland. How this came about may be of some interest to the reader, especially those who find themselves serving with the AoP for the first time. The word "stove" means "busted."

I first encountered The Whale, by Herman Melville, on the first 25-mile stretch of the "Tidball Trek" (tracing the path of Capt. T.T. Tidball and Co. K, 5th Calif. Inf'y, and Co. A, 1st New Mex. Inf'y in their 1864 scout into the Chiricahua Mountains searching for Apaches). Jay Cooper of the 23d N.Y. read from The Whale (Moby Dick) on at various halts along the march and on Sunday morning. The cry, "A dead whale, or a stove boat!" became that of the 23d, and when assembled, the infectious cry of the ARMY OF THE PACIFIC.

Moby Dick

Herman Melville

From The Whale:

When the entire ship's company were assembled, and with curious and not wholly unapprehensive faces, were eyeing him, for he looked not unlike the weather horizon when a storm is coming up, Ahab, after rapidly glancing over the bulwarks, and then darting his eyes among the crew, started from his standpoint; and as though not a soul were nigh him resumed his heavy turns upon the deck. With bent head and half-slouched hat he continued to pace, unmindful of the wondering whispering among the men; till Stubb cautiously whispered to Flask, that Ahab must have summoned them there for the purpose of witnessing a pedestrian feat. But this did not last long.

Vehemently pausing, he cried:- "What do ye do when ye see a whale, men?"
"Sing out for him!" was the impulsive rejoinder from a score of clubbed voices.

"Good!" cried Ahab, with a wild approval in his tones; observing the hearty animation into which his unexpected question had so magnetically thrown them. "And what do ye next, men?"
"Lower away, and after him!"

"And what tune is it ye pull to, men?"
"A dead whale or a stove boat!"

So there you have it. Albeit, there is no "historical documentation" for using it as a "battle cry," but the historical sentiment effect is there. We will either come home victorious, or on our shields.