The Shipping News: Chapter 25: Oil  Summary & Analysis

One late fall day, when the bay is full of choppy waves, Quoyle drives into work by way of the Bawk’s Nest diner. There, he finds Billy and Tert arguing about Newfoundland’s future. Tert is counting on the oil industry and the massive influx of money he thinks Newfoundland will enjoy when Canada starts to exploit recently discovered oil reserves off the Grand Banks. Tert bought Mobil stock and can’t wait until to get rich enough to retire to Florida.

Billy thinks Tert’s vision is a lot of nonsense. He thinks oil companies will enrich themselves and leave everyone else to clean up their inevitable messes—like a recent spill off Cape Despond. Modernity, he says, has brought only suffering and crime to Newfoundland. It was better in the old days, when the fish were plentiful, and people looked out for each other. Tert retorts that the old days were terrible: people died of diseases that can now be treated with antibiotics, and they only helped each other because there wasn’t another option. He shouts that oil is strong and fishing is weak, and he refuses to back down even as other diner patrons begin to take offense and warn him that his ideas might endanger the Gammy Bird’s circulation.

Tert’s anger reignites at the Gammy Bird office, when he reads Quoyle’s most recent boat feature, titled “Nobody Hangs a Picture of an Oil Tanker.” In it, Quoyle, who witnessed the destruction of the Cape Despond oil spill firsthand, notes that the biggest ships on the sea are oil tankers. He contrasts them unfavorably with older sailing ships and highlights the dangers they pose to people and marine life. That evening, Tert rewrites Quoyle’s story. A few days later, he hangs a picture of the Quiet Eye, the world’s largest oil tanker, behind his desk.

Quoyle thinks the picture is funny until he sees the story, which Tert rewrote in fawning praise of the oil industry. Enraged to have his words so twisted, Quoyle confronts Tert. Tert retorts that he can do what he wants as managing editor, but he nevertheless flees the building like a coward. Incensed, Quoyle wants to go straight to Jack, but Billy warns him not to interrupt Jack’s fishing time. And a few days later, Jack calls into the office to tell Quoyle that he should write his column his own way. He’s forbidden Tert from rewriting it ever again.