u/matze_on_reddit

In chapter 8, Ishmael describes a painting hanging in the chapel, depicting a ship in a storm with an angel in the sky. Ishmael wonders what the angel might think, and lets him say: 'beat on, beat on, thou noble ship, and bear a hardy helm; for Io! the sun is breaking through; the clouds are rolling off - serenest azure is at hand.' So Io was a greek goddess , the one made into a cow by zeus and then relentlessly pursued by a horsefly sent by hera. I don't quite get what she has to do with that ship?