strength has much to do with the magic. Take away the tied tendons that all
over seem bursting from the marble in the carved Hercules, and its charm
would be gone. As devout Eckerman lifted the linen sheet from the naked
corpse of Goethe, he was overwhelmed with the massive chest of the man, that
seemed as a Roman triumphal arch. When Angelo paints even God the Father in
human form, mark what robustness is there. And whatever they may reveal of
the divine love in the Son, the soft, curled, hermaphroditical Italian
pictures, in which his idea has been most successfully embodied; these
pictures, so destitute as they are of all brawniness, hint nothing of any
power, but the mere negative, feminine one of submission and endurance,
which on all hands it is conceded, form the peculiar practical virtues of his
teachings. Such is the subtle elasticity of the organ I treat of, that
..
whether wielded in sport, or in earnest, or in anger, whatever be the mood it
be in, its flexions are invariably marked by exceeding grace. Therein no
fairy's arm can transcend it. Five great motions are peculiar to it. First,
when used as a fin for progression; Second, when used as a mace in battle;
Third, in sweeping; Fourth, in lobtailing; Fifth, in peaking flukes. First:
Being horizontal in its position, the Leviathan's tail acts in a different
manner from the tails of all other sea creatures. It never wriggles. In man
or fish, wriggling is a sign of inferiority. To the whale, his tail is the
sole means of propulsion. Scroll-wise coiled forwards beneath the body, and
then rapidly sprung backwards, it is this which gives that singular darting,
leaping motion to the monster when furiously swimming. His side-fins only
serve to steer by. Second: It is a little significant, that while one sperm
whale only fights another sperm whale with his head and jaw, nevertheless,
in his conflicts with man, he chiefly and contemptuously uses his tail. In
striking at a boat, he swiftly curves away his flukes from it, and the blow
is only inflicted by the recoil. If it be made in the unobstructed air,
especially if it descend to its mark, the stroke is then simply irresistible.
No ribs of man or boat can withstand it. Your only salvation lies in eluding
it; but if it comes sideways through the opposing water, then partly owing
to the light buoyancy of the whaleboat, and the elasticity of its materials,
a cracked rib or a dashed plank or two, a sort of stitch in the side, is
generally the most serious result. These submerged side blows are so often
received in the fishery, that they are accounted mere child's play. Some one
strips off a frock, and the hole is stopped. Third: I cannot demonstrate it,
but it seems to me, that in the whale the sense of touch is concentrated in
the tail; for in this respect there is a delicacy in it only equalled by the
daintiness of the elephant's trunk. This delicacy is chiefly evinced in the
action of sweeping, when in maidenly gentleness the whale with a certain soft
slowness moves his immense flukes from side to side upon the surface of the
sea; and if he feel but a sailor's whisker, woe to that sailor, whiskers and
all.
..
What tenderness there is in that preliminary touch! Had this tail any
prehensile power, I should straightway bethink me of Darmonodes' elephant
that so frequented the flower-market, and with low salutations presented
nosegays to damsels, and then caressed their zones. On more accounts than
one, a pity it is that the whale does not possess this prehensile virtue in
his tail; for I have heard of yet another elephant, that when wounded in
the fight, curved round his trunk and extracted the dart. Fourth: Stealing
unawares upon the whale in the fancied security of the middle of solitary
seas, you find him unbent from the vast corpulence of his dignity, and
kitten-like, he plays on the ocean as if it were a hearth. But still you see
his power in his play. The broad palms of his tail are flirted high into the
air; then smiting the surface, the thunderous concussion resounds for miles.
You would almost think a great gun had been discharged; and if you noticed
the light wreath of vapor from the spiracle at his other extremity, you would
think that that was the smoke from the touch-hole. Fifth: As in the ordinary
floating posture of the leviathan the flukes lie considerably below the level
of his back, they are then completely out of sight beneath the surface; but
when he is about to plunge into the deeps, his entire flukes with at least
thirty feet of his body are tossed erect in the air, and so remain vibrating
a moment, till they downwards shoot out of view. Excepting the sublime
breach —somewhere else to be described —this peaking of the whale's flukes is
perhaps the grandest sight to be seen in all animated nature. Out of the
bottomless profundities the gigantic tail seems spasmodically snatching at the
highest heaven. So in dreams, have I seen majestic Satan thrusting forth his
tormented colossal claw from the flame Baltic of Hell. But in gazing at such
scenes, it is all in all what mood you are in; if in the Dantean, the devils
will occur to you; if in that of Isaiah, the archangels. Standing at the
mast-head of my ship during a sunrise that crimsoned sky and sea, I once saw
a large herd of whales in the east, all heading towards the sun, and for a
moment vibrating in concert with peaked flukes. As it seemed to me at the
time, such a grand
..
embodiment of adoration of the gods was never beheld, even in Persia, the
home of the fire worshippers. As Ptolemy Philopater testified of the African
elephant, I then testified of the whale, pronouncing him the most devout of
all beings. For according to King Juba, the military elephants of antiquity
often hailed the morning with their trunks uplifted in the profoundest
silence. The chance comparison in this chapter, between the whale and the
elephant, so far as some aspects of the tail of the one and the trunk of the
other are concerned, should not tend to place those two opposite organs on an
equality, much less the creatures to which they respectively belong. For as
the mightiest elephant is but a terrier to Leviathan, so, compared with
Leviathan's tail, his trunk is but the stalk of a lily. The most direful
blow from the elephant's trunk were as the playful tap of a fan, compared with
the measureless crush and crash of the sperm whale's ponderous flukes, which
in repeated instances have one after the other hurled entire boats with all
their oars and crews into the air, very much as an Indian juggler tosses his
balls. The more I consider this mighty tail, the more do I deplore my
inability to express it. At times there are gestures in it, which, though
they would well grace the hand of man, remain wholly inexplicable. In an
extensive herd, so remarkable, occasionally, are these mystic gestures,
that I have heard hunters who have declared them akin to Free-Mason signs and
symbols; that the whale, indeed, by these methods intelligently conversed
with the world. Nor are there wanting other motions of the whale in his
general body, full of strangeness, and unaccountable to his most experienced
assailant. Dissect him how I may, then, I but go skin deep; I know him not,
and never will. But if I know not even the tail of this whale, how
understand his head? much more, how comprehend his face, when face he has
none?
..
Thou shalt see my back parts, my tail, he seems to say, but my face shall not
be seen. But I cannot completely make out his back parts; and hint what he
will about his face, I say again he has no face.
..
Though all comparison in the way of general bulk between the whale and the
elephant is preposterous, inasmuch as in that particular the elephant
stands in much the same respect to the whale that a dog does to the elephant;
nevertheless, there are not wanting some points of curious similitude; among
these is the spout. It is well known that the elephant will often draw up
water or dust in his trunk, and then elevating it, jet it forth in a
stream.
..






.. < chapter lxxxvii 6 THE GRAND ARMADA >
The long and narrow peninsula of
Malacca, extending south-eastward from the territories of Birmah, forms the
most southerly point of all Asia. In a continuous line from that peninsula
stretch the long islands of Sumatra, Java, Bally, and Timor; which, with many
others, form a vast mole, or rampart, lengthwise connecting Asia with
Australia, and dividing the long unbroken Indian ocean from the thickly
studded oriental archipelagoes. This rampart is pierced by several sally-ports
for the convenience of ships and whales; conspicuous among which are the
straits of Sunda and Malacca. By the straits of Sunda, chiefly, vessels
bound to China from the west, emerge into the China seas. Those narrow straits
of Sunda divide Sumatra from Java; and standing midway in that vast rampart
of islands, buttressed by that bold green promontory, known to seamen as
Java Head; they not a little correspond to the central gateway opening into
some vast walled empire: and considering the inexhaustible wealth of spices,
and silks, and jewels, and gold, and ivory, with which the thousand islands of
that oriental sea are enriched, it seems a significant provision of nature,
that such treasures, by the very formation of the land, should at least bear
the appearance, however ineffectual, of being guarded from the all-grasping
western world. The shores of the Straits of Sunda are unsupplied with those
domineering fortresses which guard the entrances to the Mediterranean, the
Baltic, and the Propontis. Unlike the Danes, these Orientals do not demand the
obsequious homage of lowered top-sails from the endless procession of ships
..
before the wind, which for centuries past, by night and by day, have passed
between the islands of Sumatra and Java, freighted with the costliest cargoes
of the east. But while they freely waive a ceremonial like this, they do by
no means renounce their claim to more solid tribute. Time out of mind the
piratical proas of the Malays, lurking among the low shaded coves and islets
of Sumatra, have sallied out upon the vessels sailing through the straits,
fiercely demanding tribute at the point of their spears. Though by the
repeated bloody chastisements they have received at the hands of European
cruisers, the audacity of these corsairs has of late been somewhat repressed;
yet, even at the present day, we occasionally hear of English and American
vessels, which, in those waters, have been remorselessly boarded and pillaged.
With a fair, fresh wind, the Pequod was now drawing nigh to these straits;
Ahab purposing to pass through them into the Javan sea, and thence, cruising
northwards, over waters known to be frequented here and there by the Sperm
whale, sweep inshore by the Philippine Islands, and gain the far coast of
Japan, in time for the great whaling season there. By these means, the
circumnavigating Pequod would sweep almost all the known Sperm Whale cruising
grounds of the world, previous to descending upon the Line in the Pacific;
where Ahab, though everywhere else foiled in his pursuit, firmly counted upon
giving battle to Moby Dick, in the sea he was most known to frequent; and at
a season when he might most reasonably be presumed to be haunting it. But how
now? in this zoned quest, does Ahab touch no land? does his crew drink air?
Surely, he will stop for water. Nay. For a long time, now, the circus-running
sun has raced within his fiery ring, and needs no sustenance but what's in
himself. So Ahab. Mark this, too, in the whaler. While other hulls are
loaded down with alien stuff, to be transferred to foreign wharves; the
world-wandering whale-ship carries no cargo but herself and crew, their
weapons and their wants. She has a whole lake's contents bottled in her ample
hold. She is ballasted with utilities; not altogether with unusable pig-lead
and kentledge. She carries years' water in her. Clear old prime Nantucket
water; which, when three years afloat, the Nantucketer,
..
in the Pacific, prefers to drink before the brackish fluid, but yesterday
rafted off in casks, from the Peruvian or Indian streams. Hence it is, that,
while other ships may have gone to China from New York, and back again,
touching at a score of ports, the whale-ship, in all that interval, may not
have sighted one grain of soil; her crew having seen no man but floating
seamen like themselves. So that did you carry them the news that another
flood had come; they would only answer — Well, boys, here's the ark! Now,
as many Sperm Whales had been captured off the western coast of Java, in the
near vicinity of the straits of Sunda; indeed, as most of the ground,
roundabout, was generally recognised by the fishermen as an excellent spot for
cruising; therefore, as the Pequod gained more and more upon Java Head, the
look-outs were repeatedly hailed, and admonished to keep wide awake. But
though the green palmy cliffs of the land soon loomed on the starboard bow,
and with delighted nostrils the fresh cinnamon was snuffed in the air, yet
not a single jet was descried. Almost renouncing all thought of falling in
with any game hereabouts, the ship had well nigh entered the straits, when
the customary cheering cry was heard from aloft, and ere long a spectacle of
singular magnificence saluted us. But here be it premised, that owing to the
unwearied activity with which of late they have been hunted over all four
oceans, the Sperm Whales, instead of almost invariably sailing in small
detached companies, as in former times, are now frequently met with in
extensive herds, sometimes embracing so great a multitude, that it would
almost seem as if numerous nations of them had sworn solemn league and
covenant for mutual assistance and protection. To this aggregation of the
Sperm Whale into such immense caravans, may be imputed the circumstance that
even in the best cruising grounds, you may now sometimes sail for weeks and
months together, without being greeted by a single spout; and then be
suddenly saluted by what sometimes seems thousands on thousands. Broad on
both bows, at the distance of some two or three miles, and forming a great
semicircle, embracing one half of the level horizon, a continuous chain of
whale-jets were up-playing and sparkling in the noon-day air. Unlike the
straight perpendicular
..
twin-jets of the Right Whale, which, dividing at top, falls over in two
branches, like the cleft drooping boughs of a willow, the single
forward-slanting spout of the Sperm Whale presents a thick curled bush of
white mist, continually rising and falling away to leeward. Seen from the
Pequod's deck, then, as she would rise on a high hill of the sea, this host
of vapory spouts, individually curling up into the air, and beheld through a
blending atmosphere of bluish haze, showed like the thousand cheerful chimneys
of some dense metropolis, descried of a balmy autumnal morning, by some
horseman on a height. As marching armies approaching an unfriendly defile in
the mountains, accelerate their march, all eagerness to place that perilous
passage in their rear, and once more expand in comparative security upon the
plain; even so did this vast fleet of whales now seem hurrying forward
through the straits; gradually contracting the wings of their semicircle,
and swimming on, in one solid, but still crescentic centre. Crowding all sail
the Pequod pressed after them; the harpooneers handling their weapons, and
loudly cheering from the heads of their yet suspended boats. If the wind only
held, little doubt had they, that chased through these Straits of Sunda,
the vast host would only deploy into the Oriental seas to witness the capture
of not a few of their number. And who could tell whether, in that congregated
caravan, Moby Dick himself might not temporarily be swimming, like the
worshipped white-elephant in the coronation procession of the Siamese! So
with stun-sail piled on stun-sail, we sailed along, driving these
leviathans before us; when, of a sudden, the voice of Tashtego was heard,
loudly directing attention to something in our wake. Corresponding to the
crescent in our van, we beheld another in our rear. It seemed formed of
detached white vapors, rising and falling something like the spouts of the
whales; only they did not so completely come and go; for they constantly
hovered, without finally disappearing. Levelling his glass at this sight,
ahab quickly revolved in his pivot-hole, crying, aloft there, and rig whips
and buckets to wet the sails; —Malays, sir, and after us!
..
As if too long lurking behind the headlands, till the Pequod should fairly
have entered the straits, these rascally Asiatics were now in hot pursuit, to
make up for their over-cautious delay. But when the swift Pequod, with a fresh
leading wind, was herself in hot chase; how very kind of these tawny
philanthropists to assist in speeding her on to her own chosen pursuit, —
mere riding-whips and rowels to her, that they were. As with glass under arm,
Ahab to-and-fro paced the deck; in his forward turn beholding the monsters he
chased, and in the after one the bloodthirsty pirates chasing him; some
such fancy as the above seemed his. And when he glanced upon the green walls
of the watery defile in which the ship was then sailing, and bethought him
that through that gate lay the route to his vengeance, and beheld, how that
through that same gate he was now both chasing and being chased to his deadly
end; and not only that, but a herd of remorseless wild pirates and inhuman
atheistical devils were infernally cheering him on with their curses; —when
all these conceits had passed through his brain, Ahab's brow was left gaunt
and ribbed, like the black sand beach after some stormy tide has been gnawing
it, without being able to drag the firm thing from its place. But thoughts
like these troubled very few of the reckless crew; and when, after steadily
dropping and dropping the pirates astern, the Pequod at last shot by the
vivid green Cockatoo Point on the Sumatra side, emerging at last upon the
broad waters beyond; then, the harpooneers seemed more to grieve that the
swift whales had been gaining upon the ship, than to rejoice that the ship
had so victoriously gained upon the Malays. But still driving on in the wake
of the whales, at length they seemed abating their speed; gradually the ship
neared them; and the wind now dying away, word was passed to spring to the
boats. But no sooner did the herd, by some presumed wonderful instinct of
the Sperm Whale, become notified of the three keels that were after them,
—though as yet a mile in their rear, —than they rallied again, and forming in
close ranks and battalions, so that their spouts all looked like flashing
lines of stacked bayonets, moved on with redoubled velocity. Stripped to our
shirts and drawers, we sprang to the white-ash,
..
and after several hours' pulling were almost disposed to renounce the chase,
when a general pausing commotion among the whales gave animating token that
they were now at last under the influence of that strange perplexity of inert
irresolution, which, when the fishermen perceive it in the whale, they say he
is gallied. The compact martial columns in which they had been hitherto
rapidly and steadily swimming, were now broken up in one measureless rout;
and like King Porus' elephants in the Indian battle with Alexander, they
seemed going mad with consternation. In all directions expanding in vast
irregular circles, and aimlessly swimming hither and thither, by their short
thick spoutings, they plainly betrayed their distraction of panic. This
was still more strangely evinced by those of their number, who, completely
paralysed as it were, helplessly floated like water-logged dismantled ships on
the sea. Had these leviathans been but a flock of simple sheep, pursued over
the pasture by three fierce wolves, they could not possibly have evinced such
excessive dismay. But this occasional timidity is characteristic of almost
all herding creatures. Though banding together in tens of thousands, the
lion-maned buffaloes of the West have fled before a solitary horseman.
Witness, too, all human beings, how when herded together in the sheepfold of
a theatre's pit, they will, at the slightest alarm of fire, rush
helter-skelter for the outlets, crowding, trampling, jamming, and
remorselessly dashing each other to death. Best, therefore, withhold
..
any amazement at the strangely gallied whales before us, for there is no folly
of the beasts of the earth which is not infinitely outdone by the madness of
men. Though many of the whales, as has been said, were in violent motion,
yet it is to be observed that as a whole the herd neither advanced nor
retreated, but collectively remained in one place. As is customary in those
cases, the boats at once separated, each making for some one lone whale on
the outskirts of the shoal. In about three minutes' time, Queequeg's harpoon
was flung; the stricken fish darted blinding spray in our faces, and then
running away with us like light, steered straight for the heart of the herd.
Though such a movement on the part of the whale struck under such
circumstances, is in no wise unprecedented; and indeed is almost always more
or less anticipated; yet does it present one of the more perilous vicissitudes
of the fishery. For as the swift monster drags you deeper and deeper into
the frantic shoal, you bid adieu to circumspect life and only exist in a
delirious throb. As, blind and deaf, the whale plunged forward, as if by sheer
power of speed to rid himself of the iron leech that had fastened to him; as
we thus tore a white gash in the sea, on all sides menaced as we flew, by
the crazed creatures to and fro rushing about us; our beset boat was like a
ship mobbed by ice-isles in a tempest, and striving to steer through their
complicated channels and straits, knowing not at what moment it may be
locked in and crushed. But not a bit daunted, Queequeg steered us manfully;
now sheering off from this monster directly across our route in advance; now
edging away from that, whose colossal flukes were suspended overhead, while
all the time, Starbuck stood up in the bows, lance in hand, pricking out of
our way whatever whales he could reach by short darts, for there was no time
to make long ones. Nor were the oarsmen quite idle, though their wonted
duty was now altogether dispensed with. They chiefly attended to the shouting
part of the business. Out of the way, Commodore! cried one, to a great
dromedary that of a sudden rose bodily to the surface, and for an instant
threatened to swamp us. Hard down with your tail, there! cried a second
..
to another, which, close to our gunwale, seemed calmly cooling himself with
his own fan-like extremity. All whaleboats carry certain curious contrivances,
originally invented by the Nantucket Indians, called druggs. Two thick
squares of wood of equal size are stoutly clenched together, so that they
cross each other's grain at right angles; a line of considerable length is
then attached to the middle of this block, and the other end of the line
being looped, it can in a moment be fastened to a harpoon. It is chiefly
among gallied whales that this drugg is used. For then, more whales are close
round you than you can possibly chase at one time. But sperm whales are not
every day encountered; while you may, then, you must kill all you can. And
if you cannot kill them all at once, you must wing them, so that they can be
afterwards killed at your leisure. Hence it is, that at times like these the
drugg comes into requisition. Our boat was furnished with three of them.
The first and second were successfully darted, and we saw the whales
staggeringly running off, fettered by the enormous sidelong resistance of the
towing drugg. They were cramped like malefactors with the chain and ball.
But upon flinging the third, in the act of tossing overboard the clumsy
wooden block, it caught under one of the seats of the boat, and in an
instant tore it out and carried it away, dropping the oarsman in the boat's
bottom as the seat slid from under him. On both sides the sea came in at the
wounded planks, but we stuffed two or three drawers and shirts in, and so
stopped the leaks for the time. It had been next to impossible to dart these
drugged-harpoons, were it not that as we advanced into the herd, our whale's
way greatly diminished; moreover, that as we went still further and further
from the circumference of commotion, the direful disorders seemed waning. So
that when at last the jerking harpoon drew out, and the towing whale sideways
vanished; then, with the tapering force of his parting momentum, we glided
between two whales into the innermost heart of the shoal, as if from some
mountain torrent we had slid into a serene valley lake. Here the storms in the
roaring glens between the outermost whales, were heard but not felt. In this
central expanse the sea presented that smooth satin-like surface, called a
sleek, produced
..
by the subtle moisture thrown off by the whale in his more quiet moods. Yes,
we were now in that enchanted calm which they say lurks at the heart of every
commotion. And still in the distracted distance we beheld the tumults of the
outer concentric circles, and saw successive pods of whales, eight or ten in
each, swiftly going round and round, like multiplied spans of horses in a
ring; and so closely shoulder to shoulder, that a Titanic circus-rider might
easily have over-arched the middle ones, and so have gone round on their
backs. Owing to the density of the crowd of reposing whales, more
immediately surrounding the embayed axis of the herd, no possible chance of
escape was at present afforded us. We must watch for a breach in the living
wall that hemmed us in; the wall that had only admitted us in order to shut
us up. Keeping at the centre of the lake, we were occasionally visited by
small tame cows and calves; the women and children of this routed host. Now,
inclusive of the occasional wide intervals between the revolving outer
circles, and inclusive of the spaces between the various pods in any one of
those circles, the entire area at this juncture, embraced by the whole
multitude, must have contained at least two or three square miles. At any
rate —though indeed such a test at such a time might be deceptive —spoutings
might be discovered from our low boat that seemed playing up almost from the
rim of the horizon. I mention this circumstance, because, as if the cows and
calves had been purposely locked up in this innermost fold; and as if the
wide extent of the herd had hitherto prevented them from learning the precise
cause of its stopping; or, possibly, being so young, unsophisticated, and
every way innocent and inexperienced; however it may have been, these
smaller whales —now and then visiting our becalmed boat from the margin of the
lake —evinced a wondrous fearlessness and confidence, or else a still
becharmed panic which it was impossible not to marvel at. Like household dogs
they came snuffling round us, right up to our gunwales, and touching them;
till it almost seemed that some spell had suddenly domesticated them.
Queequeg patted their foreheads; Starbuck scratched their backs with his
lance; but fearful of the consequences, for the time refrained from darting
it.
..
But far beneath this wondrous world upon the surface, another and still
stranger world met our eyes as we gazed over the side. For, suspended in
those watery vaults, floated the forms of the nursing mothers of the whales,
and those that by their enormous girth seemed shortly to become mothers. The
lake, as I have hinted, was to a considerable depth exceedingly transparent;
and as human infants while suckling will calmly and fixedly gaze away from the
breast, as if leading two different lives at the time; and while yet drawing
mortal nourishment, be still spiritually feasting upon some unearthly
reminiscence; —even so did the young of these whales seem looking up towards
us, but not at us, as if we were but a bit of Gulf-weed in their new-born
sight. floating on their sides, the mothers also seemed quietly eyeing us.
One of these little infants, that from certain queer tokens seemed hardly a
day old, might have measured some fourteen feet in length, and some six feet
in girth. He was a little frisky; though as yet his body seemed scarce yet
recovered from that irksome position it had so lately occupied in the
maternal reticule; where, tail to head, and all ready for the final spring,
the unborn whale lies bent like a Tartar's bow. The delicate side-fins, and
the palms of his flukes, still freshly retained the plaited crumpled
appearance of a baby's ears newly arrived from foreign parts. Line! line!
cried Queequeg, looking over the gunwale; him fast! him fast! —Who line
him! Who struck? Two whale; one big, one little! What ails ye, man?
cried Starbuck. Look-e here, said Queequeg pointing down. As when the
stricken whale, that from the tub has reeled out hundreds of fathoms of rope;
as, after deep sounding, he floats up again, and shows the slackened curling
line buoyantly rising and spiralling towards the air; so now, Starbuck saw
long coils of the umbilical cord of Madame Leviathan, by which the young cub
seemed still tethered to its dam. Not seldom in the rapid vicissitudes of the
chase, this natural line, with the maternal end loose, becomes entangled
with the hempen one, so that the cub is thereby trapped. Some of the
subtlest secrets of the seas
..
seemed divulged to us in this enchanted pond. We saw young Leviathan amours
in the deep. And thus, though surrounded by circle upon circle of
consternations and affrights, did these inscrutable creatures at the centre
freely and fearlessly indulge in all peaceful concernments; yea, serenely
revelled in dalliance and delight. But even so, amid the tornadoed Atlantic
of my being, do I myself still for ever centrally disport in mute calm; and
while ponderous planets of unwaning woe revolve round me, deep down and deep
inland there i still bathe me in eternal mildness of joy. Meanwhile, as we
thus lay entranced, the occasional sudden frantic spectacles in the distance
evinced the activity of the other boats, still engaged in drugging the whales
on the frontier of the host; or possibly carrying on the war within the first
circle, where abundance of room and some convenient retreats were afforded
them. But the sight of the enraged drugged whales now and then blindly
darting to and fro across the circles, was nothing to what at last met our
eyes. It is sometimes the custom when fast to a whale more than commonly
powerful and alert, to seek to hamstring him, as it were, by sundering or
maiming his gigantic tail-tendon. It is done by darting a short-handled
cutting-spade, to which is attached a rope for hauling it back again. A
whale wounded (as we afterwards learned) in this part, but not effectually,
as it seemed, had broken away from the boat, carrying along with him half of
the harpoon line; and in the extraordinary agony of the wound, he was now
dashing among the revolving circles like the lone mounted desperado
..
Arnold, at the battle of Saratoga, carrying dismay wherever he went. But
agonizing as was the wound of this whale, and an appalling spectacle enough,
any way; yet the peculiar horror with which he seemed to inspire the rest of
the herd, was owing to a cause which at first the intervening distance
obscured from us. But at length we perceived that by one of the unimaginable
accidents of the fishery, this whale had become entangled in the harpoon-line
that he towed; he had also run away with the cutting-spade in him; and while
the free end of the rope attached to that weapon, had permanently caught in
the coils of the harpoon-line round his tail, the cutting-spade itself had
worked loose from his flesh. So that tormented to madness, he was now
churning through the water, violently flailing with his flexible tail, and
tossing the keen spade about him, wounding and murdering his own comrades.
this terrific object seemed to recall the whole herd from their stationary
fright. First, the whales forming the margin of our lake began to crowd a
little, and tumble against each other, as if lifted by half spent billows
from afar; then the lake itself began faintly to heave and swell; the
submarine bridal-chambers and nurseries vanished; in more and more
contracting orbits the whales in the more central circles began to swim in
thickening clusters. Yes, the long calm was departing. A low advancing hum
was soon heard; and then like to the tumultuous masses of block-ice when the
great river Hudson breaks up in Spring, the entire host of whales came
tumbling upon their inner centre, as if to pile themselves up in one common
mountain. Instantly Starbuck and Queequeg changed places; Starbuck taking
the stern. Oars! Oars! he intensely whispered, seizing the helm — gripe
your oars, and clutch your souls, now! My God, men, stand by! Shove him off,
you Queequeg —the whale there! —prick him! —hit him! Stand up —stand up, and
stay so! Spring, men — pull, men; never mind their backs —scrape them!
—scrape away! The boat was now all but jammed between two vast black bulks,
leaving a narrow Dardanelles between their long lengths. But by desperate
endeavor we at last shot into a temporary
..
opening; then giving way rapidly, and at the same time earnestly watching
for another outlet. After many similar hair-breadth escapes, we at last
swiftly glided into what had just been one of the outer circles, but now
crossed by random whales, all violently making for one centre. This lucky
salvation was cheaply purchased by the loss of Queequeg's hat, who, while
standing in the bows to prick the fugitive whales, had his hat taken clean
from his head by the air-eddy made by the sudden tossing of a pair of broad
flukes close by. Riotous and disordered as the universal commotion now was,
it soon resolved itself into what seemed a systematic movement; for having
clumped together at last in one dense body, they then renewed their onward
flight with augmented fleetness. Further pursuit was useless; but the boats
still lingered in their wake to pick up what drugged whales might be dropped
astern, and likewise to secure one which Flask had killed and waifed. The
waif is a pennoned pole, two or three of which are carried by every boat;
and which, when additional game is at hand, are inserted upright into the
floating body of a dead whale, both to mark its place on the sea, and also
as token of prior possession, should the boats of any other ship draw near.
The result of this lowering was somewhat illustrative of that sagacious saying
in the Fishery, —the more whales the less fish. Of all the drugged whales
only one was captured. The rest contrived to escape for the time, but only
to be taken, as will hereafter be seen, by some other craft than the Pequod.
..
To gally, or gallow, is to frighten excessively —to confound with fright.
It is an old Saxon word. It occurs once in Shakespeare: — The wrathful skies
Gallow the very wanderers of the dark And make them keep their caves. To
common language, the word is now completely obsolete. When the polite
landsman first hears it from the gaunt Nantucketer, he is apt to set it
down as one of the whaleman's self-derived savageries. Much the same is it
with many other sinewy Saxonisms of this sort, which emigrated to
New-England rocks with the noble brawn of the old English emigrants in the
time of the Commonwealth. Thus, some of the best and furthest-descended
English words —the etymological Howards and Percys —are now democratised, nay,
plebeianised —so to speak —in the New World.
..
The sperm whale, as with all other species of the Leviathan, but unlike
most other fish, breeds indifferently at all seasons; after a gestation
which may probably be set down at nine months, producing but one at a time;
though in some few known instances giving birth to an Esau and Jacob: — a
contingency provided for in suckling by two teats, curiously situated, one
on each side of the anus; but the breasts themselves extend upwards from
that. When by chance these precious parts in a nursing whale are cut by the
hunter's lance, the mother's pouring milk and blood rivallingly discolor
the sea for rods. The milk is very sweet and rich; it has been tasted by
man; it might do well with strawberries. When overflowing with mutual
esteem, the whales salute more hominum.
..






.. < chapter lxxxviii 28 SCHOOLS AND SCHOOLMASTERS >
The previous chapter
gave account of an immense body or herd of Sperm Whales, and there was also
then given the probable cause inducing those vast aggregations. Now, though
such great bodies are at times encountered, yet,
..
as must have been seen, even at the present day, small detached bands are
occasionally observed, embracing from twenty to fifty individuals each. Such
bands are known as schools. They generally are of two sorts; those composed
almost entirely of females, and those mustering none but young vigorous
males, or bulls, as they are familiarly designated. In cavalier attendance
upon the school of females, you invariably see a male of full grown magnitude,
but not old; who, upon any alarm, evinces his gallantry by falling in the
rear and covering the flight of his ladies. In truth, this gentleman is a
luxurious Ottoman, swimming about over the watery world, surroundingly
accompanied by all the solaces and endearments of the harem. The contrast
between this Ottoman and his concubines is striking; because, while he is
always of the largest leviathanic proportions, the ladies, even at full
growth, are not more than one third of the bulk of an average-sized male.
They are comparatively delicate, indeed; I dare say, not to exceed half a
dozen yards round the waist. Nevertheless, it cannot be denied, that upon the
whole they are hereditarily entitled to en bon point. It is very curious
to watch this harem and its lord in their indolent ramblings. Like
fashionables, they are for ever on the move in leisurely search of variety.
You meet them on the Line in time for the full flower of the Equatorial
feeding season, having just returned, perhaps, from spending the summer in
the Northern seas, and so cheating summer of all unpleasant weariness and
warmth. By the time they have lounged up and down the promenade of the
Equator awhile, they start for the Oriental waters in anticipation of the
cool season there, and so evade the other excessive temperature of the year.
When serenely advancing on one of these journeys, if any strange suspicious
sights are seen, my lord whale keeps a wary eye on his interesting family.
Should any unwarrantably pert young Leviathan coming that way, presume to
draw confidentially close to one of the ladies, with what prodigious fury the
Bashaw assails him, and chases him away! High times, indeed, if
unprincipled young rakes like him are to be permitted to invade the sanctity
of domestic bliss; though do what the Bashaw will, he cannot keep the most
notorious Lothario out
..
of his bed; for, alas! all fish bed in common. As ashore, the ladies often
cause the most terrible duels among their rival admirers; just so with the
whales, who sometimes come to deadly battle, and all for love. They fence
with their long lower jaws, sometimes locking them together, and so striving
for the supremacy like elks that warringly interweave their antlers. Not a
few are captured having the deep scars of these encounters, —furrowed heads,
broken teeth, scolloped fins; and in some instances, wrenched and dislocated
mouths. but supposing the invader of domestic bliss to betake himself away at
the first rush of the harem's lord, then is it very diverting to watch that
lord. Gently he insinuates his vast bulk among them again and revels there
awhile, still in tantalizing vicinity to young Lothario, like pious Solomon
devoutly worshipping among his thousand concubines. Granting other whales to
be in sight, the fishermen will seldom give chase to one of these Grand
Turks; for these Grand Turks are too lavish of their strength, and hence
their unctuousness is small. As for the sons and the daughters they beget,
why, those sons and daughters must take care of themselves; at least, with
only the maternal help. For like certain other omnivorous roving lovers that
might be named, my Lord Whale has no taste for the nursery, however much for
the bower; and so, being a great traveller, he leaves his anonymous babies
all over the world; every baby an exotic. In good time, nevertheless, as the
ardor of youth declines; as years and dumps increase; as reflection lends
her solemn pauses; in short, as a general lassitude overtakes the sated Turk;
then a love of ease and virtue supplants the love for maidens; our Ottoman
enters upon the impotent, repentant, admonitory stage of life, forswears,
disbands the harem, and grown to an exemplary, sulky old soul, goes about
all alone among the meridians and parallels saying his prayers, and warning
each young Leviathan from his amorous errors. Now, as the harem of whales is
called by the fishermen a school, so is the lord and master of that school
technically known as the schoolmaster. It is therefore not in strict
character, however admirably satirical, that after going to school himself,
he should then go abroad inculcating not what he learned there, but the folly
of it. His title, schoolmaster, would very naturally
..
seem derived from the name bestowed upon the harem itself, but some have
surmised that the man who first thus entitled this sort of Ottoman whale,
must have read the memoirs of Vidocq, and informed himself what sort of a
country-schoolmaster that famous Frenchman was in his younger days, and what
was the nature of those occult lessons he inculcated into some of his pupils.
The same secludedness and isolation to which the schoolmaster whale betakes
himself in his advancing years, is true of all aged Sperm Whales. Almost
universally, a lone whale —as a solitary Leviathan is called —proves an
ancient one. Like venerable moss-bearded Daniel Boone, he will have no one
near him but Nature herself; and her he takes to wife in the wilderness of
waters, and the best of wives she is, though she keeps so many moody
secrets. The schools composing none but young and vigorous males, previously
mentioned, offer a strong contrast to the harem schools. For while those
female whales are characteristically timid, the young males, or
forty-barrel-bulls, as they call them, are by far the most pugnacious of all
Leviathans, and proverbially the most dangerous to encounter; excepting
those wondrous grey-headed, grizzled whales, sometimes met, and these will
fight you like grim fiends exasperated by a penal gout. The Forty-barrel-bull
schools are larger than the harem schools. Like a mob of young collegians,
they are full of fight, fun, and wickedness, tumbling round the world at such
a reckless, rollicking rate, that no prudent underwriter would insure them
any more than he would a riotous lad at Yale or Harvard. They soon relinquish
this turbulence though, and when about three fourths grown, break up, and
separately go about in quest of settlements, that is, harems. Another point
of difference between the male and female schools is still more characteristic
of the sexes. Say you strike a Forty-barrel-bull —poor devil! all his
comrades quit him. But strike a member of the harem school, and her
companions swim around her with every token of concern, sometimes lingering
so near her and so long, as themselves to fall a prey.
..






.. < chapter lxxxix 2 FAST-FISH AND LOOSE-FISH >
The allusion to the waifs
and waif-poles in the last chapter but one, necessitates some account of the
laws and regulations of the whale fishery, of which the waif may be deemed
the grand symbol and badge. It frequently happens that when several ships are
cruising in company, a whale may be struck by one vessel, then escape, and
be finally killed and captured by another vessel; and herein are indirectly
comprised many minor contingencies, all partaking of this one grand feature.
For example, —after a weary and perilous chase and capture of a whale, the
body may get loose from the ship by reason of a violent storm; and drifting
far away to leeward, be retaken by a second whaler, who, in a calm, snugly
tows it alongside, without risk of life or line. Thus the most vexatious and
violent disputes would often arise between the fishermen, were there not some
written or unwritten, universal, undisputed law applicable to all cases.
Perhaps the only formal whaling code authorized by legislative enactment, was
that of Holland. It was decreed by the States-General in A. D.
. But
though no other nation has ever had any written whaling law, yet the American
fishermen have been their own legislators and lawyers in this matter. They
have provided a system which for terse comprehensiveness surpasses Justinian's
Pandects and the By-laws of the Chinese Society for the Suppression of
Meddling with other People's Business. Yes; these laws might be engraven on a
Queen Anne's farthing, or the barb of a harpoon, and worn round the neck, so
small are they. I. A Fast-Fish belongs to the party fast to it. II. A
Loose-Fish is fair game for anybody who can soonest catch it. But what plays
the mischief with this masterly code is the
..
admirable brevity of it, which necessitates a vast volume of commentaries to
expound it. First: What is a Fast-Fish? Alive or dead a fish is technically
fast, when it is connected with an occupied ship or boat, by any medium at
all controllable by the occupant or occupants, — a mast, an oar, a nine-inch
cable, a telegraph wire, or a strand of cobweb, it is all the same. Likewise
a fish is technically fast when it bears a waif, or any other recognised
symbol of possession; so long as the party waifing it plainly evince their
ability at any time to take it alongside, as well as their intention so to
do. These are scientific commentaries; but the commentaries of the whalemen
themselves sometimes consist in hard words and harder knocks —the
Coke-upon-Littleton of the fist. True, among the more upright and honorable
whalemen allowances are always made for peculiar cases, where it would be an
outrageous moral injustice for one party to claim possession of a whale
previously chased or killed by another party. But others are by no means so
scrupulous. Some fifty years ago there was a curious case of whale-trover
litigated in England, wherein the plaintiffs set forth that after a hard
chase of a whale in the Northern seas; and when indeed they (the plaintiffs)
had succeeded in harpooning the fish; they were at last, through peril of
their lives, obliged to forsake not only their lines, but their boat itself.
Ultimately the defendants (the crew of another ship) came up with the whale,
struck, killed, seized, and finally appropriated it before the very eyes of
the plaintiffs. And when those defendants were remonstrated with, their
captain snapped his fingers in the plaintiffs' teeth, and assured them that by
way of doxology to the deed he had done, he would now retain their line,
harpoons, and boat, which had remained attached to the whale at the time of
the seizure. Wherefore the plaintiffs now sued for the recovery of the value
of their whale, line, harpoons, and boat. Mr. Erskine was counsel for the
defendants; Lord Ellenborough was the judge. In the course of the defence,
the witty Erskine went on to illustrate his position, by alluding to a recent
crim. con. case, wherein a gentleman, after in vain trying to bridle his
wife's viciousness, had at last abandoned her upon
..
the seas of life; but in the course of years, repenting of that step, he
instituted an action to recover possession of her. Erskine was on the other
side; and he then supported it by saying, that though the gentleman had
originally harpooned the lady, and had once had her fast, and only by reason
of the great stress of her plunging viciousness, had as last abandoned her;
yet abandon her he did, so that she became a loose-fish; and therefore when
a subsequent gentleman re-harpooned her, the lady then became that subsequent
gentleman's property, along with whatever harpoon might have been found
sticking in her. Now in the present case Erskine contended that the examples
of the whale and the lady were reciprocally illustrative of each other. These
pleadings, and the counter pleadings, being duly heard, the very learned judge
in set terms decided, to wit, —That as for the boat, he awarded it to the
plaintiffs, because they had merely abandoned it to save their lives; but
that with regard to the controverted whale, harpoons, and line, they belonged
to the defendants; the whale, because it was a Loose-Fish at the time of the
final capture; and the harpoons and line because when the fish made off with
them, it (the fish) acquired a property in those articles; and hence anybody
who afterwards took the fish had a right to them. Now the defendants
afterwards took the fish; ergo, the aforesaid articles were theirs. A common
man looking at this decision of the very learned Judge, might possibly object
to it. But ploughed up to the primary rock of the matter, the two great
principles laid down in the twin whaling laws previously quoted, and applied
and elucidated by Lord Ellenborough in the above cited case; these two laws
touching Fast-Fish and Loose-Fish, I say, will, on reflection, be found the
fundamentals of all human jurisprudence; For notwithstanding its complicated
tracery of sculpture, the Temple of the Law, like the Temple of the
Philistines, has but two props to stand on. Is it not a saying in every one's
mouth, Possession is half of the law: that is, regardless of how the thing
came into possession? But often possession is the whole of the law. What are
the sinews and souls of Russian serfs and Republican slaves
..
but Fast-Fish, whereof possession is the whole of the law? What to the
rapacious landlord is the widow's last mite but a Fast-Fish? What is yonder
undetected villain's marble mansion with a door-plate for a waif; what is
that but a Fast-Fish? What is the ruinous discount which Mordecai, the broker,
gets from poor Woebegone, the bankrupt, on a loan to keep Woebegone's family
from starvation; what is that ruinous discount but a Fast-Fish? What is the
archbishop of Savesoul's income of 100,000 pounds seized from the scant bread
and cheese of hundreds of thousands of broken-backed laborers (all sure of
heaven without any of Savesoul's help) what is that globular 100,000 but a
Fast-Fish? What are the Duke of Dunder's hereditary towns and hamlets but
Fast-Fish? What to that redoubted harpooneer, John Bull, is poor Ireland,
but a Fast-Fish? What to that apostolic lancer, Brother Jonathan, is Texas
but a Fast-Fish? And concerning all these, is not Possession the whole of
the law? But if the doctrine of Fast-Fish be pretty generally applicable, the
kindred doctrine of Loose-Fish is still more widely so. That is
internationally and universally applicable. What was America in
but a
loose-fish, in which Columbus struck the Spanish standard by way of waifing
it for his royal master and mistress? What was Poland to the Czar? What
Greece to the Turk? What India to England? What at last will Mexico be to
the United States? All Loose-Fish. What are the Rights of Man and the
Liberties of the World but Loose-Fish? What all men's minds and opinions but
Loose-Fish? What is the principle of religious belief in them but a
Loose-Fish? What to the ostentatious smuggling verbalists are the thoughts of
thinkers but Loose-Fish? What is the great globe itself but a Loose-Fish?
And what are you, reader, but a Loose-Fish and a Fast-Fish, too?
..






.. < chapter xc 2 HEADS OR TAILS >
De balena vero sufficit, si rex habeat
caput, et regina caudam. Bracton, l 3. c. 3. Latin from the books of the
Laws of England, which taken along with the context, means, that of all whales
captured by anybody on the coast of that land, the King, as Honorary Grand
Harpooneer, must have the head, and the Queen be respectfully presented with
the tail. A division which, in the whale, is much like halving an apple;
there is no intermediate remainder. Now as this law, under a modified form,
is to this day in force in England; and as it offers in various respects a
strange anomaly touching the general law of Fast and Loose-Fish, it is here
treated of in a separate chapter, on the same courteous principle that
prompts the English railways to be at the expense of a separate car, specially
reserved for the accommodation of royalty. In the first place, in curious
proof of the fact that the above-mentioned law is still in force, I proceed to
lay before you a circumstance that happened within the last two years. It
seems that some honest mariners of Dover, or Sandwich, or some one of the
Cinque Ports, had after a hard chase succeeded in killing and beaching a fine
whale which they had originally descried afar off from the shore. Now the
Cinque Ports are partially or somehow under the jurisdiction of a sort of
policeman or beadle, called a Lord Warden. Holding the office directly from
the crown, I believe, all the royal emoluments incident to the Cinque Port
territories become by assignment his. By some writers this office is called a
sinecure. But not so. Because the Lord Warden is busily employed at times
in fobbing his perquisites; which are his chiefly by virtue of that same
fobbing of them. Now when these poor sun-burnt mariners, bare-footed, and
..
with their trowsers rolled high up on their eely legs, had wearily hauled
their fat fish high and dry, promising themselves a good 150 pounds from the
precious oil and bone; and in fantasy sipping rare tea with their wives, and
good ale with their cronies, upon the strength of their respective shares;
up steps a very learned and most Christian and charitable gentleman, with a
copy of Blackstone under his arm; and laying it upon the whale's head, he
says — Hands off! this fish, my masters, is a Fast-Fish. I seize it as the
Lord Warden's. Upon this the poor mariners in their respectful consternation
—so truly English —knowing not what to say, fall to vigorously scratching
their heads all round; meanwhile ruefully glancing from the whale to the
stranger. But that did in nowise mend the matter, or at all soften the hard
heart of the learned gentleman with the copy of Blackstone. At length one of
them, after long scratching about for his ideas, made bold to speak. Please,
sir, who is the Lord Warden? The Duke. But the duke had nothing to do
with taking this fish? It is his. We have been at great trouble, and
peril, and some expense, and is all that to go to the Duke's benefit; we
getting nothing at all for our pains but our blisters? It is his. Is the
duke so very poor as to be forced to this desperate mode of getting a
livelihood? It is his. I thought to relieve my old bed-ridden mother by
part of my share of this whale. It is his. Won't the Duke be content
with a quarter or a half? It is his. In a word, the whale was seized and
sold, and his Grace the Duke of Wellington received the money. Thinking that
viewed in some particular lights, the case might by a bare possibility in
some small degree be deemed, under the circumstances, a rather hard one, an
honest clergyman of the town respectfully addressed a note to his Grace,
begging him to take the case of those unfortunate
..
mariners into full consideration. To which my Lord Duke in substance replied
(both letters were published) that he had already done so, and received the
money, and would be obliged to the reverend gentleman if for the future he
(the reverend gentleman) would decline meddling with other people's business.
Is this the still militant old man, standing at the corners of the three
kingdoms, on all hands coercing alms of beggars? It will readily be seen that
in this case the alleged right of the Duke to the whale was a delegated one
from the Sovereign. We must needs inquire then on what principle the Sovereign
is originally invested with that right. The law itself has already been set
forth. But Plowdon gives us the reason for it. Says Plowdon, the whale so
caught belongs to the King and Queen, because of its superior excellence.
And by the soundest commentators this has ever been held a cogent argument
in such matters. But why should the King have the head, and the Queen the
tail? A reason for that, ye lawyers! In his treatise on Queen-Gold, or
Queen-pinmoney, an old King's Bench author, one William Prynne, thus
discourseth: Ye tail is ye Queen's, that ye Queen's wardrobe may be supplied
with ye whalebone. Now this was written at a time when the black limber bone
of the Greenland or Right whale was largely used in ladies' bodices. But this
same bone is not in the tail; it is in the head, which is a sad mistake for
a sagacious lawyer like Prynne. But is the Queen a mermaid, to be presented
with a tail? An allegorical meaning may lurk here. There are two royal fish
so styled by the English law writers — the whale and the sturgeon; both royal
property under certain limitations, and nominally supplying the tenth branch
of the crown's ordinary revenue. I know not that any other author has hinted
of the matter; but by inference it seems to me that the sturgeon must be
divided in the same way as the whale, the King receiving the highly dense and
elastic head peculiar to that fish, which, symbolically regarded, may
possibly be humorously grounded upon some presumed congeniality. And thus
there seems a reason in all things, even in law.
..






.. < chapter xci 2 THE PEQUOD MEETS THE ROSE-BUD >
In vain it was to rake
for Ambergriese in the paunch of this Leviathan, insufferable fetor denying
not inquiry. Sir T. Browne, V. E. It was a week or two after the last
whaling scene recounted, and when we were slowly sailing over a sleepy,
vapory, mid-day sea, that the many noses on the Pequod's deck proved more
vigilant discoverers than the three pairs of eyes aloft. A peculiar and not
very pleasant smell was smelt in the sea. I will bet something now, said
Stubb, that somewhere hereabouts are some of those drugged whales we tickled
the other day. I thought they would keel up before long. Presently, the
vapors in advance slid aside; and there in the distance lay a ship, whose
furled sails betokened that some sort of whale must be alongside. As we
glided nearer, the stranger showed French colors from his peak; and by the
eddying cloud of vulture sea-fowl that circled, and hovered, and swooped
around him, it was plain that the whale alongside must be what the fishermen
call a blasted whale, that is, a whale that has died unmolested on the sea,
and so floated an unappropriated corpse. It may well be conceived, what an
unsavory odor such a mass must exhale; worse than an Assyrian city in the
plague, when the living are incompetent to bury the departed. So intolerable
indeed is it regarded by some, that no cupidity could persuade them to moor
alongside of it. Yet are there those who will still do it; notwithstanding
the fact that the oil obtained from such subjects is of a very inferior
quality, and by no means of the nature of attar-of-rose. Coming still nearer
with the expiring breeze, we saw that the Frenchman had a second whale
alongside; and this second whale seemed even more of a nosegay than the
first. In truth, it turned out to be one of those problematical whales that
seem
..
to dry up and die with a sort of prodigious dyspepsia, or indigestion;
leaving their defunct bodies almost entirely bankrupt of anything like oil.
Nevertheless, in the proper place we shall see that no knowing fisherman will
ever turn up his nose at such a whale as this, however much he may shun
blasted whales in general. The Pequod had now swept so nigh to the stranger,
that Stubb vowed he recognized his cutting spade-pole entangled in the lines
that were knotted round the tail of one of these whales. There's a pretty
fellow, now, he banteringly laughed, standing in the ship's bows, there's
a jackal for ye! I well know that these Crappoes of Frenchmen are but poor
devils in the fishery; sometimes lowering their boats for breakers, mistaking
them for Sperm Whale spouts; yes, and sometimes sailing from their port with
their hold full of boxes of tallow candles, and cases of snuffers,
foreseeing that all the oil they will get won't be enough to dip the Captain's
wick into; aye, we all know these things; but look ye, here's a Crappo
that is content with our leavings, the drugged whale there, I mean; aye, and
is content too with scraping the dry bones of that other precious fish he has
there. Poor devil! I say, pass round a hat, some one, and let's make him a
present of a little oil for dear charity's sake. For what oil he'll get from
that drugged whale there, wouldn't be fit to burn in a jail; no, not in a
condemned cell. And as for the other whale, why, I'll agree to get more oil
by chopping up and trying out these three masts of ours, than he'll get from
that bundle of bones; though, now that I think of it, it may contain
something worth a good deal more than oil; yes, ambergris. I wonder now if
our old man has thought of that. It's worth trying. Yes, I'm for it; and
so saying he started for the quarter-deck. By this time the faint air had
become a complete calm; so that whether or no, the Pequod was now fairly
entrapped in the smell, with no hope of escaping except by its breezing up
again. Issuing from the cabin, Stubb now called his boat's crew, and pulled
off for the stranger. Drawing across her bow, he perceived that in accordance
with the fanciful French taste, the upper part of her stem-piece was carved in
the likeness of a
..
huge drooping stalk, was painted green, and for thorns had copper spikes
projecting from it here and there; the whole terminating in a symmetrical
folded bulb of a bright red color. Upon her head boards, in large gilt
letters, he read Bouton de Rose, —Rose-button, or Rose-bud; and this was
the romantic name of this aromatic ship. Though Stubb did not understand the
Bouton part of the inscription, yet the word rose, and the bulbous
figure-head put together, sufficiently explained the whole to him. A wooden
rose-bud, eh? he cried with his hand to his nose, that will do very well;
but how like all creation it smells! Now in order to hold direct
communication with the people on deck, he had to pull round the bows to the
starboard side, and thus come close to the blasted whale; and so talk over
it. Arrived then at this spot, with one hand still to his nose, he bawled
— Bouton-de-Rose, ahoy! are there any of you Bouton-de-Roses that speak
English? Yes, rejoined a Guernsey-man from the bulwarks, who turned out
to be the chief-mate. Well, then, my Bouton-de-Rose-bud, have you seen the
White Whale? What whale? The White Whale —a Sperm Whale —Moby Dick,
have ye seen him? Never heard of such a whale. Cachalot Blanche! White
Whale —no. Very good, then; good bye now, and I'll call again in a
minute. Then rapidly pulling back towards the Pequod, and seeing Ahab
leaning over the quarter-deck rail awaiting his report, he moulded his two
hands into a trumpet and shouted — No, Sir! No! Upon which Ahab retired,
and Stubb returned to the Frenchman. He now perceived that the Guernsey-man,
who had just got into the chains, and was using a cutting-spade, had slung his
nose in a sort of bag. What's the matter with your nose, there? said Stubb.
Broke it?
..
I wish it was broken, or that I didn't have any nose at all! answered the
Guernsey-man, who did not seem to relish the job he was at very much. But
what are you holding yours for? Oh, nothing! It's a wax nose; I have to
hold it on. Fine day, aint it? Air rather gardenny, I should say; throw us
a bunch of posies, will ye, Bouton-de-Rose? What in the devil's name do you
want here? roared the Guernsey-man, flying into a sudden passion. Oh!
keep cool—cool? yes, that's the word; why don't you pack those whales in ice
while you're working at 'em? But joking aside, though; do you know,
Rose-bud, that it's all nonsense trying to get any oil out of such whales? As
for that dried up one, there, he hasn't a gill in his whole carcase. I
know that well enough; but, d'ye see, the Captain here won't believe it;
this is his first voyage; he was a Cologne manufacturer before. But come
aboard, and mayhap he'll believe you, if he won't me; and so I'll get out of
this dirty scrape. Anything to oblige ye, my sweet and pleasant fellow,
rejoined Stubb, and with that he soon mounted to the deck. There a queer
scene presented itself. The sailors, in tasselled caps of red worsted, were
getting the heavy tackles in readiness for the whales. But they worked rather
slow and talked very fast, and seemed in anything but a good humor. All
their noses upwardly projected from their faces like so many jib-booms. Now
and then pairs of them would drop their work, and run up to the mast-head to
get some fresh air. Some thinking they would catch the plague, dipped oakum
in coal-tar, and at intervals held it to their nostrils. Others having
broken the stems of their pipes almost short off at the bowl, were vigorously
puffing tobacco-smoke, so that it constantly filled their olfactories.
Stubb was struck by a shower of outcries and anathemas proceeding from the
Captain's round-house abaft; and looking in that direction saw a fiery face
thrust from behind the door, which was held ajar from within. This was the
tormented surgeon, who, after in vain remonstrating against the proceedings of
the day, had betaken himself to the Captain's round-house ( cabinet he
called it) to avoid the pest; but still, could not help yelling out his
entreaties and indignations at times.
..
Marking all this, Stubb argued well for his scheme, and turning to the
Guernsey-man had a little chat with him, during which the stranger mate
expressed his detestation of his Captain as a conceited ignoramus, who had
brought them all into so unsavory and unprofitable a pickle. Sounding him
carefully, Stubb further perceived that the Guernsey-man had not the
slightest suspicion concerning the ambergris. He therefore held his peace on
that head, but otherwise was quite frank and confidential with him, so that
the two quickly concocted a little plan for both circumventing and satirizing
the Captain, without his at all dreaming of distrusting their sincerity.
According to this little plan of theirs, the Guernsey-man, under cover of an
interpreter's office, was to tell the Captain what he pleased, but as coming
from Stubb; and as for Stubb, he was to utter any nonsense that should come
uppermost in him during the interview. By this time their destined victim
appeared from his cabin. He was a small and dark, but rather delicate looking
man for a sea-captain, with large whiskers and moustache, however; and wore
a red cotton velvet vest with watch-seals at his side. To this gentleman,
Stubb was now politely introduced by the Guernsey-man, who at once
ostentatiously put on the aspect of interpreting between them. What shall I
say to him first? said he. Why, said Stubb, eyeing the velvet vest and the
watch and seals, you may as well begin by telling him that he looks a sort
of babyish to me, though I don't pretend to be a judge. He says, Monsieur,
said the Guernsey-man, in French, turning to his captain, that only
yesterday his ship spoke a vessel, whose captain and chief-mate, with six
sailors, had all died of a fever caught from a blasted whale they had brought
alongside. Upon this the captain started, and eagerly desired to know more.
What now? said the Guernsey-man to Stubb. Why, since he takes it so easy,
tell him that now I have eyed him carefully, I'm quite certain that he's no
more fit to command a whale-ship than a St. Jago monkey. In fact, tell him
from me he's a baboon.
..
He vows and declares, Monsieur, that the other whale, the dried one, is far
more deadly than the blasted one; in fine, Monsieur, he conjures us, as we
value our lives, to cut loose from these fish. Instantly the captain ran
forward, and in a loud voice commanded his crew to desist from hoisting the
cutting-tackles, and at once cast loose the cables and chains confining the
whales to the ship. What now? said the Guernsey-man, when the captain had
returned to them. Why, let me see; yes, you may as well tell him now that —
that —in fact, tell him I've diddled him, and (aside to himself) perhaps
somebody else. He says, Monsieur, that he's very happy to have been of any
service to us. Hearing this, the captain vowed that they were the grateful
parties (meaning himself and mate) and concluded by inviting Stubb down into
his cabin to drink a bottle of Bordeaux. He wants you to take a glass of wine
with him, said the interpreter. Thank him heartily; but tell him it's
against my principles to drink with the man I've diddled. In fact, tell him
I must go. He says, Monsieur, that his principles won't admit of his
drinking; but that if Monsieur wants to live another day to drink, then
Monsieur had best drop all four boats, and pull the ship away from these
whales, for it's so calm they won't drift. By this time Stubb was over the
side, and getting into his boat, hailed the Guernsey-man to this effect,
—that having a long tow-line in his boat, he would do what he could to help
them, by pulling out the lighter whale of the two from the ship's side. While
the Frenchman's boats, then, were engaged in towing the ship one way, Stubb
benevolently towed away at his whale the other way, ostentatiously slacking
out a most unusually long tow-line. Presently a breeze sprang up; Stubb
feigned to cast off from the whale; hoisting his boats, the Frenchman soon
increased his distance, while the Pequod slid in between him and Stubb's
whale. Whereupon Stubb quickly pulled to the floating body,
..
and hailing the pequod to give notice of his intentions, at once proceeded to
reap the fruit of his unrighteous cunning. Seizing his sharp boat-spade, he
commenced an excavation in the body, a little behind the side fin. You would
almost have thought he was digging a cellar there in the sea; and when at
length his spade struck against the gaunt ribs, it was like turning up old
Roman tiles and pottery buried in fat English loam. His boat's crew were all
in high excitement, eagerly helping their chief, and looking as anxious as
gold-hunters. And all the time numberless fowls were diving, and ducking, and
screaming, and yelling, and fighting around them. Stubb was beginning to look
disappointed, especially as the horrible nosegay increased, when suddenly
from out the very heart of this plague, there stole a faint stream of
perfume, which flowed through the tide of bad smells without being absorbed
by it, as one river will flow into and then along with another, without at
all blending with it for a time. I have it, I have it, cried Stubb, with
delight, striking something in the subterranean regions, a purse! a
purse! Dropping his spade, he thrust both hands in, and drew out handfuls
of something that looked like ripe Windsor soap, or rich mottled old cheese;
very unctuous and savory withal. You might easily dent it with your thumb;
it is of a hue between yellow and ash color. And this, good friends, is
ambergris, worth a gold guinea an ounce to any druggist. Some six handfuls
were obtained; but more was unavoidably lost in the sea, and still more,
perhaps, might have been secured were it not for impatient Ahab's loud command
to Stubb to desist, and come on board, else the ship would bid them good
bye.
..






.. < chapter xcii 31 AMBERGRIS >
Now this ambergris is a very curious
substance, and so important as an article of commerce, that in
a
certain Nantucket-born
..
Captain Coffin was examined at the bar of the English House of Commons on that
subject. for at that time, and indeed until a comparatively late day, the
precise origin of ambergris remained, like amber itself, a problem to the
learned. Though the word ambergris is but the French compound for grey amber,
yet the two substances are quite distinct. For amber, though at times found
on the sea-coast, is also dug up in some far inland soils, whereas ambergris
is never found except upon the sea. Besides, amber is a hard, transparent,
brittle, odorless substance, used for mouth-pieces to pipes, for beads and
ornaments; but ambergris is soft, waxy, and so highly fragrant and spicy,
that it is largely used in perfumery, in pastiles, precious candles,
hair-powders, and pomatum. The Turks use it in cooking, and also carry it to
Mecca, for the same purpose that frankincense is carried to St. Peter's in
Rome. Some wine merchants drop a few grains into claret, to flavor it. Who
would think, then, that such fine ladies and gentlemen should regale
themselves with an essence found in the inglorious bowels of a sick whale!
Yet so it is. By some, ambergris is supposed to be the cause, and by others
the effect, of the dyspepsia in the whale. How to cure such a dyspepsia it
were hard to say, unless by administering three or four boat loads of
Brandreth's pills, and then running out of harm's way, as laborers do in
blasting rocks. I have forgotten to say that there were found in this
ambergris, certain hard, round, bony plates, which at first Stubb thought
might be sailors' trousers buttons; but it afterwards turned out that they
were nothing more than pieces of small squid bones embalmed in that manner.
Now that the incorruption of this most fragrant ambergris should be found in
the heart of such decay; is this nothing? Bethink thee of that saying of St.
Paul in Corinthians, about corruption and incorruption; how that we are sown
in dishonor, but raised in glory. And likewise call to mind that saying of
paracelsus about what it is that maketh the best musk. Also forget not the
strange fact that of all things of ill-savor, Cologne-water, in its
rudimental manufacturing stages, is the worst. I should like to conclude the
chapter with the above appeal, but cannot, owing to my anxiety to repel a
charge often made
..
against whalemen, and which, in the estimation of some already biased minds,
might be considered as indirectly substantiated by what has been said of the
Frenchman's two whales. Elsewhere in this volume the slanderous aspersion has
been disproved, that the vocation of whaling is throughout a slatternly,
untidy business. But there is another thing to rebut. They hint that all
whales always smell bad. Now how did this odious stigma originate? I opine,
that it is plainly traceable to the first arrival of the Greenland whaling
ships in London, more than two centuries ago. Because those whalemen did not
then, and do not now, try out their oil at sea as the Southern ships have
always done; but cutting up the fresh blubber in small bits, thrust it
through the bung holes of large casks, and carry it home in that manner; the
shortness of the season in those Icy Seas, and the sudden and violent storms
to which they are exposed, forbidding any other course. The consequence is,
that upon breaking into the hold, and unloading one of these whale
cemeteries, in the Greenland dock, a savor is given forth somewhat similar to
that arising from excavating an old city grave-yard, for the foundations of
a Lying-in Hospital. I partly surmise also, that this wicked charge against
whalers may be likewise imputed to the existence on the coast of Greenland,
in former times, of a Dutch village called Schmerenburgh or Smeerenberg,
which latter name is the one used by the learned Fogo Von Slack, in his great
work on Smells, a textbook on that subject. As its name imports (smeer, fat;
berg, to put up), this village was founded in order to afford a place for
the blubber of the dutch whale fleet to be tried out, without being taken
home to Holland for that purpose. It was a collection of furnaces,
fat-kettles, and oil sheds; and when the works were in full operation
certainly gave forth no very pleasant savor. But all this is quite different
from a South Sea Sperm Whaler; which in a voyage of four years perhaps,
after completely filling her hold with oil, does not, perhaps, consume fifty
days in the business of boiling out; and in the state that it is casked, the
oil is nearly scentless. The truth is, that living or dead, if but decently
treated, whales as a species are by no
..
means creatures of ill odor; nor can whalemen be recognised, as the people of
the middle ages affected to detect a Jew in the company, by the nose. Nor
indeed can the whale possibly be otherwise than fragrant, when, as a general
thing, he enjoys such high health; taking abundance of exercise; always out
of doors; though, it is true, seldom in the open air. I say, that the
motion of a Sperm Whale's flukes above water dispenses a perfume, as when a
musk-scented lady rustles her dress in a warm parlor. What then shall I liken
the Sperm Whale to for fragrance, considering his magnitude? Must it not be
to that famous elephant, with jewelled tusks, and redolent with myrrh, which
was led out of an Indian town to do honor to Alexander the Great?
..






.. < chapter xciii 15 THE CASTAWAY >
It was but some few days after
encountering the Frenchman, that a most significant event befell the most
insignificant of the Pequod's crew; an event most lamentable; and which
ended in providing the sometimes madly merry and predestinated craft with a
living and ever accompanying prophecy of whatever shattered sequel might prove
her own. Now, in the whale ship, it is not every one that goes in the boats.
Some few hands are reserved called ship-keepers, whose province it is to work
the vessel while the boats are pursuing the whale. As a general thing, these
ship-keepers are as hardy fellows as the men comprising the boats' crews. But
if there happen to be an unduly slender, clumsy, or timorous wight in the
ship, that wight is certain to be made a ship-keeper. It was so in the
Pequod with the little negro Pippin by nick-name, Pip by abbreviation. Poor
Pip! ye have heard of him before; ye must remember his tambourine on that
dramatic midnight, so gloomy-jolly.
..
In outer aspect, Pip and Dough-Boy made a match, like a black pony and a
white one, of equal developments, though of dissimilar color, driven in one
eccentric span. But while hapless Dough-Boy was by nature dull and torpid in
his intellects, Pip, though over tender-hearted, was at bottom very bright,
with that pleasant, genial, jolly brightness peculiar to his tribe; a tribe,
which ever enjoy all holidays and festivities with finer, freer relish than
any other race. For blacks, the year's calendar should show naught but three
hundred and sixty-five Fourth of Julys and New Year's Days. Nor smile so,
while I write that this little black was brilliant, for even blackness has
its brilliancy; behold yon lustrous ebony, panelled in king's cabinets. But
Pip loved life, and all life's peaceable securities; so that the
panic-striking business in which he had somehow unaccountably become
entrapped, had most sadly blurred his brightness; though, as ere long will be
seen, what was thus temporarily subdued in him, in the end was destined to
be luridly illumined by strange wild fires, that fictitiously showed him off
to ten times the natural lustre with which in his native Tolland County in
Connecticut, he had once enlivened many a fiddler's frolic on the green; and
at melodious even-tide, with his gay ha-ha! had turned the round horizon into
one star-belled tambourine. So, though in the clear air of day, suspended
against a blue-veined neck, the pure-watered diamond drop will healthful
glow; yet, when the cunning jeweller would show you the diamond in its most
impressive lustre, he lays it against a gloomy ground, and then lights it
up, not by the sun, but by some unnatural gases. Then come out those fiery
effulgences, infernally superb; then the evil-blazing diamond, once the
divinest symbol of the crystal skies, looks like some crown-jewel stolen from
the King of Hell. But let us to the story. It came to pass, that in the
ambergris affair Stubb's after-oarsman chanced so to sprain his hand, as
for a time to become quite maimed; and, temporarily, Pip was put into his
place. The first time Stubb lowered with him, Pip evinced much nervousness;
but happily, for that time, escaped close contact with the whale; and
therefore came off not altogether discreditably; though Stubb observing him,
took care, afterwards,
..
to exhort him to cherish his courageousness to the utmost, for he might often
find it needful. Now upon the second lowering, the boat paddled upon the
whale; and as the fish received the darted iron, it gave its customary rap,
which happened, in this instance, to be right under poor Pip's seat. The
involuntary consternation of the moment caused him to leap, paddle in hand,
out of the boat; and in such a way, that part of the slack whale line coming
against his chest, he breasted it overboard with him, so as to become
entangled in it, when at last plumping into the water. That instant the
stricken whale started on a fierce run, the line swiftly straightened; and
presto! poor Pip came all foaming up to the chocks of the boat,
remorselessly dragged there by the line, which had taken several turns around
his chest and neck. Tashtego stood in the bows. He was full of the fire of
the hunt. He hated Pip for a poltroon. Snatching the boat-knife from its
sheath, he suspended its sharp edge over the line, and turning towards Stubb,
exclaimed interrogatively, cut? meantime pip's blue, choked face plainly
looked, Do, for God's sake! All passed in a flash. In less than half a
minute, this entire thing happened. Damn him, cut! roared Stubb; and so
the whale was lost and Pip was saved. So soon as he recovered himself, the
poor little negro was assailed by yells and execrations from the crew.
Tranquilly permitting these irregular cursings to evaporate, Stubb then in a
plain, business-like, but still half humorous manner, cursed Pip officially;
and that done, unofficially gave him much wholesome advice. The substance
was, Never jump from a boat, Pip, except —but all the rest was indefinite,
as the soundest advice ever is. Now, in general, Stick to the boat, is
your true motto in whaling; but cases will sometimes happen when Leap
from the boat, is still better. Moreover, as if perceiving at last that if
he should give undiluted conscientious advice to Pip, he would be leaving him
too wide a margin to jump in for the future; Stubb suddenly dropped all
advice, and concluded with a peremptory command, Stick to the boat, Pip, or
by the Lord, I wont pick you up if you jump; mind that. We can't afford
..
to lose whales by the likes of you; a whale would sell for thirty times what
you would, Pip, in Alabama. Bear that in mind, and don't jump any more.
Hereby perhaps Stubb indirectly hinted, that though man loved his fellow,
yet man is a money-making animal, which propensity too often interferes with
his benevolence. But we are all in the hands of the Gods; and Pip jumped
again. It was under very similar circumstances to the first performance; but
this time he did not breast out the line; and hence, when the whale started
to run, Pip was left behind on the sea, like a hurried traveller's trunk.
Alas! Stubb was but too true to his word. It was a beautiful, bounteous,
blue day; the spangled sea calm and cool, and flatly stretching away, all
round, to the horizon, like gold-beater's skin hammered out to the extremest.
Bobbing up and down in that sea, Pip's ebon head showed like a head of cloves.
No boat-knife was lifted when he fell so rapidly astern. Stubb's inexorable
back was turned upon him; and the whale was winged. In three minutes, a
whole mile of shoreless ocean was between Pip and Stubb. Out from the centre
of the sea, poor Pip turned his crisp, curling, black head to the sun,
another lonely castaway, though the loftiest and the brightest. Now, in calm
weather, to swim in the open ocean is as easy to the practised swimmer as to
ride in a spring-carriage ashore. But the awful lonesomeness is intolerable.
The intense concentration of self in the middle of such a heartless immensity,
my God! who can tell it? Mark, how when sailors in a dead calm bathe in
the open sea —mark how closely they hug their ship and only coast along her
sides. But had Stubb really abandoned the poor little negro to his fate? No;
he did not mean to, at least. Because there were two boats in his wake, and
he supposed, no doubt, that they would of course come up to Pip very quickly,
and pick him up; though, indeed, such considerations towards oarsmen
jeopardized through their own timidity, is not always manifested by the
hunters in all similar instances; and such instances not unfrequently occur;
almost invariably in the fishery, a coward, so called, is marked with the same
ruthless detestation peculiar to military navies and armies.
..
But it so happened, that those boats, without seeing Pip, suddenly spying
whales close to them on one side, turned, and gave chase; and Stubb's boat
was now so far away, and he and all his crew so intent upon his fish, that
Pip's ringed horizon began to expand around him miserably. By the merest
chance the ship itself at last rescued him; but from that hour the little
negro went about the deck an idiot; such, at least, they said he was. The
sea had jeeringly kept his finite body up, but drowned the infinite of his
soul. Not drowned entirely, though. Rather carried down alive to wondrous
depths, where strange shapes of the unwarped primal world glided to and fro
before his passive eyes; and the miser-merman, Wisdom, revealed his hoarded
heaps; and among the joyous, heartless, ever-juvenile eternities, Pip saw the
multitudinous, God-omnipresent, coral insects, that out of the firmament of
waters heaved the colossal orbs. He saw God's foot upon the treadle of the
loom, and spoke it; and therefore his shipmates called him mad. So man's
insanity is heaven's sense; and wandering from all mortal reason, man comes
at last to that celestial thought, which, to reason, is absurd and frantic;
and weal or woe, feels then uncompromised, indifferent as his God. For the
rest, blame not Stubb too hardly. The thing is common in that fishery; and
in the sequel of the narrative, it will then be seen what like abandonment
befell myself.
..






.. < chapter xciv 26 A SQUEEZE OF THE HAND >
That whale of Stubb's so dearly
purchased, was duly brought to the Pequod's side, where all those cutting and
hoisting operations previously detailed, were regularly gone through, even to
the baling of the Heidelburgh Tun, or Case. While some were occupied with
this latter duty, others were employed in dragging away the larger tubs, so
soon as filled with the sperm; and when the proper time arrived, this same
..
sperm was carefully manipulated ere going to the try-works, of which anon. It
had cooled and crystallized to such a degree, that when, with several others,
I sat down before a large Constantine's bath of it, I found it strangely
concreted into lumps, here and there rolling about in the liquid part. It
was our business to squeeze these lumps back into fluid. A sweet and unctuous
duty! no wonder that in old times this sperm was such a favorite cosmetic.
Such a clearer! such a sweetener! such a softener! such a delicious
mollifier! After having my hands in it for only a few minutes, my fingers
felt like eels, and began, as it were, to serpentine and spiralize. As I sat
there at my ease, cross-legged on the deck; after the bitter exertion at the
windlass; under a blue tranquil sky; the ship under indolent sail, and
gliding so serenely along; as I bathed my hands among those soft, gentle