Moby Dick; Or, The Whale
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Chapters
Chapter 01
CHAPTER 135. The Chase.—Third Day.
CHAPTER 135. The Chase.—Third Day.
Epilogue Original Transcriber’s Notes: ETYMOLOGY. (Supplied by a Late Consumptive Usher to a Grammar School.) The pale Usher—threadbare in coat, heart, body, and brain; I see him now. He was ever dusting his old lexic…
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Chapter 02
CHAPTER 135. The Chase.—Third Day. (2)
CHAPTER 135. The Chase.—Third Day. (2)
“The Spermacetti Whale found by the Nantuckois, is an active, fierce animal, and requires vast address and boldness in the fishermen.” —Thomas Jefferson’s Whale Memorial to the French minister in 1778. “And pray, si…
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Chapter 03
CHAPTER 1. Loomings.
CHAPTER 1. Loomings.
Call me Ishmael. Some years ago—never mind how long precisely—having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the…
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Chapter 04
CHAPTER 1. Loomings. (2)
CHAPTER 1. Loomings. (2)
By reason of these things, then, the whaling voyage was welcome; the great flood-gates of the wonder-world swung open, and in the wild conceits that swayed me to my purpose, two and two there floated into my inmost so…
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Chapter 05
CHAPTER 2. The Carpet-Bag.
CHAPTER 2. The Carpet-Bag.
I stuffed a shirt or two into my old carpet-bag, tucked it under my arm, and started for Cape Horn and the Pacific. Quitting the good city of old Manhatto, I duly arrived in New Bedford. It was a Saturday night in Dec…
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Chapter 06
CHAPTER 3. The Spouter-Inn.
CHAPTER 3. The Spouter-Inn.
Entering that gable-ended Spouter-Inn, you found yourself in a wide, low, straggling entry with old-fashioned wainscots, reminding one of the bulwarks of some condemned old craft. On one side hung a very large oilpain…
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Chapter 07
CHAPTER 3. The Spouter-Inn. (2)
CHAPTER 3. The Spouter-Inn. (2)
“Just as you please; I’m sorry I can’t spare ye a tablecloth for a mattress, and it’s a plaguy rough board here”—feeling of the knots and notches. “But wait a bit, Skrimshander; I’ve got a carpenter’s plane there in t…
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Chapter 08
CHAPTER 3. The Spouter-Inn. (3)
CHAPTER 3. The Spouter-Inn. (3)
Lord save me, thinks I, that must be the harpooneer, the infernal head-peddler. But I lay perfectly still, and resolved not to say a word till spoken to. Holding a light in one hand, and that identical New Zealand hea…
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Chapter 09
CHAPTER 4. The Counterpane.
CHAPTER 4. The Counterpane.
Upon waking next morning about daylight, I found Queequeg’s arm thrown over me in the most loving and affectionate manner. You had almost thought I had been his wife. The counterpane was of patchwork, full of odd litt…
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Chapter 10
CHAPTER 5. Breakfast.
CHAPTER 5. Breakfast.
I quickly followed suit, and descending into the bar-room accosted the grinning landlord very pleasantly. I cherished no malice towards him, though he had been skylarking with me not a little in the matter of my bedfe…
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Chapter 11
CHAPTER 6. The Street.
CHAPTER 6. The Street.
If I had been astonished at first catching a glimpse of so outlandish an individual as Queequeg circulating among the polite society of a civilized town, that astonishment soon departed upon taking my first daylight s…
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Chapter 12
CHAPTER 7. The Chapel.
CHAPTER 7. The Chapel.
In this same New Bedford there stands a Whaleman’s Chapel, and few are the moody fishermen, shortly bound for the Indian Ocean or Pacific, who fail to make a Sunday visit to the spot. I am sure that I did not. Returni…
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Chapter 13
CHAPTER 8. The Pulpit.
CHAPTER 8. The Pulpit.
I had not been seated very long ere a man of a certain venerable robustness entered; immediately as the storm-pelted door flew back upon admitting him, a quick regardful eyeing of him by all the congregation, sufficie…
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Chapter 14
CHAPTER 9. The Sermon.
CHAPTER 9. The Sermon.
Father Mapple rose, and in a mild voice of unassuming authority ordered the scattered people to condense. “Starboard gangway, there! side away to larboard—larboard gangway to starboard! Midships! midships!” There was …
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Chapter 15
CHAPTER 9. The Sermon. (2)
CHAPTER 9. The Sermon. (2)
“Terrors upon terrors run shouting through his soul. In all his cringing attitudes, the God-fugitive is now too plainly known. The sailors mark him; more and more certain grow their suspicions of him, and at last, ful…
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Chapter 16
CHAPTER 10. A Bosom Friend.
CHAPTER 10. A Bosom Friend.
Returning to the Spouter-Inn from the Chapel, I found Queequeg there quite alone; he having left the Chapel before the benediction some time. He was sitting on a bench before the fire, with his feet on the stove heart…
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Chapter 17
CHAPTER 11. Nightgown.
CHAPTER 11. Nightgown.
We had lain thus in bed, chatting and napping at short intervals, and Queequeg now and then affectionately throwing his brown tattooed legs over mine, and then drawing them back; so entirely sociable and free and easy…
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Chapter 18
CHAPTER 12. Biographical.
CHAPTER 12. Biographical.
Queequeg was a native of Rokovoko, an island far away to the West and South. It is not down in any map; true places never are. When a new-hatched savage running wild about his native woodlands in a grass clout, follow…
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Chapter 19
CHAPTER 13. Wheelbarrow.
CHAPTER 13. Wheelbarrow.
Next morning, Monday, after disposing of the embalmed head to a barber, for a block, I settled my own and comrade’s bill; using, however, my comrade’s money. The grinning landlord, as well as the boarders, seemed amaz…
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Chapter 20
CHAPTER 14. Nantucket.
CHAPTER 14. Nantucket.
Nothing more happened on the passage worthy the mentioning; so, after a fine run, we safely arrived in Nantucket. Nantucket! Take out your map and look at it. See what a real corner of the world it occupies; how it st…
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Chapter 21
CHAPTER 15. Chowder.
CHAPTER 15. Chowder.
It was quite late in the evening when the little Moss came snugly to anchor, and Queequeg and I went ashore; so we could attend to no business that day, at least none but a supper and a bed. The landlord of the Spoute…
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Chapter 22
CHAPTER 16. The Ship.
CHAPTER 16. The Ship.
In bed we concocted our plans for the morrow. But to my surprise and no small concern, Queequeg now gave me to understand, that he had been diligently consulting Yojo—the name of his black little god—and Yojo had told…
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Chapter 23
CHAPTER 16. The Ship. (2)
CHAPTER 16. The Ship. (2)
Seated on the transom was what seemed to me a most uncommon and surprising figure. It turned out to be Captain Bildad, who along with Captain Peleg was one of the largest owners of the vessel; the other shares, as is …
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Chapter 24
CHAPTER 16. The Ship. (3)
CHAPTER 16. The Ship. (3)
“Fiery pit! fiery pit! ye insult me, man; past all natural bearing, ye insult me. It’s an all-fired outrage to tell any human creature that he’s bound to hell. Flukes and flames! Bildad, say that again to me, and star…
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Chapter 25
CHAPTER 17. The Ramadan.
CHAPTER 17. The Ramadan.
As Queequeg’s Ramadan, or Fasting and Humiliation, was to continue all day, I did not choose to disturb him till towards night-fall; for I cherish the greatest respect towards everybody’s religious obligations, never …
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Chapter 26
CHAPTER 17. The Ramadan. (2)
CHAPTER 17. The Ramadan. (2)
After all, I do not think that my remarks about religion made much impression upon Queequeg. Because, in the first place, he somehow seemed dull of hearing on that important subject, unless considered from his own poi…
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Chapter 27
CHAPTER 18. His Mark.
CHAPTER 18. His Mark.
As we were walking down the end of the wharf towards the ship, Queequeg carrying his harpoon, Captain Peleg in his gruff voice loudly hailed us from his wigwam, saying he had not suspected my friend was a cannibal, an…
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Chapter 28
CHAPTER 19. The Prophet.
CHAPTER 19. The Prophet.
“Shipmates, have ye shipped in that ship?” Queequeg and I had just left the Pequod, and were sauntering away from the water, for the moment each occupied with his own thoughts, when the above words were put to us by a…
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Chapter 29
CHAPTER 20. All Astir.
CHAPTER 20. All Astir.
A day or two passed, and there was great activity aboard the Pequod. Not only were the old sails being mended, but new sails were coming on board, and bolts of canvas, and coils of rigging; in short, everything betoke…
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Chapter 30
CHAPTER 21. Going Aboard.
CHAPTER 21. Going Aboard.
It was nearly six o’clock, but only grey imperfect misty dawn, when we drew nigh the wharf. “There are some sailors running ahead there, if I see right,” said I to Queequeg, “it can’t be shadows; she’s off by sunrise,…
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Chapter 31
CHAPTER 22. Merry Christmas.
CHAPTER 22. Merry Christmas.
At length, towards noon, upon the final dismissal of the ship’s riggers, and after the Pequod had been hauled out from the wharf, and after the ever-thoughtful Charity had come off in a whale-boat, with her last gift—…
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Chapter 32
CHAPTER 23. The Lee Shore.
CHAPTER 23. The Lee Shore.
Some chapters back, one Bulkington was spoken of, a tall, newlanded mariner, encountered in New Bedford at the inn. When on that shivering winter’s night, the Pequod thrust her vindictive bows into the cold malicious …
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Chapter 33
CHAPTER 24. The Advocate.
CHAPTER 24. The Advocate.
As Queequeg and I are now fairly embarked in this business of whaling; and as this business of whaling has somehow come to be regarded among landsmen as a rather unpoetical and disreputable pursuit; therefore, I am al…
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Chapter 34
CHAPTER 25. Postscript.
CHAPTER 25. Postscript.
In behalf of the dignity of whaling, I would fain advance naught but substantiated facts. But after embattling his facts, an advocate who should wholly suppress a not unreasonable surmise, which might tell eloquently …
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Chapter 35
CHAPTER 26. Knights and Squires.
CHAPTER 26. Knights and Squires.
The chief mate of the Pequod was Starbuck, a native of Nantucket, and a Quaker by descent. He was a long, earnest man, and though born on an icy coast, seemed well adapted to endure hot latitudes, his flesh being hard…
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Chapter 36
CHAPTER 27. Knights and Squires.
CHAPTER 27. Knights and Squires.
Stubb was the second mate. He was a native of Cape Cod; and hence, according to local usage, was called a Cape-Cod-man. A happy-go-lucky; neither craven nor valiant; taking perils as they came with an indifferent air;…
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Chapter 37
CHAPTER 28. Ahab.
CHAPTER 28. Ahab.
For several days after leaving Nantucket, nothing above hatches was seen of Captain Ahab. The mates regularly relieved each other at the watches, and for aught that could be seen to the contrary, they seemed to be the…
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Chapter 38
CHAPTER 29. Enter Ahab; to Him, Stubb.
CHAPTER 29. Enter Ahab; to Him, Stubb.
Some days elapsed, and ice and icebergs all astern, the Pequod now went rolling through the bright Quito spring, which, at sea, almost perpetually reigns on the threshold of the eternal August of the Tropic. The warml…
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Chapter 39
CHAPTER 30. The Pipe.
CHAPTER 30. The Pipe.
When Stubb had departed, Ahab stood for a while leaning over the bulwarks; and then, as had been usual with him of late, calling a sailor of the watch, he sent him below for his ivory stool, and also his pipe. Lightin…
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Chapter 40
CHAPTER 31. Queen Mab.
CHAPTER 31. Queen Mab.
Next morning Stubb accosted Flask. “Such a queer dream, King-Post, I never had. You know the old man’s ivory leg, well I dreamed he kicked me with it; and when I tried to kick back, upon my soul, my little man, I kick…
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Chapter 41
CHAPTER 32. Cetology.
CHAPTER 32. Cetology.
Already we are boldly launched upon the deep; but soon we shall be lost in its unshored, harbourless immensities. Ere that come to pass; ere the Pequod’s weedy hull rolls side by side with the barnacled hulls of the l…
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Chapter 42
BOOK I. (_Folio_), CHAPTER I. (_Sperm Whale_).—This whale, among the
BOOK I. (_Folio_), CHAPTER I. (_Sperm Whale_).—This whale, among the
English of old vaguely known as the Trumpa whale, and the Physeter whale, and the Anvil Headed whale, is the present Cachalot of the French, and the Pottsfich of the Germans, and the Macrocephalus of the Long Words. H…
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Chapter 43
BOOK I. (_Folio_), CHAPTER II. (_Right Whale_).—In one respect this is
BOOK I. (_Folio_), CHAPTER II. (_Right Whale_).—In one respect this is
the most venerable of the leviathans, being the one first regularly hunted by man. It yields the article commonly known as whalebone or baleen; and the oil specially known as “whale oil,” an inferior article in commer…
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Chapter 44
BOOK I. (_Folio_), CHAPTER III. (_Fin-Back_).—Under this head I reckon
BOOK I. (_Folio_), CHAPTER III. (_Fin-Back_).—Under this head I reckon
a monster which, by the various names of Fin-Back, Tall-Spout, and Long-John, has been seen almost in every sea and is commonly the whale whose distant jet is so often descried by passengers crossing the Atlantic, in …
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Chapter 45
BOOK I. (_Folio_) CHAPTER IV. (_Hump Back_).—This whale is often seen
BOOK I. (_Folio_) CHAPTER IV. (_Hump Back_).—This whale is often seen
on the northern American coast. He has been frequently captured there, and towed into harbor. He has a great pack on him like a peddler; or you might call him the Elephant and Castle whale. At any rate, the popular na…
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Chapter 46
BOOK I. (_Folio_), CHAPTER V. (_Razor Back_).—Of this whale little is
BOOK I. (_Folio_), CHAPTER V. (_Razor Back_).—Of this whale little is
known but his name. I have seen him at a distance off Cape Horn. Of a retiring nature, he eludes both hunters and philosophers. Though no coward, he has never yet shown any part of him but his back, which rises in a l…
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Chapter 47
BOOK I. (_Folio_), CHAPTER VI. (_Sulphur Bottom_).—Another retiring
BOOK I. (_Folio_), CHAPTER VI. (_Sulphur Bottom_).—Another retiring
gentleman, with a brimstone belly, doubtless got by scraping along the Tartarian tiles in some of his profounder divings. He is seldom seen; at least I have never seen him except in the remoter southern seas, and then…
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Chapter 48
BOOK II. (_Octavo_), CHAPTER I. (_Grampus_).—Though this fish, whose
BOOK II. (_Octavo_), CHAPTER I. (_Grampus_).—Though this fish, whose
loud sonorous breathing, or rather blowing, has furnished a proverb to landsmen, is so well known a denizen of the deep, yet is he not popularly classed among whales. But possessing all the grand distinctive features …
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Chapter 49
BOOK II. (_Octavo_), CHAPTER II. (_Black Fish_).—I give the popular
BOOK II. (_Octavo_), CHAPTER II. (_Black Fish_).—I give the popular
fishermen’s names for all these fish, for generally they are the best. Where any name happens to be vague or inexpressive, I shall say so, and suggest another. I do so now, touching the Black Fish, so-called, because …
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Chapter 50
BOOK II. (_Octavo_), CHAPTER III. (_Narwhale_), that is, _Nostril
BOOK II. (_Octavo_), CHAPTER III. (_Narwhale_), that is, _Nostril
whale_.—Another instance of a curiously named whale, so named I suppose from his peculiar horn being originally mistaken for a peaked nose. The creature is some sixteen feet in length, while its horn averages five fee…
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Chapter 51
BOOK II. (_Octavo_), CHAPTER IV. (_Killer_).—Of this whale little is
BOOK II. (_Octavo_), CHAPTER IV. (_Killer_).—Of this whale little is
precisely known to the Nantucketer, and nothing at all to the professed naturalist. From what I have seen of him at a distance, I should say that he was about the bigness of a grampus. He is very savage—a sort of Feeg…
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Chapter 52
BOOK II. (_Octavo_), CHAPTER V. (_Thrasher_).—This gentleman is famous
BOOK II. (_Octavo_), CHAPTER V. (_Thrasher_).—This gentleman is famous
for his tail, which he uses for a ferule in thrashing his foes. He mounts the Folio whale’s back, and as he swims, he works his passage by flogging him; as some schoolmasters get along in the world by a similar proces…
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Chapter 53
BOOK III. (_Duodecimo_), CHAPTER 1. (_Huzza Porpoise_).—This is the
BOOK III. (_Duodecimo_), CHAPTER 1. (_Huzza Porpoise_).—This is the
common porpoise found almost all over the globe. The name is of my own bestowal; for there are more than one sort of porpoises, and something must be done to distinguish them. I call him thus, because he always swims …
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Chapter 54
BOOK III. (_Duodecimo_), CHAPTER II. (_Algerine Porpoise_).—A pirate.
BOOK III. (_Duodecimo_), CHAPTER II. (_Algerine Porpoise_).—A pirate.
Very savage. He is only found, I think, in the Pacific. He is somewhat larger than the Huzza Porpoise, but much of the same general make. Provoke him, and he will buckle to a shark. I have lowered for him many times, …
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Chapter 55
BOOK III. (_Duodecimo_), CHAPTER III. (_Mealy-mouthed Porpoise_).—The
BOOK III. (_Duodecimo_), CHAPTER III. (_Mealy-mouthed Porpoise_).—The
largest kind of Porpoise; and only found in the Pacific, so far as it is known. The only English name, by which he has hitherto been designated, is that of the fishers—Right-Whale Porpoise, from the circumstance that …
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Chapter 56
CHAPTER 33. The Specksnyder.
CHAPTER 33. The Specksnyder.
Concerning the officers of the whale-craft, this seems as good a place as any to set down a little domestic peculiarity on ship-board, arising from the existence of the harpooneer class of officers, a class unknown of…
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Chapter 57
CHAPTER 34. The Cabin-Table.
CHAPTER 34. The Cabin-Table.
It is noon; and Dough-Boy, the steward, thrusting his pale loaf-of-bread face from the cabin-scuttle, announces dinner to his lord and master; who, sitting in the lee quarter-boat, has just been taking an observation …
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Chapter 58
CHAPTER 34. The Cabin-Table. (2)
CHAPTER 34. The Cabin-Table. (2)
In this one matter, Ahab seemed no exception to most American whale captains, who, as a set, rather incline to the opinion that by rights the ship’s cabin belongs to them; and that it is by courtesy alone that anybody…
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Chapter 59
CHAPTER 35. The Mast-Head.
CHAPTER 35. The Mast-Head.
It was during the more pleasant weather, that in due rotation with the other seamen my first mast-head came round. In most American whalemen the mast-heads are manned almost simultaneously with the vessel’s leaving he…
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Chapter 60
CHAPTER 35. The Mast-Head. (2)
CHAPTER 35. The Mast-Head. (2)
And let me in this place movingly admonish you, ye ship-owners of Nantucket! Beware of enlisting in your vigilant fisheries any lad with lean brow and hollow eye; given to unseasonable meditativeness; and who offers t…
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Chapter 61
CHAPTER 36. The Quarter-Deck.
CHAPTER 36. The Quarter-Deck.
(Enter Ahab: Then, all.) It was not a great while after the affair of the pipe, that one morning shortly after breakfast, Ahab, as was his wont, ascended the cabin-gangway to the deck. There most sea-captains usuall…
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Chapter 62
CHAPTER 36. The Quarter-Deck. (2)
CHAPTER 36. The Quarter-Deck. (2)
Receiving the brimming pewter, and turning to the harpooneers, he ordered them to produce their weapons. Then ranging them before him near the capstan, with their harpoons in their hands, while his three mates stood a…
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Chapter 63
CHAPTER 37. Sunset.
CHAPTER 37. Sunset.
The cabin; by the stern windows; Ahab sitting alone, and gazing out. I leave a white and turbid wake; pale waters, paler cheeks, where’er I sail. The envious billows sidelong swell to whelm my track; let them; but f…
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Chapter 64
CHAPTER 38. Dusk.
CHAPTER 38. Dusk.
By the Mainmast; Starbuck leaning against it. My soul is more than matched; she’s overmanned; and by a madman! Insufferable sting, that sanity should ground arms on such a field! But he drilled deep down, and blaste…
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Chapter 65
CHAPTER 39. First Night-Watch.
CHAPTER 39. First Night-Watch.
Fore-Top. (Stubb solus, and mending a brace.) Ha! ha! ha! ha! hem! clear my throat!—I’ve been thinking over it ever since, and that ha, ha’s the final consequence. Why so? Because a laugh’s the wisest, easiest answe…
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Chapter 66
CHAPTER 40. Midnight, Forecastle.
CHAPTER 40. Midnight, Forecastle.
HARPOONEERS AND SAILORS. (Foresail rises and discovers the watch standing, lounging, leaning, and lying in various attitudes, all singing in chorus.) Farewell and adieu to you, Spanish ladies! Farewell and adieu to …
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Chapter 67
CHAPTER 41. Moby Dick.
CHAPTER 41. Moby Dick.
I, Ishmael, was one of that crew; my shouts had gone up with the rest; my oath had been welded with theirs; and stronger I shouted, and more did I hammer and clinch my oath, because of the dread in my soul. A wild, my…
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Chapter 68
CHAPTER 41. Moby Dick. (2)
CHAPTER 41. Moby Dick. (2)
Nor was it his unwonted magnitude, nor his remarkable hue, nor yet his deformed lower jaw, that so much invested the whale with natural terror, as that unexampled, intelligent malignity which, according to specific ac…
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Chapter 69
CHAPTER 42. The Whiteness of the Whale.
CHAPTER 42. The Whiteness of the Whale.
What the white whale was to Ahab, has been hinted; what, at times, he was to me, as yet remains unsaid. Aside from those more obvious considerations touching Moby Dick, which could not but occasionally awaken in any m…
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Chapter 70
CHAPTER 42. The Whiteness of the Whale. (2)
CHAPTER 42. The Whiteness of the Whale. (2)
But though without dissent this point be fixed, how is mortal man to account for it? To analyse it, would seem impossible. Can we, then, by the citation of some of those instances wherein this thing of whiteness—thoug…
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Chapter 71
CHAPTER 43. Hark!
CHAPTER 43. Hark!
“HIST! Did you hear that noise, Cabaco?” It was the middle-watch: a fair moonlight; the seamen were standing in a cordon, extending from one of the fresh-water butts in the waist, to the scuttle-butt near the taffrail…
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Chapter 72
CHAPTER 44. The Chart.
CHAPTER 44. The Chart.
Had you followed Captain Ahab down into his cabin after the squall that took place on the night succeeding that wild ratification of his purpose with his crew, you would have seen him go to a locker in the transom, an…
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Chapter 73
CHAPTER 45. The Affidavit.
CHAPTER 45. The Affidavit.
So far as what there may be of a narrative in this book; and, indeed, as indirectly touching one or two very interesting and curious particulars in the habits of sperm whales, the foregoing chapter, in its earlier par…
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Chapter 74
CHAPTER 45. The Affidavit. (2)
CHAPTER 45. The Affidavit. (2)
Thirdly: Some eighteen or twenty years ago Commodore J——, then commanding an American sloop-of-war of the first class, happened to be dining with a party of whaling captains, on board a Nantucket ship in the harbor of…
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Chapter 75
CHAPTER 46. Surmises.
CHAPTER 46. Surmises.
Though, consumed with the hot fire of his purpose, Ahab in all his thoughts and actions ever had in view the ultimate capture of Moby Dick; though he seemed ready to sacrifice all mortal interests to that one passion;…
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Chapter 76
CHAPTER 47. The Mat-Maker.
CHAPTER 47. The Mat-Maker.
It was a cloudy, sultry afternoon; the seamen were lazily lounging about the decks, or vacantly gazing over into the lead-coloured waters. Queequeg and I were mildly employed weaving what is called a sword-mat, for an…
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Chapter 77
CHAPTER 48. The First Lowering.
CHAPTER 48. The First Lowering.
The phantoms, for so they then seemed, were flitting on the other side of the deck, and, with a noiseless celerity, were casting loose the tackles and bands of the boat which swung there. This boat had always been dee…
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Chapter 78
CHAPTER 48. The First Lowering. (2)
CHAPTER 48. The First Lowering. (2)
At any time it is a strange sight to the tyro to see with what wondrous habitude of unconscious skill the whaleman will maintain an erect posture in his boat, even when pitched about by the most riotously perverse and…
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Chapter 79
CHAPTER 49. The Hyena.
CHAPTER 49. The Hyena.
There are certain queer times and occasions in this strange mixed affair we call life when a man takes this whole universe for a vast practical joke, though the wit thereof he but dimly discerns, and more than suspect…
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Chapter 80
CHAPTER 50. Ahab’s Boat and Crew. Fedallah.
CHAPTER 50. Ahab’s Boat and Crew. Fedallah.
“Who would have thought it, Flask!” cried Stubb; “if I had but one leg you would not catch me in a boat, unless maybe to stop the plug-hole with my timber toe. Oh! he’s a wonderful old man!” “I don’t think it so stran…
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Chapter 81
CHAPTER 51. The Spirit-Spout.
CHAPTER 51. The Spirit-Spout.
Days, weeks passed, and under easy sail, the ivory Pequod had slowly swept across four several cruising-grounds; that off the Azores; off the Cape de Verdes; on the Plate (so called), being off the mouth of the Rio de…
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Chapter 82
CHAPTER 52. The Albatross.
CHAPTER 52. The Albatross.
South-eastward from the Cape, off the distant Crozetts, a good cruising ground for Right Whalemen, a sail loomed ahead, the Goney (Albatross) by name. As she slowly drew nigh, from my lofty perch at the fore-mast-head…
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Chapter 83
CHAPTER 53. The Gam.
CHAPTER 53. The Gam.
The ostensible reason why Ahab did not go on board of the whaler we had spoken was this: the wind and sea betokened storms. But even had this not been the case, he would not after all, perhaps, have boarded her—judgin…
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Chapter 84
CHAPTER 54. The Town-Ho’s Story.
CHAPTER 54. The Town-Ho’s Story.
(As told at the Golden Inn.) The Cape of Good Hope, and all the watery region round about there, is much like some noted four corners of a great highway, where you meet more travellers than in any other part. It was…
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Chapter 85
CHAPTER 54. The Town-Ho’s Story. (2)
CHAPTER 54. The Town-Ho’s Story. (2)
“Quitting the pump at last, with the rest of his band, the Lakeman went forward all panting, and sat himself down on the windlass; his face fiery red, his eyes bloodshot, and wiping the profuse sweat from his brow. No…
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Chapter 86
CHAPTER 54. The Town-Ho’s Story. (3)
CHAPTER 54. The Town-Ho’s Story. (3)
“The Lakeman now patrolled the barricade, all the while keeping his eye on the Captain, and jerking out such sentences as these:—‘It’s not our fault; we didn’t want it; I told him to take his hammer away; it was boy’s…
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Chapter 87
CHAPTER 54. The Town-Ho’s Story. (4)
CHAPTER 54. The Town-Ho’s Story. (4)
“‘Then I must get some from old Rad;’ and he rose to go aft. “‘You don’t mean to go a begging to him!’ said a sailor. “‘Why not? Do you think he won’t do me a turn, when it’s to help himself in the end, shipmate?’ a…
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Chapter 88
CHAPTER 55. Of the Monstrous Pictures of Whales.
CHAPTER 55. Of the Monstrous Pictures of Whales.
I shall ere long paint to you as well as one can without canvas, something like the true form of the whale as he actually appears to the eye of the whaleman when in his own absolute body the whale is moored alongside …
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Chapter 89
CHAPTER 56. Of the Less Erroneous Pictures of Whales, and the True
CHAPTER 56. Of the Less Erroneous Pictures of Whales, and the True
Pictures of Whaling Scenes. In connexion with the monstrous pictures of whales, I am strongly tempted here to enter upon those still more monstrous stories of them which are to be found in certain books, both ancient …
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Chapter 90
CHAPTER 57. Of Whales in Paint; in Teeth; in Wood; in Sheet-Iron; in
CHAPTER 57. Of Whales in Paint; in Teeth; in Wood; in Sheet-Iron; in
Stone; in Mountains; in Stars. On Tower-hill, as you go down to the London docks, you may have seen a crippled beggar (or kedger, as the sailors say) holding a painted board before him, representing the tragic scene…
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Chapter 91
CHAPTER 58. Brit.
CHAPTER 58. Brit.
Steering north-eastward from the Crozetts, we fell in with vast meadows of brit, the minute, yellow substance, upon which the Right Whale largely feeds. For leagues and leagues it undulated round us, so that we seemed…
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Chapter 92
CHAPTER 59. Squid.
CHAPTER 59. Squid.
Slowly wading through the meadows of brit, the Pequod still held on her way north-eastward towards the island of Java; a gentle air impelling her keel, so that in the surrounding serenity her three tall tapering masts…
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Chapter 93
CHAPTER 60. The Line.
CHAPTER 60. The Line.
With reference to the whaling scene shortly to be described, as well as for the better understanding of all similar scenes elsewhere presented, I have here to speak of the magical, sometimes horrible whale-line. The l…
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Chapter 94
CHAPTER 61. Stubb Kills a Whale.
CHAPTER 61. Stubb Kills a Whale.
If to Starbuck the apparition of the Squid was a thing of portents, to Queequeg it was quite a different object. “When you see him ’quid,” said the savage, honing his harpoon in the bow of his hoisted boat, “then you …
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Chapter 95
CHAPTER 62. The Dart.
CHAPTER 62. The Dart.
A word concerning an incident in the last chapter. According to the invariable usage of the fishery, the whale-boat pushes off from the ship, with the headsman or whale-killer as temporary steersman, and the harpoonee…
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Chapter 96
CHAPTER 63. The Crotch.
CHAPTER 63. The Crotch.
Out of the trunk, the branches grow; out of them, the twigs. So, in productive subjects, grow the chapters. The crotch alluded to on a previous page deserves independent mention. It is a notched stick of a peculiar fo…
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Chapter 97
CHAPTER 64. Stubb’s Supper.
CHAPTER 64. Stubb’s Supper.
Stubb’s whale had been killed some distance from the ship. It was a calm; so, forming a tandem of three boats, we commenced the slow business of towing the trophy to the Pequod. And now, as we eighteen men with our th…
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Chapter 98
CHAPTER 64. Stubb’s Supper. (2)
CHAPTER 64. Stubb’s Supper. (2)
“All dention,” said Fleece, again stooping over upon his tongs in the desired position. “Well,” said Stubb, helping himself freely meanwhile; “I shall now go back to the subject of this steak. In the first place, how …
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Chapter 99
CHAPTER 65. The Whale as a Dish.
CHAPTER 65. The Whale as a Dish.
That mortal man should feed upon the creature that feeds his lamp, and, like Stubb, eat him by his own light, as you may say; this seems so outlandish a thing that one must needs go a little into the history and philo…
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Chapter 100
CHAPTER 66. The Shark Massacre.
CHAPTER 66. The Shark Massacre.
When in the Southern Fishery, a captured Sperm Whale, after long and weary toil, is brought alongside late at night, it is not, as a general thing at least, customary to proceed at once to the business of cutting him …
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Chapter 101
CHAPTER 67. Cutting In.
CHAPTER 67. Cutting In.
It was a Saturday night, and such a Sabbath as followed! Ex officio professors of Sabbath breaking are all whalemen. The ivory Pequod was turned into what seemed a shamble; every sailor a butcher. You would have thoug…
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Chapter 102
CHAPTER 68. The Blanket.
CHAPTER 68. The Blanket.
I have given no small attention to that not unvexed subject, the skin of the whale. I have had controversies about it with experienced whalemen afloat, and learned naturalists ashore. My original opinion remains uncha…
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Chapter 103
CHAPTER 69. The Funeral.
CHAPTER 69. The Funeral.
“Haul in the chains! Let the carcase go astern!” The vast tackles have now done their duty. The peeled white body of the beheaded whale flashes like a marble sepulchre; though changed in hue, it has not perceptibly lo…
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Chapter 104
CHAPTER 70. The Sphynx.
CHAPTER 70. The Sphynx.
It should not have been omitted that previous to completely stripping the body of the leviathan, he was beheaded. Now, the beheading of the Sperm Whale is a scientific anatomical feat, upon which experienced whale sur…
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Chapter 105
CHAPTER 71. The Jeroboam’s Story.
CHAPTER 71. The Jeroboam’s Story.
Hand in hand, ship and breeze blew on; but the breeze came faster than the ship, and soon the Pequod began to rock. By and by, through the glass the stranger’s boats and manned mast-heads proved her a whale-ship. But …
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Chapter 106
CHAPTER 71. The Jeroboam’s Story. (2)
CHAPTER 71. The Jeroboam’s Story. (2)
Meantime, Ahab holding the letter, muttered, “Mr. Har—yes, Mr. Harry—(a woman’s pinny hand,—the man’s wife, I’ll wager)—Aye—Mr. Harry Macey, Ship Jeroboam;—why it’s Macey, and he’s dead!” “Poor fellow! poor fellow! an…
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Chapter 107
CHAPTER 72. The Monkey-Rope.
CHAPTER 72. The Monkey-Rope.
In the tumultuous business of cutting-in and attending to a whale, there is much running backwards and forwards among the crew. Now hands are wanted here, and then again hands are wanted there. There is no staying in …
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Chapter 108
CHAPTER 73. Stubb and Flask kill a Right Whale; and Then Have a Talk
CHAPTER 73. Stubb and Flask kill a Right Whale; and Then Have a Talk
over Him. It must be borne in mind that all this time we have a Sperm Whale’s prodigious head hanging to the Pequod’s side. But we must let it continue hanging there a while till we can get a chance to attend to it. F…
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Chapter 109
CHAPTER 74. The Sperm Whale’s Head—Contrasted View.
CHAPTER 74. The Sperm Whale’s Head—Contrasted View.
Here, now, are two great whales, laying their heads together; let us join them, and lay together our own. Of the grand order of folio leviathans, the Sperm Whale and the Right Whale are by far the most noteworthy. The…
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Chapter 110
CHAPTER 75. The Right Whale’s Head—Contrasted View.
CHAPTER 75. The Right Whale’s Head—Contrasted View.
Crossing the deck, let us now have a good long look at the Right Whale’s head. As in general shape the noble Sperm Whale’s head may be compared to a Roman war-chariot (especially in front, where it is so broadly round…
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Chapter 111
CHAPTER 76. The Battering-Ram.
CHAPTER 76. The Battering-Ram.
Ere quitting, for the nonce, the Sperm Whale’s head, I would have you, as a sensible physiologist, simply—particularly remark its front aspect, in all its compacted collectedness. I would have you investigate it now w…
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Chapter 112
CHAPTER 77. The Great Heidelburgh Tun.
CHAPTER 77. The Great Heidelburgh Tun.
Now comes the Baling of the Case. But to comprehend it aright, you must know something of the curious internal structure of the thing operated upon. Regarding the Sperm Whale’s head as a solid oblong, you may, on an i…
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Chapter 113
CHAPTER 78. Cistern and Buckets.
CHAPTER 78. Cistern and Buckets.
Nimble as a cat, Tashtego mounts aloft; and without altering his erect posture, runs straight out upon the overhanging mainyard-arm, to the part where it exactly projects over the hoisted Tun. He has carried with him …
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Chapter 114
CHAPTER 79. The Prairie.
CHAPTER 79. The Prairie.
To scan the lines of his face, or feel the bumps on the head of this Leviathan; this is a thing which no Physiognomist or Phrenologist has as yet undertaken. Such an enterprise would seem almost as hopeful as for Lava…
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Chapter 115
CHAPTER 80. The Nut.
CHAPTER 80. The Nut.
If the Sperm Whale be physiognomically a Sphinx, to the phrenologist his brain seems that geometrical circle which it is impossible to square. In the full-grown creature the skull will measure at least twenty feet in …
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Chapter 116
CHAPTER 81. The Pequod Meets The Virgin.
CHAPTER 81. The Pequod Meets The Virgin.
The predestinated day arrived, and we duly met the ship Jungfrau, Derick De Deer, master, of Bremen. At one time the greatest whaling people in the world, the Dutch and Germans are now among the least; but here and th…
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Chapter 117
CHAPTER 81. The Pequod Meets The Virgin. (2)
CHAPTER 81. The Pequod Meets The Virgin. (2)
But the monster’s run was a brief one. Giving a sudden gasp, he tumultuously sounded. With a grating rush, the three lines flew round the loggerheads with such a force as to gouge deep grooves in them; while so fearfu…
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Chapter 118
CHAPTER 81. The Pequod Meets The Virgin. (3)
CHAPTER 81. The Pequod Meets The Virgin. (3)
Be it said, however, that the Sperm Whale is far less liable to this accident than any other species. Where one of that sort go down, twenty Right Whales do. This difference in the species is no doubt imputable in no …
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Chapter 119
CHAPTER 82. The Honor and Glory of Whaling.
CHAPTER 82. The Honor and Glory of Whaling.
There are some enterprises in which a careful disorderliness is the true method. The more I dive into this matter of whaling, and push my researches up to the very spring-head of it so much the more am I impressed wit…
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Chapter 120
CHAPTER 83. Jonah Historically Regarded.
CHAPTER 83. Jonah Historically Regarded.
Reference was made to the historical story of Jonah and the whale in the preceding chapter. Now some Nantucketers rather distrust this historical story of Jonah and the whale. But then there were some sceptical Greeks…
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Chapter 121
CHAPTER 84. Pitchpoling.
CHAPTER 84. Pitchpoling.
To make them run easily and swiftly, the axles of carriages are anointed; and for much the same purpose, some whalers perform an analogous operation upon their boat; they grease the bottom. Nor is it to be doubted tha…
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Chapter 122
CHAPTER 85. The Fountain.
CHAPTER 85. The Fountain.
That for six thousand years—and no one knows how many millions of ages before—the great whales should have been spouting all over the sea, and sprinkling and mistifying the gardens of the deep, as with so many sprinkl…
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Chapter 123
CHAPTER 86. The Tail.
CHAPTER 86. The Tail.
Other poets have warbled the praises of the soft eye of the antelope, and the lovely plumage of the bird that never alights; less celestial, I celebrate a tail. Reckoning the largest sized Sperm Whale’s tail to begin …
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Chapter 124
CHAPTER 87. The Grand Armada.
CHAPTER 87. 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 Sumat…
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Chapter 125
CHAPTER 87. The Grand Armada. (2)
CHAPTER 87. The Grand Armada. (2)
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 …
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Chapter 126
CHAPTER 87. The Grand Armada. (3)
CHAPTER 87. The Grand Armada. (3)
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 da…
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Chapter 127
CHAPTER 88. Schools and Schoolmasters.
CHAPTER 88. 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, …
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Chapter 128
CHAPTER 89. Fast-Fish and Loose-Fish.
CHAPTER 89. Fast-Fish and Loose-Fish.
The allusion to the waif 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 frequentl…
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Chapter 129
CHAPTER 90. Heads or Tails.
CHAPTER 90. 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 o…
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Chapter 130
CHAPTER 91. The Pequod Meets The Rose-Bud.
CHAPTER 91. 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 slo…
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Chapter 131
CHAPTER 91. The Pequod Meets The Rose-Bud. (2)
CHAPTER 91. The Pequod Meets The Rose-Bud. (2)
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 whal…
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Chapter 132
CHAPTER 92. Ambergris.
CHAPTER 92. Ambergris.
Now this ambergris is a very curious substance, and so important as an article of commerce, that in 1791 a certain Nantucket-born Captain Coffin was examined at the bar of the English House of Commons on that subject.…
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Chapter 133
CHAPTER 93. The Castaway.
CHAPTER 93. 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 m…
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Chapter 134
CHAPTER 94. A Squeeze of the Hand.
CHAPTER 94. 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 Heidelburg…
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Chapter 135
CHAPTER 95. The Cassock.
CHAPTER 95. The Cassock.
Had you stepped on board the Pequod at a certain juncture of this post-mortemizing of the whale; and had you strolled forward nigh the windlass, pretty sure am I that you would have scanned with no small curiosity a v…
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Chapter 136
CHAPTER 96. The Try-Works.
CHAPTER 96. The Try-Works.
Besides her hoisted boats, an American whaler is outwardly distinguished by her try-works. She presents the curious anomaly of the most solid masonry joining with oak and hemp in constituting the completed ship. It is…
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Chapter 137
CHAPTER 97. The Lamp.
CHAPTER 97. The Lamp.
Had you descended from the Pequod’s try-works to the Pequod’s forecastle, where the off duty watch were sleeping, for one single moment you would have almost thought you were standing in some illuminated shrine of can…
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Chapter 138
CHAPTER 98. Stowing Down and Clearing Up.
CHAPTER 98. Stowing Down and Clearing Up.
Already has it been related how the great leviathan is afar off descried from the mast-head; how he is chased over the watery moors, and slaughtered in the valleys of the deep; how he is then towed alongside and behea…
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Chapter 139
CHAPTER 99. The Doubloon.
CHAPTER 99. The Doubloon.
Ere now it has been related how Ahab was wont to pace his quarter-deck, taking regular turns at either limit, the binnacle and mainmast; but in the multiplicity of other things requiring narration it has not been adde…
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Chapter 140
CHAPTER 99. The Doubloon. (2)
CHAPTER 99. The Doubloon. (2)
“And I, you, and he; and we, ye, and they, are all bats; and I’m a crow, especially when I stand a’top of this pine tree here. Caw! caw! caw! caw! caw! caw! Ain’t I a crow? And where’s the scare-crow? There he stands;…
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Chapter 141
CHAPTER 100. Leg and Arm.
CHAPTER 100. Leg and Arm.
The Pequod, of Nantucket, Meets the Samuel Enderby, of London. “Ship, ahoy! Hast seen the White Whale?” So cried Ahab, once more hailing a ship showing English colours, bearing down under the stern. Trumpet to mouth, …
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Chapter 142
CHAPTER 100. Leg and Arm. (2)
CHAPTER 100. Leg and Arm. (2)
“Well, then,” interrupted Bunger, “give him your left arm for bait to get the right. Do you know, gentlemen”—very gravely and mathematically bowing to each Captain in succession—“Do you know, gentlemen, that the diges…
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Chapter 143
CHAPTER 101. The Decanter.
CHAPTER 101. The Decanter.
Ere the English ship fades from sight, be it set down here, that she hailed from London, and was named after the late Samuel Enderby, merchant of that city, the original of the famous whaling house of Enderby & Sons; …
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Chapter 144
CHAPTER 102. A Bower in the Arsacides.
CHAPTER 102. A Bower in the Arsacides.
Hitherto, in descriptively treating of the Sperm Whale, I have chiefly dwelt upon the marvels of his outer aspect; or separately and in detail upon some few interior structural features. But to a large and thorough sw…
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Chapter 145
CHAPTER 103. Measurement of The Whale’s Skeleton.
CHAPTER 103. Measurement of The Whale’s Skeleton.
In the first place, I wish to lay before you a particular, plain statement, touching the living bulk of this leviathan, whose skeleton we are briefly to exhibit. Such a statement may prove useful here. According to a …
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Chapter 146
CHAPTER 104. The Fossil Whale.
CHAPTER 104. The Fossil Whale.
From his mighty bulk the whale affords a most congenial theme whereon to enlarge, amplify, and generally expatiate. Would you, you could not compress him. By good rights he should only be treated of in imperial folio.…
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Chapter 147
CHAPTER 105. Does the Whale’s Magnitude Diminish?—Will He Perish?
CHAPTER 105. Does the Whale’s Magnitude Diminish?—Will He Perish?
Inasmuch, then, as this Leviathan comes floundering down upon us from the head-waters of the Eternities, it may be fitly inquired, whether, in the long course of his generations, he has not degenerated from the origin…
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Chapter 148
CHAPTER 106. Ahab’s Leg.
CHAPTER 106. Ahab’s Leg.
The precipitating manner in which Captain Ahab had quitted the Samuel Enderby of London, had not been unattended with some small violence to his own person. He had lighted with such energy upon a thwart of his boat th…
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Chapter 149
CHAPTER 107. The Carpenter.
CHAPTER 107. The Carpenter.
Seat thyself sultanically among the moons of Saturn, and take high abstracted man alone; and he seems a wonder, a grandeur, and a woe. But from the same point, take mankind in mass, and for the most part, they seem a …
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Chapter 150
CHAPTER 108. Ahab and the Carpenter.
CHAPTER 108. Ahab and the Carpenter.
The Deck—First Night Watch. (_Carpenter standing before his vice-bench, and by the light of two lanterns busily filing the ivory joist for the leg, which joist is firmly fixed in the vice. Slabs of ivory, leather stra…
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Chapter 151
CHAPTER 109. Ahab and Starbuck in the Cabin.
CHAPTER 109. Ahab and Starbuck in the Cabin.
According to usage they were pumping the ship next morning; and lo! no inconsiderable oil came up with the water; the casks below must have sprung a bad leak. Much concern was shown; and Starbuck went down into the ca…
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Chapter 152
CHAPTER 110. Queequeg in His Coffin.
CHAPTER 110. Queequeg in His Coffin.
Upon searching, it was found that the casks last struck into the hold were perfectly sound, and that the leak must be further off. So, it being calm weather, they broke out deeper and deeper, disturbing the slumbers o…
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Chapter 153
CHAPTER 110. Queequeg in His Coffin. (2)
CHAPTER 110. Queequeg in His Coffin. (2)
With a wild whimsiness, he now used his coffin for a sea-chest; and emptying into it his canvas bag of clothes, set them in order there. Many spare hours he spent, in carving the lid with all manner of grotesque figur…
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Chapter 154
CHAPTER 111. The Pacific.
CHAPTER 111. The Pacific.
When gliding by the Bashee isles we emerged at last upon the great South Sea; were it not for other things, I could have greeted my dear Pacific with uncounted thanks, for now the long supplication of my youth was ans…
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Chapter 155
CHAPTER 112. The Blacksmith.
CHAPTER 112. The Blacksmith.
Availing himself of the mild, summer-cool weather that now reigned in these latitudes, and in preparation for the peculiarly active pursuits shortly to be anticipated, Perth, the begrimed, blistered old blacksmith, ha…
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Chapter 156
CHAPTER 113. The Forge.
CHAPTER 113. The Forge.
With matted beard, and swathed in a bristling shark-skin apron, about mid-day, Perth was standing between his forge and anvil, the latter placed upon an iron-wood log, with one hand holding a pike-head in the coals, a…
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Chapter 157
CHAPTER 114. The Gilder.
CHAPTER 114. The Gilder.
Penetrating further and further into the heart of the Japanese cruising ground, the Pequod was soon all astir in the fishery. Often, in mild, pleasant weather, for twelve, fifteen, eighteen, and twenty hours on the st…
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Chapter 158
CHAPTER 115. The Pequod Meets The Bachelor.
CHAPTER 115. The Pequod Meets The Bachelor.
And jolly enough were the sights and the sounds that came bearing down before the wind, some few weeks after Ahab’s harpoon had been welded. It was a Nantucket ship, the Bachelor, which had just wedged in her last cas…
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Chapter 159
CHAPTER 116. The Dying Whale.
CHAPTER 116. The Dying Whale.
Not seldom in this life, when, on the right side, fortune’s favourites sail close by us, we, though all adroop before, catch somewhat of the rushing breeze, and joyfully feel our bagging sails fill out. So seemed it w…
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Chapter 160
CHAPTER 117. The Whale Watch.
CHAPTER 117. The Whale Watch.
The four whales slain that evening had died wide apart; one, far to windward; one, less distant, to leeward; one ahead; one astern. These last three were brought alongside ere nightfall; but the windward one could not…
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Chapter 161
CHAPTER 118. The Quadrant.
CHAPTER 118. The Quadrant.
The season for the Line at length drew near; and every day when Ahab, coming from his cabin, cast his eyes aloft, the vigilant helmsman would ostentatiously handle his spokes, and the eager mariners quickly run to the…
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Chapter 162
CHAPTER 119. The Candles.
CHAPTER 119. The Candles.
Warmest climes but nurse the cruellest fangs: the tiger of Bengal crouches in spiced groves of ceaseless verdure. Skies the most effulgent but basket the deadliest thunders: gorgeous Cuba knows tornadoes that never sw…
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Chapter 163
CHAPTER 119. The Candles. (2)
CHAPTER 119. The Candles. (2)
“I own thy speechless, placeless power; said I not so? Nor was it wrung from me; nor do I now drop these links. Thou canst blind; but I can then grope. Thou canst consume; but I can then be ashes. Take the homage of t…
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Chapter 164
CHAPTER 120. The Deck Towards the End of the First Night Watch.
CHAPTER 120. The Deck Towards the End of the First Night Watch.
Ahab standing by the helm. Starbuck approaching him. “We must send down the main-top-sail yard, sir. The band is working loose and the lee lift is half-stranded. Shall I strike it, sir?” “Strike nothing; lash it. If…
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Chapter 165
CHAPTER 121. Midnight.—The Forecastle Bulwarks.
CHAPTER 121. Midnight.—The Forecastle Bulwarks.
Stubb and Flask mounted on them, and passing additional lashings over the anchors there hanging. “No, Stubb; you may pound that knot there as much as you please, but you will never pound into me what you were just n…
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Chapter 166
CHAPTER 122. Midnight Aloft.—Thunder and Lightning.
CHAPTER 122. Midnight Aloft.—Thunder and Lightning.
The main-top-sail yard.—Tashtego passing new lashings around it. “Um, um, um. Stop that thunder! Plenty too much thunder up here. What’s the use of thunder? Um, um, um. We don’t want thunder; we want rum; give us …
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Chapter 167
CHAPTER 123. The Musket.
CHAPTER 123. The Musket.
During the most violent shocks of the Typhoon, the man at the Pequod’s jaw-bone tiller had several times been reelingly hurled to the deck by its spasmodic motions, even though preventer tackles had been attached to i…
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Chapter 168
CHAPTER 124. The Needle.
CHAPTER 124. The Needle.
Next morning the not-yet-subsided sea rolled in long slow billows of mighty bulk, and striving in the Pequod’s gurgling track, pushed her on like giants’ palms outspread. The strong, unstaggering breeze abounded so, t…
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Chapter 169
CHAPTER 125. The Log and Line.
CHAPTER 125. The Log and Line.
While now the fated Pequod had been so long afloat this voyage, the log and line had but very seldom been in use. Owing to a confident reliance upon other means of determining the vessel’s place, some merchantmen, and…
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Chapter 170
CHAPTER 126. The Life-Buoy.
CHAPTER 126. The Life-Buoy.
Steering now south-eastward by Ahab’s levelled steel, and her progress solely determined by Ahab’s level log and line; the Pequod held on her path towards the Equator. Making so long a passage through such unfrequente…
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Chapter 171
CHAPTER 127. The Deck.
CHAPTER 127. The Deck.
_The coffin laid upon two line-tubs, between the vice-bench and the open hatchway; the Carpenter caulking its seams; the string of twisted oakum slowly unwinding from a large roll of it placed in the bosom of his froc…
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Chapter 172
CHAPTER 128. The Pequod Meets The Rachel.
CHAPTER 128. The Pequod Meets The Rachel.
Next day, a large ship, the Rachel, was descried, bearing directly down upon the Pequod, all her spars thickly clustering with men. At the time the Pequod was making good speed through the water; but as the broad-wing…
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Chapter 173
CHAPTER 129. The Cabin.
CHAPTER 129. The Cabin.
(Ahab moving to go on deck; Pip catches him by the hand to follow.) “Lad, lad, I tell thee thou must not follow Ahab now. The hour is coming when Ahab would not scare thee from him, yet would not have thee by him. T…
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Chapter 174
CHAPTER 130. The Hat.
CHAPTER 130. The Hat.
And now that at the proper time and place, after so long and wide a preliminary cruise, Ahab,—all other whaling waters swept—seemed to have chased his foe into an ocean-fold, to slay him the more securely there; now, …
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Chapter 175
CHAPTER 131. The Pequod Meets The Delight.
CHAPTER 131. The Pequod Meets The Delight.
The intense Pequod sailed on; the rolling waves and days went by; the life-buoy-coffin still lightly swung; and another ship, most miserably misnamed the Delight, was descried. As she drew nigh, all eyes were fixed up…
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Chapter 176
CHAPTER 132. The Symphony.
CHAPTER 132. The Symphony.
It was a clear steel-blue day. The firmaments of air and sea were hardly separable in that all-pervading azure; only, the pensive air was transparently pure and soft, with a woman’s look, and the robust and man-like s…
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Chapter 177
CHAPTER 133. The Chase—First Day.
CHAPTER 133. The Chase—First Day.
That night, in the mid-watch, when the old man—as his wont at intervals—stepped forth from the scuttle in which he leaned, and went to his pivot-hole, he suddenly thrust out his face fiercely, snuffing up the sea air …
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Chapter 178
CHAPTER 133. The Chase—First Day. (2)
CHAPTER 133. The Chase—First Day. (2)
*This motion is peculiar to the sperm whale. It receives its designation (pitchpoling) from its being likened to that preliminary up-and-down poise of the whale-lance, in the exercise called pitchpoling, previously de…
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Chapter 179
CHAPTER 134. The Chase—Second Day.
CHAPTER 134. The Chase—Second Day.
At day-break, the three mast-heads were punctually manned afresh. “D’ye see him?” cried Ahab after allowing a little space for the light to spread. “See nothing, sir.” “Turn up all hands and make sail! he travels fast…
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Chapter 180
CHAPTER 134. The Chase—Second Day. (2)
CHAPTER 134. The Chase—Second Day. (2)
The first uprising momentum of the whale—modifying its direction as he struck the surface—involuntarily launched him along it, to a little distance from the centre of the destruction he had made; and with his back to …
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Chapter 181
CHAPTER 135. The Chase.—Third Day.
CHAPTER 135. The Chase.—Third Day.
The morning of the third day dawned fair and fresh, and once more the solitary night-man at the fore-mast-head was relieved by crowds of the daylight look-outs, who dotted every mast and almost every spar. “D’ye see h…
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Chapter 182
CHAPTER 135. The Chase.—Third Day. (2)
CHAPTER 135. The Chase.—Third Day. (2)
While Daggoo and Queequeg were stopping the strained planks; and as the whale swimming out from them, turned, and showed one entire flank as he shot by them again; at that moment a quick cry went up. Lashed round and …
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Chapter 183
CHAPTER 135. The Chase.—Third Day. (3)
CHAPTER 135. The Chase.—Third Day. (3)
For an instant, the tranced boat’s crew stood still; then turned. “The ship? Great God, where is the ship?” Soon they through dim, bewildering mediums saw her sidelong fading phantom, as in the gaseous Fata Morgana; o…
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