Bab Bab 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. For the present other matters press, and the best we can do now for

the head, is to pray heaven the tackles may hold.

Now, during the past night and forenoon, the Pequod had gradually

drifted into a sea, which, by its occasional patches of yellow brit,

gave unusual tokens of the vicinity of Right Whales, a species of the

Leviathan that but few supposed to be at this particular time lurking

anywhere near. And though all hands commonly disdained the capture of

those inferior creatures; and though the Pequod was not commissioned to

cruise for them at all, and though she had passed numbers of them near

the Crozetts without lowering a boat; yet now that a Sperm Whale had

been brought alongside and beheaded, to the surprise of all, the

announcement was made that a Right Whale should be captured that day,

if opportunity offered.

Nor was this long wanting. Tall spouts were seen to leeward; and two

boats, Stubb’s and Flask’s, were detached in pursuit. Pulling further

and further away, they at last became almost invisible to the men at

the mast-head. But suddenly in the distance, they saw a great heap of

tumultuous white water, and soon after news came from aloft that one or

both the boats must be fast. An interval passed and the boats were in

plain sight, in the act of being dragged right towards the ship by the

towing whale. So close did the monster come to the hull, that at first

it seemed as if he meant it malice; but suddenly going down in a

maelstrom, within three rods of the planks, he wholly disappeared from

view, as if diving under the keel. “Cut, cut!” was the cry from the

ship to the boats, which, for one instant, seemed on the point of being

brought with a deadly dash against the vessel’s side. But having plenty

of line yet in the tubs, and the whale not sounding very rapidly, they

paid out abundance of rope, and at the same time pulled with all their

might so as to get ahead of the ship. For a few minutes the struggle

was intensely critical; for while they still slacked out the tightened

line in one direction, and still plied their oars in another, the

contending strain threatened to take them under. But it was only a few

feet advance they sought to gain. And they stuck to it till they did

gain it; when instantly, a swift tremor was felt running like lightning

along the keel, as the strained line, scraping beneath the ship,

suddenly rose to view under her bows, snapping and quivering; and so

flinging off its drippings, that the drops fell like bits of broken

glass on the water, while the whale beyond also rose to sight, and once

more the boats were free to fly. But the fagged whale abated his speed,

and blindly altering his course, went round the stern of the ship

towing the two boats after him, so that they performed a complete

circuit.

Meantime, they hauled more and more upon their lines, till close

flanking him on both sides, Stubb answered Flask with lance for lance;

and thus round and round the Pequod the battle went, while the

multitudes of sharks that had before swum round the Sperm Whale’s body,

rushed to the fresh blood that was spilled, thirstily drinking at every

new gash, as the eager Israelites did at the new bursting fountains

that poured from the smitten rock.

At last his spout grew thick, and with a frightful roll and vomit, he

turned upon his back a corpse.

While the two headsmen were engaged in making fast cords to his flukes,

and in other ways getting the mass in readiness for towing, some

conversation ensued between them.

“I wonder what the old man wants with this lump of foul lard,” said

Stubb, not without some disgust at the thought of having to do with so

ignoble a leviathan.

“Wants with it?” said Flask, coiling some spare line in the boat’s bow,

“did you never hear that the ship which but once has a Sperm Whale’s

head hoisted on her starboard side, and at the same time a Right

Whale’s on the larboard; did you never hear, Stubb, that that ship can

never afterwards capsize?”

“Why not?

“I don’t know, but I heard that gamboge ghost of a Fedallah saying so,

and he seems to know all about ships’ charms. But I sometimes think

he’ll charm the ship to no good at last. I don’t half like that chap,

Stubb. Did you ever notice how that tusk of his is a sort of carved

into a snake’s head, Stubb?”

“Sink him! I never look at him at all; but if ever I get a chance of a

dark night, and he standing hard by the bulwarks, and no one by; look

down there, Flask”—pointing into the sea with a peculiar motion of both

hands—“Aye, will I! Flask, I take that Fedallah to be the devil in

disguise. Do you believe that cock and bull story about his having been

stowed away on board ship? He’s the devil, I say. The reason why you

don’t see his tail, is because he tucks it up out of sight; he carries

it coiled away in his pocket, I guess. Blast him! now that I think of

it, he’s always wanting oakum to stuff into the toes of his boots.”

“He sleeps in his boots, don’t he? He hasn’t got any hammock; but I’ve

seen him lay of nights in a coil of rigging.”

“No doubt, and it’s because of his cursed tail; he coils it down, do ye

see, in the eye of the rigging.”

“What’s the old man have so much to do with him for?”

“Striking up a swap or a bargain, I suppose.”

“Bargain?—about what?”

“Why, do ye see, the old man is hard bent after that White Whale, and

the devil there is trying to come round him, and get him to swap away

his silver watch, or his soul, or something of that sort, and then

he’ll surrender Moby Dick.”

“Pooh! Stubb, you are skylarking; how can Fedallah do that?”

“I don’t know, Flask, but the devil is a curious chap, and a wicked

one, I tell ye. Why, they say as how he went a sauntering into the old

flag-ship once, switching his tail about devilish easy and

gentlemanlike, and inquiring if the old governor was at home. Well, he

was at home, and asked the devil what he wanted. The devil, switching

his hoofs, up and says, ‘I want John.’ ‘What for?’ says the old

governor. ‘What business is that of yours,’ says the devil, getting

mad,—‘I want to use him.’ ‘Take him,’ says the governor—and by the

Lord, Flask, if the devil didn’t give John the Asiatic cholera before

he got through with him, I’ll eat this whale in one mouthful. But look

sharp—ain’t you all ready there? Well, then, pull ahead, and let’s get

the whale alongside.”

“I think I remember some such story as you were telling,” said Flask,

when at last the two boats were slowly advancing with their burden

towards the ship, “but I can’t remember where.”

“Three Spaniards? Adventures of those three bloody-minded soldadoes?

Did ye read it there, Flask? I guess ye did?”

“No: never saw such a book; heard of it, though. But now, tell me,

Stubb, do you suppose that that devil you was speaking of just now, was

the same you say is now on board the Pequod?”

“Am I the same man that helped kill this whale? Doesn’t the devil live

for ever; who ever heard that the devil was dead? Did you ever see any

parson a wearing mourning for the devil? And if the devil has a

latch-key to get into the admiral’s cabin, don’t you suppose he can

crawl into a porthole? Tell me that, Mr. Flask?”

“How old do you suppose Fedallah is, Stubb?”

“Do you see that mainmast there?” pointing to the ship; “well, that’s

the figure one; now take all the hoops in the Pequod’s hold, and string

along in a row with that mast, for oughts, do you see; well, that

wouldn’t begin to be Fedallah’s age. Nor all the coopers in creation

couldn’t show hoops enough to make oughts enough.”

“But see here, Stubb, I thought you a little boasted just now, that you

meant to give Fedallah a sea-toss, if you got a good chance. Now, if

he’s so old as all those hoops of yours come to, and if he is going to

live for ever, what good will it do to pitch him overboard—tell me

that?

“Give him a good ducking, anyhow.”

“But he’d crawl back.”

“Duck him again; and keep ducking him.”

“Suppose he should take it into his head to duck you, though—yes, and

drown you—what then?”

“I should like to see him try it; I’d give him such a pair of black

eyes that he wouldn’t dare to show his face in the admiral’s cabin

again for a long while, let alone down in the orlop there, where he

lives, and hereabouts on the upper decks where he sneaks so much. Damn

the devil, Flask; so you suppose I’m afraid of the devil? Who’s afraid

of him, except the old governor who daresn’t catch him and put him in

double-darbies, as he deserves, but lets him go about kidnapping

people; aye, and signed a bond with him, that all the people the devil

kidnapped, he’d roast for him? There’s a governor!”

“Do you suppose Fedallah wants to kidnap Captain Ahab?”

“Do I suppose it? You’ll know it before long, Flask. But I am going now

to keep a sharp look-out on him; and if I see anything very suspicious

going on, I’ll just take him by the nape of his neck, and say—Look

here, Beelzebub, you don’t do it; and if he makes any fuss, by the Lord

I’ll make a grab into his pocket for his tail, take it to the capstan,

and give him such a wrenching and heaving, that his tail will come

short off at the stump—do you see; and then, I rather guess when he

finds himself docked in that queer fashion, he’ll sneak off without the

poor satisfaction of feeling his tail between his legs.”

“And what will you do with the tail, Stubb?”

“Do with it? Sell it for an ox whip when we get home;—what else?”

“Now, do you mean what you say, and have been saying all along, Stubb?”

“Mean or not mean, here we are at the ship.”

The boats were here hailed, to tow the whale on the larboard side,

where fluke chains and other necessaries were already prepared for

securing him.

“Didn’t I tell you so?” said Flask; “yes, you’ll soon see this right

whale’s head hoisted up opposite that parmacetti’s.”

In good time, Flask’s saying proved true. As before, the Pequod steeply

leaned over towards the sperm whale’s head, now, by the counterpoise of

both heads, she regained her even keel; though sorely strained, you may

well believe. So, when on one side you hoist in Locke’s head, you go

over that way; but now, on the other side, hoist in Kant’s and you come

back again; but in very poor plight. Thus, some minds for ever keep

trimming boat. Oh, ye foolish! throw all these thunder-heads overboard,

and then you will float light and right.

In disposing of the body of a right whale, when brought alongside the

ship, the same preliminary proceedings commonly take place as in the

case of a sperm whale; only, in the latter instance, the head is cut

off whole, but in the former the lips and tongue are separately removed

and hoisted on deck, with all the well known black bone attached to

what is called the crown-piece. But nothing like this, in the present

case, had been done. The carcases of both whales had dropped astern;

and the head-laden ship not a little resembled a mule carrying a pair

of overburdening panniers.

Meantime, Fedallah was calmly eyeing the right whale’s head, and ever

and anon glancing from the deep wrinkles there to the lines in his own

hand. And Ahab chanced so to stand, that the Parsee occupied his

shadow; while, if the Parsee’s shadow was there at all it seemed only

to blend with, and lengthen Ahab’s. As the crew toiled on, Laplandish

speculations were bandied among them, concerning all these passing

things.