Bab Bab 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

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, fall 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 Gulfweed 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.*

*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 discolour 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_.

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.