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Table of Contents
Chapter 36
THE QUARTER-DECK
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 usually walk at that hour, as country gentlemen, after the same
meal, take a few turns in the garden. Soon his steady, ivory stride was heard,
as to and fro he paced his old rounds, upon planks so familiar to his tread,
that they were all over dented, like geological stones, with the peculiar mark
of his walk. Did you fixedly gaze, too, upon that ribbed ..
2 and dented brow; there
also, you would see still stranger foot-prints --the foot-prints of his one
unsleeping, ever-pacing thought. But on the occasion in question, those dents
looked deeper, even as his nervous step that morning left a deeper mark. And,
so full of his thought was Ahab, that at every uniform turn that he made, now
at the main-mast and now at the binnacle, you could almost see that thought
turn in him as he turned, and pace in him as he paced; so completely
possessing him, indeed, that it all but seemed the inward mould of every outer
movement. D'ye mark him, Flask? whispered Stubb; the chick that's in him pecks
the shell. T'will soon be out. The hours wore on; --Ahab now shut up within
his cabin; anon, pacing the deck, with the same intense bigotry of purpose in
his aspect. It drew near the close of day. Suddenly he came to a halt by the
bulwarks, and inserting his bone leg into the auger-hole there, and with one
hand grasping a shroud, he ordered Starbuck to send everybody aft. Sir! said
the mate, astonished at an order seldom or never given on ship-board except in
some extraordinary case. Send everybody aft, repeated Ahab. Mast-heads, there!
come down! When the entire ship's company were assembled, and with curious and
not wholly unapprehensive faces, were eyeing him, for he looked not unlike the
weather horizon when a storm is coming up, Ahab, after rapidly glancing over
the bulwarks, and then darting his eyes among the crew, started from his
standpoint; and as though not a soul were nigh him resumed his heavy turns
upon the deck. With bent head and half-slouched hat he continued to pace,
unmindful of the wondering whispering among the men; till Stubb cautiously
whispered to Flask, that Ahab must have summoned them there for the purpose of
witnessing a pedestrian feat. But this did not last long. Vehemently pausing,
he cried: -- What do ye do when ye see a whale, men? Sing out for him! was the
impulsive rejoinder from a score of clubbed voices. ..
3 Good! cried Ahab, with
a wild approval in his tones; observing the hearty animation into which his
unexpected question had so magnetically thrown them. And what do ye next, men?
Lower away, and after him! And what tune is it ye pull to, men? A dead whale
or a stove boat! More and more strangely and fiercely glad and approving, grew
the countenance of the old man at every shout; while the mariners began to
gaze curiously at each other, as if marvelling how it was that they themselves
became so excited at such seemingly purposeless questions. But, they were all
eagerness again, as Ahab, now half-revolving in his pivot-hole, with one hand
reaching high up a shroud, and tightly, almost convulsively grasping it,
addressed them thus: -- All ye mast-headers have before now heard me give
orders about a white whale. Look ye! d'ye see this Spanish ounce of gold?
--holding up a broad bright coin to the sun -- it is a sixteen dollar piece,
men. D'ye see it? Mr. Starbuck, hand me yon top-maul. While the mate was
getting the hammer, Ahab, without speaking, was slowly rubbing the gold piece
against the skirts of his jacket, as if to heighten its lustre, and without
using any words was meanwhile lowly humming to himself, producing a sound so
strangely muffled and inarticulate that it seemed the mechanical humming of
the wheels of his vitality in him. Receiving the top-maul from Starbuck, he
advanced towards the main-mast with the hammer uplifted in one hand,
exhibiting the gold with the other, and with a high raised voice exclaiming:
Whosoever of ye raises me a white-headed whale with a wrinkled brow and a
crooked jaw; whosoever of ye raises me that white-headed whale, with three
holes punctured in his starboard fluke --look ye, whosoever of ye raises me
that same white whale, he shall have this gold ounce, my boys! Huzza! huzza!
cried the seamen, as with swinging tarpaulins they hailed the act of nailing
the gold to the mast. It's a white whale, I say, resumed Ahab, as he threw
down ..
4 the top-maul; a white
whale. Skin your eyes for him, men; look sharp for white water; if ye see but
a bubble, sing out. All this while Tashtego, Daggoo, and Queequeg had looked
on with even more intense interest and surprise than the rest, and at the
mention of the wrinkled brow and crooked jaw they had started as if each was
separately touched by some specific recollection. Captain Ahab, said Tashtego,
that white whale must be the same that some call Moby Dick. Moby Dick? shouted
Ahab. Do ye know the white whale then, Tash? Does he fan-tail a little
curious, sir, before he goes down? said the Gay-Header deliberately. And has
he a curious spout, too, said Daggoo, very bushy, even for a parmacetty, and
mighty quick, Captain Ahab? And he have one, two, tree --oh! good many iron in
him hide, too, Captain, cried Queequeg disjointedly, all twiske-tee betwisk,
like him--him-- faltering hard for a word, and screwing his hand round and
round as though uncorking a bottle -- like him--him-- Corkscrew! cried Ahab,
aye, Queequeg, the harpoons lie all twisted and wrenched in him; aye, Daggoo,
his spout is a big one, like a whole shock of wheat, and white as a pile of
our Nantucket wool after the great annual sheep-shearing; aye, Tashtego, and
he fan-tails like a split jib in a squall. Death and devils! men, it is Moby
Dick ye have seen --Moby Dick-- Moby Dick! Captain Ahab, said Starbuck, who,
with Stubb and Flask, had thus far been eyeing his superior with increasing
surprise, but at last seemed struck with a thought which somewhat explained
all the wonder. Captain Ahab, I have heard of Moby Dick--but it was not Moby
Dick that took off thy leg? Who told thee that? cried Ahab; then pausing, Aye,
Starbuck; aye, my hearties all round; it was Moby Dick that dismasted me; Moby
Dick that brought me to this dead stump I stand on now. Aye, aye, he shouted
with a terrific, loud, animal sob, like that of a heart-stricken moose; Aye,
aye! it was that accursed white whale that razeed me; made a poor pegging ..
5 lubber of me for ever
and a day! Then tossing both arms, with measureless imprecations he shouted
out: Aye, aye! and I'll chase him round Good Hope, and round the horn, and
round the norway maelstrom, and round perdition's flames before I give him up.
And this is what ye have shipped for, men! to chase that white whale on both
sides of land, and over all sides of earth, till he spouts black blood and
rolls fin out. What say ye, men, will ye splice hands on it, now? I think ye
do look brave. Aye, aye! shouted the harpooneers and seamen, running closer to
the excited old man: A sharp eye for the White Whale; a sharp lance for Moby
Dick! God bless ye, he seemed to half sob and half shout. God bless ye, men.
Steward! go draw the great measure of grog. But what's this long face about,
Mr. Starbuck; wilt thou not chase the white whale? art not game for Moby Dick?
I am game for his crooked jaw, and for the jaws of Death too, Captain Ahab, if
it fairly comes in the way of the business we follow; but I came here to hunt
whales, not my commander's vengeance. How many barrels will thy vengeance
yield thee even if thou gettest it, Captain Ahab? it will not fetch thee much
in our Nantucket market. Nantucket market! Hoot! But come closer, Starbuck;
thou requirest a little lower layer. If money's to be the measurer, man, and
the accountants have computed their great counting-house the globe, by
girdling it with guineas, one to every three parts of an inch; then, let me
tell thee, that my vengeance will fetch a great premium here! He smites his
chest, whispered Stubb, what's that for? methinks it rings most vast, but
hollow. Vengeance on a dumb brute! cried Starbuck, that simply smote thee from
blindest instinct! Madness! To be enraged with a dumb thing, Captain Ahab,
seems blasphemous. Hark ye yet again, --the little lower layer. All visible
objects, man, are but as pasteboard masks. But in each event --in the living
act, the undoubted deed --there, some unknown but still reasoning thing puts
forth the mouldings of its features from behind the unreasoning mask. If man
will strike, strike through ..
6 the mask! How can the
prisoner reach outside except by thrusting through the wall? To me, the white
whale is that wall, shoved near to me. Sometimes I think there's naught
beyond. But 'tis enough. He tasks me; he heaps me; I see in him outrageous
strength, with an inscrutable malice sinewing it. That inscrutable thing is
chiefly what I hate; and be the white whale agent, or be the white whale
principal, I will wreak that hate upon him. Talk not to me of blasphemy, man;
I'd strike the sun if it insulted me. For could the sun do that, then could I
do the other; since there is ever a sort of fair play herein, jealousy
presiding over all creations. But not my master, man, is even that fair play.
Who's over me? Truth hath no confines. Take off thine eye! more intolerable
than fiends' glarings is a doltish stare! So, so; thou reddenest and palest;
my heat has melted thee to anger-glow. But look ye, Starbuck, what is said in
heat, that thing unsays itself. There are men from whom warm words are small
indignity. I meant not to incense thee. Let it go. Look! see yonder Turkish
cheeks of spotted tawn -- living, breathing pictures painted by the sun. The
Pagan leopards --the unrecking and unworshipping things, that live; and seek,
and give no reasons for the torrid life they feel! The crew, man, the crew!
Are they not one and all with Ahab, in this matter of the whale? See Stubb! he
laughs! See yonder Chilian! he snorts to think of it. Stand up amid the
general hurricane, thy one tost sapling cannot, Starbuck! And what is it?
Reckon it. 'Tis but to help strike a fin; no wondrous feat for Starbuck. What
is it more? From this one poor hunt, then, the best lance out of all
Nantucket, surely he will not hang back, when every foremast-hand has clutched
a whetstone? Ah! constrainings seize thee; I see! the billow lifts thee!
Speak, but speak! --Aye, aye! thy silence, then, that voices thee. ( aside)
something shot from my dilated nostrils, he has inhaled it in his lungs.
Starbuck now is mine; cannot oppose me now, without rebellion. God keep me!
--keep us all! murmured Starbuck, lowly. But in his joy at the enchanted,
tacit acquiescence of the mate, Ahab did not hear his foreboding invocation;
nor yet the low laugh from the hold; nor yet the presaging vibrations of ..
7 the winds in the
cordage; nor yet the hollow flap of the sails against the masts, as for a
moment their hearts sank in. For again Starbuck's downcast eyes lighted up
with the stubbornness of life; the subterranean laugh died away; the winds
blew on; the sails filled out; the ship heaved and rolled as before. Ah, ye
admonitions and warnings! why stay ye not when ye come? But rather are ye
predictions than warnings, ye shadows! Yet not so much predictions from
without, as verifications of the foregoing things within. For with little
external to constrain us, the innermost necessities in our being, these still
drive us on. The measure! the measure! cried Ahab. 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 at his side with their lances, and
the rest of the ship's company formed a circle round the group; he stood for
an instant searchingly eyeing every man of his crew. But those wild eyes met
his, as the bloodshot eyes of the prairie wolves meet the eye of their leader,
ere he rushes on at their head in the trail of the bison; but, alas! only to
fall into the hidden snare of the Indian. Drink and pass! he cried, handing
the heavy charged flagon to the nearest seaman. The crew alone now drink.
Round with it, round! Short draughts --long swallows, men; 'tis hot as Satan's
hoof. So, so; it goes round excellently. It spiralizes in ye; forks out at the
serpent-snapping eye. well done; almost drained. That way it went, this way it
comes. Hand it me -- here's a hollow! Men, ye seem the years; so brimming life
is gulped and gone. Steward, refill! Attend now, my braves. I have mustered ye
all round this capstan; and ye mates, flank me with your lances; and ye
harpooneers, stand there with your irons; and ye, stout mariners, ring me in,
that I may in some sort revive a noble custom of my fisherman fathers before
me. O men, you will yet see that-- Ha! boy, come back? bad pennies come not
sooner. Hand it me. Why, now, this pewter had run brimming again, wer't not
thou St. Vitus' imp --away, thou ague! Advance, ye mates! Cross your lances
full before me. Well ..
8 done! Let me touch the
axis. So saying, with extended arm, he grasped the three level, radiating
lances at their crossed centre; while so doing, suddenly and nervously
twitched them; meanwhile, glancing intently from Starbuck to Stubb; from Stubb
to Flask. It seemed as though, by some nameless, interior volition, he would
fain have shocked into them the same fiery emotion accumulated within the
Leyden jar of his own magnetic life. The three mates quailed before his
strong, sustained, and mystic aspect. Stubb and Flask looked sideways from
him; the honest eye of Starbuck fell downright. In vain! cried Ahab; but,
maybe, 'tis well. For did ye three but once take the full-forced shock, then
mine own electric thing, that had perhaps expired from out me. Perchance, too,
it would have dropped ye dead. Perchance ye need it not. Down lances! And now,
ye mates, I do appoint ye three cup-bearers to my three pagan kinsmen there
--yon three most honorable gentlemen and noblemen, my valiant harpooneers.
Disdain the task? What, when the great Pope washes the feet of beggars, using
his tiara for ewer? Oh, my sweet cardinals! your own condescension, that shall
bend ye to it. I do not order ye; ye will it. Cut your seizings and draw the
poles, ye harpooneers! Silently obeying the order, the three harpooneers now
stood with the detached iron part of their harpoons, some three feet long,
held, barbs up, before him. Stab me not with that keen steel! Cant them; cant
them over! know ye not the goblet end? Turn up the socket! So, so; now, ye
cup-bearers, advance. The irons! take them; hold them while I fill! Forthwith,
slowly going from one officer to the other, he brimmed the harpoon sockets
with the fiery waters from the pewter. Now, three to three, ye stand. Commend
the murderous chalices! Bestow them, ye who are now made parties to this
indissoluble league. Ha! Starbuck! but the deed is done! Yon ratifying sun now
waits to sit upon it. Drink, ye harpooneers! drink and swear, ye men that man
the deathful whaleboat's bow -- Death to Moby Dick! God hunt us all, if we do
not hunt Moby Dick to his death! The long, barbed steel goblets were lifted;
and to cries and maledictions against the white whale, the spirits ..
9 were simultaneously
quaffed down with a hiss. Starbuck paled, and turned, and shivered. Once more,
and finally, the replenished pewter went the rounds among the frantic crew;
when, waving his free hand to them, they all dispersed; and Ahab retired
within his cabin. ..
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