Chapter LXXIII: 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-- aint 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 port-hole? 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 'em 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; do 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.