Amiga ISO Collection/AmigaDemoCD2.iso/ASCII/TEXTE/BOOKS/Novels/H.Melville/moby.115

Text File | 1994-05-27 | 5.1 KB | 80 lines

.. < chapter cxv 16  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 cask of oil, and bolted down her
bursting hatches; and now, in glad holiday apparel, was joyously, though
somewhat vain-gloriously, sailing round among the widely-separated ships on
the ground, previous to pointing her prow for home.  The three men at her
mast-head wore long streamers of narrow red bunting at their hats; from the
stern, a whale-boat was suspended, bottom down; and hanging captive from the

     bowsprit was seen the long lower jaw of the last whale they had slain.
Signals, ensigns, and jacks of all colors were flying from her rigging, on
every side.  Sideways lashed in each of her three basketed tops were two
barrels of sperm; above which, in her top-mast cross-trees, you saw slender
breakers of the
.. <p 488 >
same precious fluid; and nailed to her main truck was a brazen lamp.  As was
afterwards learned, the bachelor had met with the most surprising success;
all the more wonderful, for that while cruising in the same seas numerous
other vessels had gone entire months without securing a single fish.  Not only
had barrels of beef and bread been given away to make room for the far more
valuable sperm, but additional supplemental casks had been bartered for,
from the ships she had met; and these were stowed along the deck, and in the
captain's and officers' staterooms.  Even the cabin table itself had been
knocked into kindling-wood; and the cabin mess dined off the broad head of
an oil-butt, lashed down to the floor for a centrepiece.  In the forecastle,
the sailors had actually caulked and pitched their chests, and filled them;
it was humorously added, that the cook had clapped a head on his largest
boiler, and filled it; that the steward had plugged his spare coffee-pot and
filled it; that the harpooneers had headed the sockets of their irons and
filled them; that indeed everything was filled with sperm, except the
captain's pantaloons pockets, and those he reserved to thrust his hands into,
in self-complacent testimony of his entire satisfaction.  As this glad ship of
good luck bore down upon the moody Pequod, the barbarian sound of enormous
drums came from her forecastle; and drawing still nearer, a crowd of her men
were seen standing round her huge try-pots, which, covered with the
parchment-like poke or stomach skin of the black fish, gave forth a loud roar
to every stroke of the clenched hands of the crew.  On the quarter-deck, the
mates and harpooneers were dancing with the olive-hued girls who had eloped
with them from the Polynesian Isles; while suspended in an ornamented boat,
firmly secured aloft between the foremast and mainmast, three Long Island
negroes, with glittering fiddle-bows of whale ivory, were presiding over the
hilarious jig.  Meanwhile, others of the ship's company were tumultuously busy
at the masonry of the try-works, from which the huge pots had been removed.
You would have almost thought they were pulling down the cursed Bastile, such
wild cries they raised, as the now useless brick and mortar were being hurled
into the sea.
.. <p 489 >
Lord and master over all this scene, the captain stood erect on the ship's
elevated quarter-deck, so that the whole rejoicing drama was full before him,

     and seemed merely contrived for his own individual diversion.  And Ahab, he
too was standing on his quarter-deck, shaggy and black, with a stubborn
gloom; and as the two ships crossed each other's wakes --one all jubilations
for things passed, the other all forebodings as to things to come --their two
captains in themselves impersonated the whole striking contrast of the scene.

     Come aboard, come aboard!  cried the gay Bachelor's commander, lifting a
glass and a bottle in the air.  Hast seen the White Whale?  gritted Ahab in
reply.  No; only heard of him; but don't believe in him at all, said the
other good-humoredly.  Come aboard!  Thou are too damned jolly.  Sail on.
Hast lost any men?  Not enough to speak of --two islanders, that's all; --but
come aboard, old hearty, come along.  I'll soon take that black from your
brow.  Come along, will ye (merry's the play); a full ship and
homeward-bound.  How wondrous familiar is a fool!  muttered Ahab; then
aloud, Thou art a full ship and homeward bound, thou sayest; well, then,
call me an empty ship, and outward-bound.  So go thy ways, and I will mine.
Forward there!  Set all sail, and keep her to the wind!  And thus, while the
one ship went cheerily before the breeze, the other stubbornly fought against
it; and so the two vessels parted; the crew of the Pequod looking with
grave, lingering glances towards the receding Bachelor; but the Bachelor's
men never heeding their gaze for the lively revelry they were in.  And as
Ahab, leaning over the taffrail, eyed the homeward-bound craft, he took from
his pocket a small vial of sand, and then looking from the ship to the vial,
seemed thereby bringing two remote associations together, for that vial was
filled with Nantucket soundings.
.. <p 490 >