CHAPTER 100

  Leg and Arm

  The Pequod of Nantucket, Meets the Samuel Enderby, of London

  "Ship, ahoy! Hast seen the White Whale?"

  So cried Ahab, once more hailing a ship showing English colors,

bearing down under the stern. Trumpet to mouth, the old man was

standing in his hoisted quarter-deck, his ivory leg plainly revealed

to the stranger captain, who was carelessly reclining in his own

boat's bow. He was a darkly-tanned, burly, goodnatured, fine-looking

man, of sixty or thereabouts, dressed in a spacious roundabout, that

hung round him in festoons of blue pilot-cloth; and one empty arm of

his jacket streamed behind him like the broidered arm of a huzzar's

surcoat.

  "Hast seen the White Whale!"

  "See you this?" and withdrawing it from the folds that had hidden

it, he held up a white arm of sperm whale bone, terminating in a

wooden head like a mallet.

  "Man my boat!" cried Ahab, impetuously, and tossing about the oars

near him- "Stand by to lower!"

  In less than a minute, without quitting his little craft, he and his

crew were dropped to the water, and were soon alongside of the

stranger. But here a curious difficulty presented itself. In the

excitement of the moment, Ahab had forgotton that since the loss of

his leg he had never once stepped on board of any vessel at sea but

his own, and then it was always by an ingenious and very handy

mechanical contrivance peculiar to the Pequod, and a thing not to be

rigged and shipped in any other vessel at a moment's warning. Now,

it is no very easy matter for anybody- except those who are almost

hourly used to it, like whalemen- to clamber up a ship's side from a

boat on the open sea; for the great swells now lift the boat high up

towards the bulwarks, and then instantaneously drop it half way down

to the kelson. So, deprived of one leg, and the strange ship of course

being altogether unsupplied with the kindly invention, Ahab now

found himself abjectly reduced to a clumsy landsman again;

hopelessly eyeing the uncertain changeful height he could hardly hopte

to attain.

  It has before been hinted, perhaps, that every little untoward

circumstance that befell him, and which indirectly sprang from his

luckless mishap, almost invariably irritated or exasperated Ahab.

And in the present instance, all this was heightened by the sight of

the two officers of the strange ship, leaning over the side, by the

perpendicular ladder of nailed cleets there, and swinging towards

him a pair of tastefully-ornamented man-ropes; for at first they did

not seem to bethink them that a one-legged man must be too much of a

cripple to use their sea bannisters. But this awkwardness only

lasted a minute, because the strange captain, observing at a glance

how affairs stood, cried out, "I see, I see!- avast heaving there!

Jump, boys, and swing over the cutting-tackle."

  As good luck would have it, they had had a whale alongside a day

or two previous, and the great tackles were still aloft, and the

massive curved blubber-hook, now clean and dry, was still attached

to the end. This was quickly lowered to Ahab, who at once

comprehending it all, slid his solitary thigh into the curve of the

hook (it was like sitting in the fluke of an anchor, or the crotch

of an apple tree), and then giving the word, held himself fast, and at

the same time also helped to hoist his own weight, by pulling

hand-over-hand upon one of the running parts of the tackle. Soon he

was carefully swung inside the high bulwarks, and gently landed upon

the capstan head. With his ivory arm frankly thrust forth in

welcome, the other captain advanced, and Ahab, putting out his ivory

leg, and crossing the ivory arm (like two sword-fish blades) cried out

in his walrus way, "Aye, aye, hearty! let us shake bones together!- an

arm and a leg!- an arm that never can shrink, d'ye see; and a leg that

never can run. Where did'st thou see the White Whale?- how long ago?"

  "The White Whale," said the Englishman, pointing his ivory arm

towards the East, and taking a rueful sight along it, as if it had

been a telescope; "there I saw him, on the Line, last season."

  "And he took that arm off, did he?" asked Ahab, now sliding down

from the capstan, and resting on the Englishman's shoulder, as he

did so.

  "Aye, he was the cause of it, at least; and that leg, too?"

  "Spin me the yarn," said Ahab; "how was it?"

  "It was the first time in my life that I ever cruised on the

Line," began the Englishman. "I was ignorant of the White Whale at

that time. Well, one day we lowered for a pod of four or five

whales, and my boat fastened to one of them; a regular circus horse he

was, too, that went milling and milling round so that my boat's crew

could only trim dish, by sitting all their sterns on the outer

gunwale. Presently up breaches from the bottom of the sea a bouncing

great whale, with a milky-white head and hump, all crows' feet and

wrinkles."

  "It was he, it was he!" cried Ahab, suddenly letting out his

suspended breath.

  "And harpoons sticking in near his starboad fin."

  "Aye, aye- they were mine- my irons," cried Ahab, exultingly- "but

on!"

  "Give me a chance, then," said the Englishman, good-humoredly.

"Well, this old great-grandfather, with the white head and hump,

runs all afoam into the pod, and goes to snapping furiously at my

fast-line!

  "Aye, I see!- wanted to part it; free the fast-fish- an old trick- I

know him."

  "How it was exactly," continued the one-armed commander, "I do not

know; but in biting the line, it got foul of his teeth, caught there

somehow; but we didn't know it then; so that when we afterwards pulled

on the line, bounce we came plump on to his hump! instead of the other

whale's; that went off to windward, all fluking. Seeing how matters

stood, and what a noble great whale it was- the noblest and biggest

I ever saw, sir, in my life- I resolved to capture him, spite of the

boiling rage he seemed to be in. And thinking the hap-hazard line

would get loose, or the tooth it was tangled to might draw (for I have

a devil of a boat's crew for a pull on a whale-line); seeing all this,

I say, I jumped into my first mate's boat- Mr. Mounttop's here (by the

way, Captain- Mounttop; Mounttop- the captain);- as I was saying, I

jumped into Mounttop's boat, which, d'ye see, was gunwale and

gunwale with mine, then; and snatching the first harpoon, let this old

great-grandfather have it. But, Lord, look you, sir- hearts and

souls alive, man- the next instant, in a jiff, I was blind as a bat-

both eyes out- all befogged and bedeadened with black foam- the

whale's tail looming straight up out of it, perpendicular in the

air, like a marble steeple. No use sterning all, then; but as I was

groping at midday, with a blinding sun, all crown-jewels; as I was

groping, I say, after the second iron, to toss it overboard- down

comes the tail like a Lima tower, cutting my boat in two, leaving each

half in splinters; and, flukes first, the white hump backed through

the wreck, as though it was all chips. We all struck out. To escape

his terrible flailings, I seized hold of my harpoon-pole sticking in

him, and for a moment clung to that like a sucking fish. But a combing

sea dashed me off, and at the same instant, the fish, taking one

good dart forwards, went down like a flash; and the barb of that

cursed second iron towing along near me caught me here" (clapping

his hand just below his shoulder); "yes, caught me just here, I say,

and bore me down to Hell's flames, I was thinking; when, when, all

of a sudden, thank the good God, the barb ript its way along the

flesh- clear along the whole length of my arm- came out nigh my wrist,

and up I floated;- and that gentleman there will tell you the rest (by

the way, captain- Dr. Bunger, ship's surgeon: Bunger, my lad,- the

captain). Now, Bunger boy, spin your part of the yarn."

  The professional gentleman thus familiarly pointed out, had been all

the time standing near them, with nothing specific visible, to

denote his gentlemanly rank on board. His face was an exceedingly

round but sober one; he was dressed in a faded blue woolen frock or

shirt, and patched trowsers; and had thus far been dividing his

attention between a marlingspike he held in one hand, and a pill-box

held in the other, occasionally casting a critical glance at the ivory

limbs of the two crippled captains. But, at his superior's

introduction of him to Ahab, he politely bowed, and straightway went

on to do his captain's bidding.

  "It was a shocking bad wound," began the whale-surgeon; "and, taking

my advice, Captain Boomer here, stood our old Sammy-"

  "Samuel Enderby is the name of my ship," interrupted the one-armed

captain, addressing Ahab; "go on, boy."

  "Stood our old Sammy off to the northward, to get out of the blazing

hot weather there on the Line. But it was no use- I did all I could;

sat up with him nights; was very severe with him in the matter of

diet-"

  "Oh, very severe!" chimed in the patient himself; then suddenly

altering his voice, "Drinking hot rum toddies with me every night,

till he couldn't see to put on the bandages; and sending me to bed,

half seas over, about three o'clock in the morning. Oh, ye stars! he

sat up with me indeed, and was very severe in my diet. Oh! a great

watcher, and very dietetically severe, is Dr. Bunger. (Bunger, you

dog, laugh out! why don't ye? You know you're a precious jolly

rascal.) But, heave ahead, boy, I'd rather be killed by you than

kept alive by any other man."

  "My captain, you must have ere this perceived, respected sir"-

said the imperturbable godly-looking Bunger, slightly bowing to

Ahab- "is apt to be facetious at times; he spins us many clever things

of that sort. But I may as well say- en passant, as the French remark-

that I myself- that is to say, Jack Bunger, late of the reverend

clergy- am a strict total abstinence man; I never drink-"

  "Water!" cried the captain; "he never drinks it; it's a sort of fits

to him; fresh water throws him into the hydrophobia; but go on- go

on with the arm story."

  "Yes, I may as well," said the surgeon, coolly. "I was about

observing, sir, before Captain Boomer's facetious interruption, that

spite of my best and severest endeavors, the wound kept getting

worse and worse; the truth was, sir, it was as ugly gaping wound as

surgeon ever saw; more than two feet and several inches long. I

measured it with the lead line. In short, it grew black; I knew what

was threatened, and off it came. But I had no hand in shipping that

ivory arm there; that thing is against all rule"- pointing at it

with the marlingspike- "that is the captain's work, not mine; he

ordered the carpenter to make it; he had that club-hammer there put to

the end, to knock some one's brains out with, I suppose, as he tried

mine once. He flies into diabolical passions sometimes. Do ye see this

dent, sir"- removing his hat, and brushing aside his hair, and

exposing a bowl-like cavity in his skull, but which bore not the

slightest scarry trace, or any token of ever having been a wound-

"Well, the captain there will tell you how that came there; he knows."

  "No, I don't," said the captain, "but his mother did; he was born

with it. Oh, you solemn rogue, you- you Bunger! was there ever such

another Bunger in the watery world? Bunger, when you die, you ought to

die in pickle, you dog; you should be preserved to future ages, you

rascal."

  "What became of the White Whale?" now cried Ahab, who thus far had

been impatiently listening to this byeplay between the two Englishmen.

  "Oh!" cried the one-armed captain, "oh, yes! Well; after he sounded,

we didn't see him again for some time; in fact, as I before hinted,

I didn't then know what whale it was that had served me such a

trick, till some time afterwards, when coming back to the Line, we

heard about Moby Dick- as some call him- and then I knew it was he."

  "Did'st thou cross his wake again?"

  "Twice."

  "But could not fasten?"

  "Didn't want to try to; ain't one limb enough? What should I do

without this other arm? And I'm thinking Moby Dick doesn't bite so

much as he swallows."

  "Well, then," interrupted Bunger, "give him your left arm for bait

to get the right. Do you know, gentlemen"- very gravely and

mathematically bowing to each Captain in succession- "Do you know,

gentlemen, that the digestive organs of the whale are so inscrutably

constructed by Divine Providence, that it is quite impossible for

him to completely digest even a man's arm? And he knows it too. So

that what you take for the White Whale's malice is only his

awkwardness. For he never means to swallow a single limb; he only

thinks to terrify by feints. But sometimes he is like the old juggling

fellow, formerly a patient of mine in Ceylon, that making believe

swallow jack-knives, once upon a time let one drop into him in good

earnest, and there it stayed for a twelvemonth or more; when I gave

him an emetic, and he heaved it up in small tacks, d'ye see? No

possible way for him to digest that jack-knife, and fully

incorporate it into his general bodily system. Yes, Captain Boomer, if

you are quick enough about it, and have a mind to pawn one arm for the

sake of the privilege of giving decent burial to the other, why, in

that case the arm is yours; only let the whale have another chance

at you shortly, that's all."

  "No, thank you, Bunger," said the English Captain, "he's welcome

to the arm he has, since I can't help it, and didn't know him then;

but not to another one. No more White Whales for me; I've lowered

for him once, and that has satisfied me. There would be great glory in

killing him, I know that; and there is a ship-load of precious sperm

in him, but, hark ye, he's best let alone; don't you think so,

Captain?"- glancing at the ivory leg.

  "He is. But he will still be hunted, for all that. What is best

let alone, that accursed thing is not always what least allures.

He's all a magnet! How long since thou sawist him last? Which way

heading?"

  "Bless my soul, and curse the foul fiend's," cried Bunger,

stoopingly walking round Ahab, and like a dog, strangely snuffing;

"this man's blood- bring the thermometer!- it's at the boiling point!-

his pulse makes these planks beat!- sir!"- taking a lancet from his

pocket, and drawing near to Ahab's arm.

  "Avast!" roared Ahab, dashing him against the bulwarks- "Man the

boat! Which way heading?"

  "Good God!" cried the English Captain, to whom the question was put.

"What's the matter? He was heading east, I think.- Is your Captain

crazy?" whispering Fedallah.

  But Fedallah, putting a finger on his lip, slid over the bulwarks to

take the boat's steering oar, and Ahab, swinging the cutting-tackle

towards him commanded the ship's sailors to stand by to lower.

  In a moment he was standing in the boat's stern, and the Manilla men

were springing to their oars. In vain the English Captain hailed

him. With back to the stranger ship, and face set like a flint to

his own, Ahab stood upright till alongside of the Pequod.