CHAPTER 61

  Stubb Kills a Whale

  If to Starbuck the apparition of the Squid was a thing of

portents, to Queequeg it was quite a different object.

  "When you see him 'quid," said the savage, honing his harpoon in the

bow of his hoisted boat, "then you quick see him 'parm whale."

  The next day was exceedingly still and sultry, and with nothing

special to engage them, the Pequod's crew could hardly resist the

spell of sleep induced by such a vacant sea. For this part of the

Indian Ocean through which we then were voyaging is not what

whalemen call a lively ground; that is, it affords fewer glimpses of

porpoises, dolphins, flying-fish, and other vivacious denizens of more

stirring waters, than those off the Rio de la Plata, or the in-shore

ground off Peru.

  It was my turn to stand at the foremast-head; and with my

shoulders leaning against the slackened royal shrouds, to and fro I

idly swayed in what seemed an enchanted air. No resolution could

withstand it; in that dreamy mood losing all consciousness, at last my

soul went out of my body; though my body still continued to sway as

a pendulum will, long after the power which first moved it is

withdrawn.

  Ere forgetfulness altogether came over me, I had noticed that the

seamen at the main and mizzen mast-heads were already drowsy. So

that at last all three of us lifelessly swung from the spars, and

for every swing that we made there was a nod from below from the

slumbering helmsman. The waves, too, nodded their indolent crests; and

across the wide trance of the sea, east nodded to west, and the sun

over all.

  Suddenly bubbles seemed bursting beneath my closed eyes; like

vices my hands grasped the shrouds; some invisible, gracious agency

preserved me; with a shock I came back to life. And lo! close under

our lee, not forty fathoms off, a gigantic Sperm Whale lay rolling

in the water like the capsized hull of a frigate, his broad, glossy

back, of an Ethiopian hue, glistening in the sun's rays like a mirror.

But lazily undulating in the trough of the sea, and ever and anon

tranquilly spouting his vapory jet, the whale looked like a portly

burgher smoking his pipe of a warm afternoon. But that pipe, poor

whale, was thy last. As if struck by some enchanter's wand, the sleepy

ship and every sleeper in it all at once started into wakefulness; and

more than a score of voices from all parts of the vessel,

simultaneously with the three notes from aloft, shouted forth the

accustomed cry, as the great fish slowly and regularly spouted the

sparkling brine into the air.

  "Clear away the boats! Luff!" cried Ahab. And obeying his own order,

he dashed the helm down before the helmsman could handle the spokes.

  The sudden exclamations of the crew must have alarmed the whale; and

ere the boats were down, majestically turning, he swam away to the

leeward, but with such a steady tranquillity, and making so few

ripples as he swam, that thinking after all he might not as yet be

alarmed, Ahab gave orders that not an oar should be used, and no man

must speak but in whispers. So seated like Ontario Indians on the

gunwales of the boats, we swiftly but silently paddled along; the calm

not admitting of the noiseless sails being set. Presently, as we

thus glided in chase, the monster perpendicularly flitted his tail

forty feet into the air, and then sank out of sight like a tower

swallowed up.

  "There go flukes!" was the cry, an announcement immediately followed

by Stubb's producing his match and igniting his pipe, for now a

respite was granted. After the full interval of his sounding had

elapsed, the whale rose again, and being now in advance of the

smoker's boat, and much nearer to it than to any of the others,

Stubb counted upon the honor of the capture. It was obvious, now, that

the whale had at length become aware of his pursuers. All silence of

cautiousness was therefore no longer of use. Paddles were dropped, and

oars came loudly into play. And still puffing at his pipe, Stubb

cheered on his crew to the assault.

  Yes, a mighty change had come over the fish. All alive to his

jeopardy, he was going "head out"; that part obliquely projecting from

the mad yeast which he brewed.*

  *It will be seen in some other place of what a very light

substance the entire interior of the sperm whale's enormous head

consists. Though apparently the most massive, it is by far the most

buoyant part about him. So that with ease he elevates it in the air,

and invariably does so when going at his utmost speed. Besides, such

is the breadth of the upper part of the front of his head, and such

the tapering cut-water formation of the lower part, that by

obliquely elevating his head, he thereby may be said to transform

himself from a bluff-bowed sluggish galliot into a sharppointed New

York pilot-boat.

  "Start her, start her, my men! Don't hurry yourselves; take plenty

of time- but start her; start her like thunder-claps, that's all,"

cried Stubb, spluttering out the smoke as he spoke. "Start her, now;

give 'em the long and strong stroke, Tashtego. Start her, Tash, my

boy- start her, all; but keep cool, keep cool- cucumbers is the

word- easy, easy- only start her like grim death and grinning

devils, and raise the buried dead perpendicular out of their graves,

boys- that's all. Start her!"

  "Woo-hoo! Wa-hee!" screamed the Gay-Header in reply, raising some

old war-whoop to the skies; as every oarsman in the strained boat

involuntarily bounced forward with the one tremendous leading stroke

which the eager Indian gave.

  But his wild screams were answered by others quite as wild.

"Kee-hee! Kee-hee!" yelled Daggoo, straining forwards and backwards on

his seat, like a pacing tiger in his cage.

  "Ka-la! Koo-loo!" howled Queequeg, as if smacking his lips over a

mouthful of Grenadier's steak. And thus with oars and yells the

keels cut the sea. Meanwhile, Stubb, retaining his place in the van,

still encouraged his men to the onset, all the while puffing the smoke

from his mouth. Like desperadoes they tugged and they strained, till

the welcome cry was heard- "Stand up, Tashtego!- give it to him!"

The harpoon was hurled. "Stern all!" The oarsmen backed water; the

same moment something went hot and hissing along every one of their

wrists. It was the magical line. An instant before, Stubb had

swiftly caught two additional turns with it round the loggerhead,

whence, by reason of its increased rapid circlings, a hempen blue

smoke now jetted up and mingled with the steady fumes from his pipe.

As the line passed round and round the loggerhead; so also, just

before reaching that point, it blisteringly passed through and through

both of Stubb's hands, from which the hand-cloths, or squares of

quilted canvas sometimes worn at these times, had accidentally

dropped. It was like holding an enemy's sharp two-edged sword by the

blade, and that enemy all the time striving to wrest it out of your

clutch.

  "Wet the line! wet the line!" cried Stubb to the tub oarsman (him

seated by the tub) who, snatching off his hat, dashed sea-water into

it.* More turns were taken, so that the line began holding its

place. The boat now flew through the boiling water like a shark all

fins. Stubb and Tashtego here changed places- stem for stern- a

staggering business truly in that rocking commotion.

  *Partly to show the indispensableness of this act, it may here be

stated, that, in the old Dutch fishery, a mop was used to dash the

running line with water; in many other ships, a wooden piggin, or

bailer, is set apart for that purpose. Your hat, however, is the

most convenient.

  From the vibrating line extending the entire length of the upper

part of the boat, and from its now being more tight than a harpstring,

you would have thought the craft had two keels- one cleaving the

water, the other the air- as the boat churned on through both opposing

elements at once. A continual cascade played at the bows; a

ceaseless whirling eddy in her wake; and, at the slightest motion from

within, even but of a little finger, the vibrating, cracking craft

canted over her spasmodic gunwale into the sea. Thus they rushed; each

man with might and main clinging to his seat, to prevent being

tossed to the foam; and the tall form of Tashtego at the steering

oar crouching almost double, in order to bring down his centre of

gravity. Whole Atlantics and Pacifics seemed passed as they shot on

their way, till at length the whale somewhat slackened his flight.

  "Haul in- haul in!" cried Stubb to the bowsman! and, facing round

towards the whale, all hands began pulling the boat up to him, while

yet the boat was being towed on. Soon ranging up by his flank,

Stubb, firmly planting his knee in the clumsy cleat, darted dart after

dart into the flying fish; at the word of command, the boat

alternately sterning out of the way of the whale's horrible wallow,

and then ranging up for another fling.

  The red tide now poured from all sides of the monster like brooks

down a hill. His tormented body rolled not in brine but in blood,

which bubbled and seethed for furlongs behind in their wake. The

slanting sun playing upon their crimson pond in the sea, sent back its

reflection into every face, so that they all glowed to each other like

red men. And all the while, jet after jet of white smoke was

agonizingly shot from the spiracle of the whale, and vehement puff

after puff from the mouth of the excited headsman; as at every dart,

hauling in upon his crooked lance (by the line attached to it),

Stubb straightened it again and again, by a few rapid blows against

the gunwale, then again and again sent it into the whale.

  "Pull up- pull up!" he now cried to the bowsman, as the waning whale

relaxed in his wrath. "Pull up!- close to!" and the boat ranged

along the fish's flank. When reaching far over the bow, Stubb slowly

churned his long sharp lance into the fish, and kept it there,

carefully churning and churning, as if cautiously seeking to feel

after some gold watch that the whale might have swallowed, and which

he was fearful of breaking ere he could hook it out. But that gold

watch he sought was the innermost life of the fish. And now it is

struck; for, starting from his trance into that unspeakable thing

called his "flurry," the monster horribly wallowed in his blood,

overwrapped himself in impenetrable, mad, boiling spray, so that the

imperilled craft, instantly dropping astern, had much ado blindly to

struggle out from that phrensied twilight into the clear air of the

day.

  And now abating in his flurry, the whale once more rolled out into

view! surging from side to side; spasmodically dilating and

contracting his spout-hole, with sharp, cracking, agonized

respirations. At last, gush after gush of clotted red gore, as if it

had been the purple lees of red wine, shot into the frightened air;

and falling back again, ran dripping down his motionless flanks into

the sea. His heart had burst!

  "He's dead, Mr. Stubb," said Daggoo.

  "Yes; both pipes smoked out!" and withdrawing his own from his

mouth, Stubb scattered the dead ashes over the water; and, for a

moment, stood thoughtfully eyeing the vast corpse he had made.