CHAPTER 71

  The Jeroboam's Story

  Hand in hand, ship and breeze blew on; but the breeze came faster

than the ship, and soon the Pequod began to rock.

  By and by, through the glass the stranger's boats and manned

mast-heads proved her a whale-ship. But as she was so far to windward,

and shooting by, apparently making a passage to some other ground, the

Pequod could not hope to reach her. So the signal was set to see

what response would be made.

  Here be it said, that like the vessels of military marines, the

ships of the American Whale Fleet have each a private signal; all

which signals being collected in a book with the names of the

respective vessels attached, every captain is provided with it.

Thereby, the whale commanders are enabled to recognise each other upon

the ocean, even at considerable distance, and with no small facility.

  The Pequod's signal was at last responded to by the stranger's

setting her own; which proved the ship to be the Jeroboam of

Nantucket. Squaring her yards, she bore down, ranged abeam under the

Pequod's lee, and lowered a boat; it soon drew nigh; but, as the

side-ladder was being rigged by Starbuck's order to accommodate the

visiting captain, the stranger in question waved his hand from his

boat's stern in token of that proceeding being entirely unnecessary.

It turned out that the Jeroboam had a malignant epidemic on board, and

that Mayhew, her captain, was fearful of infecting the Pequod's

company. For, though himself and the boat's crew remained untainted,

and though his ship was half a rifle-shot off, and an incorruptible

sea and air rolling and flowing between; yet conscientiously

adhering to the timid quarantine of the land, he peremptorily

refused to come into direct contact with the Pequod.

  But this did by no means prevent all communications. Preserving an

interval of some few yards between itself and the ship, the Jeroboam's

boat by the occasional use of its oars contrived to keep parallel to

the Pequod, as she heavily forged through the sea (for by this time it

blew very fresh), with her main-topsail aback; though, indeed, at

times by the sudden onset of a large rolling wave, the boat would be

pushed some way ahead; but would be soon skilfully brought to her

proper bearings again. Subject to this, and other the like

interruptions now and then, a conversation was sustained between the

two parties; but at intervals not without still another interruption

of a very different sort.

  Pulling an oar in the Jeroboam's boat, was a man of a singular

appearance, even in that wild whaling life where individual

notabilities make up all totalities. He was a small, short, youngish

man, sprinkled all over his face with freckles, and wearing

redundant yellow hair. A long-skirted, cabalistically-cut coat of a

faded walnut tinge enveloped him; the overlapping sleeves of which

were rolled up on his wrists. A deep, settled, fanatic delirium was in

his eyes.

  So soon as this figure had been first descried, Stubb had exclaimed-

"That's he! that's he!- the long-togged scaramouch the Town-Ho's

company told us of!" Stubb here alluded to a strange story told of the

Jeroboam, and a certain man among her crew, some time previous when

the Pequod spoke the Town-Ho. According to this account and what was

subsequently learned, it seemed that the scaramouch in question had

gained a wonderful ascendency over almost everybody in the Jeroboam.

His story was this:

  He had been originally nurtured among the crazy society of Neskyeuna

Shakers, where he had been a great prophet; in their cracked, secret

meetings having several times descended from heaven by the way of a

trapdoor, announcing the speedy opening of the seventh vial, which

he carried in his vest-pocket; but, which, instead of containing

gunpowder, was supposed to be charged with laudanum. A strange,

apostolic whim having seized him, he had left Neskyeuna for Nantucket,

where, with that cunning peculiar to craziness, he assumed a steady,

common sense exterior, and offered himself as a green-hand candidate

for the Jeroboam's whaling voyage. They engaged him; but straightway

upon the ship's getting out of sight of land, his insanity broke out

in a freshet. He announced himself as the archangel Gabriel, and

commanded the captain to jump overboard. He published his manifesto,

whereby he set himself forth as the deliverer of the isles of the

sea and vicar-general of all Oceanica. The unflinching earnestness

with which he declared these things;- the dark, daring play of his

sleepless, excited imagination, and all the preternatural terrors of

real delirium, united to invest this Gabriel in the minds of the

majority of the ignorant crew, with an atmosphere of sacredness.

Moreover, they were afraid of him. As such a man, however, was not

of much practical use in the ship, especially as he refused to work

except when he pleased, the incredulous captain would fain have been

rid of him; but apprised that that individual's intention was to

land him in the first convenient port, the archangel forthwith

opened all his seals and vials- devoting the ship and all hands to

unconditional perdition, in case this intention was carried out. So

strongly did he work upon his disciples among the crew, that at last

in a body they went to the captain and told him if Gabriel was sent

from the ship, not a man of them would remain. He was therefore forced

to relinquish his plan. Nor would they permit Gabriel to be any way

maltreated, say or do what he would; so that it came to pass that

Gabriel had the complete freedom of the ship. The consequence of all

this was, that the archangel cared little or nothing for the captain

and mates; and since the epidemic had broken out, he carried a

higher hand than ever; declaring that the plague, as he called it, was

at his sole command; nor should it be stayed but according to his good

pleasure. The sailors, mostly poor devils, cringed, and some of them

fawned before him; in obedience to his instructions, sometimes

rendering him personal homage, as to a god. Such things may seem

incredible; but, however wondrous, they are true. Nor is the history

of fanatics half so striking in respect to the measureless

self-deception of the fanatic himself, as his measureless power of

deceiving and bedevilling so many others. But it is time to return

to the Pequod.

  "I fear not thy epidemic, man," said Ahab from the bulwarks, to

Captain Mayhew, who stood in the boat's stern; "come on board."

  But now Gabriel started to his feet.

  "Think, think of the fevers, yellow and bilious! Beware of the

horrible plague!"

  "Gabriel! Gabriel!" cried Captain Mayhew; "thou must either-" But

that instant a headlong wave shot the boat far ahead, and its

seethings drowned all speech.

  "Hast thou seen the White Whale?" demanded Ahab, when the boat

drifted back.

  "Think, think of thy whale-boat, stoven and sunk! Beware of the

horrible tail!"

  "I tell thee again, Gabriel, that-" But again the boat tore ahead as

if dragged by fiends. Nothing was said for some moments, while a

succession of riotous waves rolled by which by one of those occasional

caprices of the seas were tumbling, not heaving it. Meantime, the

hoisted sperm whale's head jogged about very violently, and Gabriel

was seen eyeing it with rather more apprehensiveness than his

archangel nature seemed to warrant.

  When this interlude was over, Captain Mayhew began a dark story

concerning Moby Dick; not, however, without frequent interruptions

from Gabriel, whenever his name was mentioned, and the crazy sea

that seemed leagued with him.

  It seemed that the Jeroboam had not long left home, when upon

speaking a whale-ship, her people were reliably apprised of the

existence of Moby Dick, and the havoc he had made. Greedily sucking in

this intelligence, Gabriel solemnly warned the captain against

attacking the White Whale, in case the monster should be seen; in

his gibbering insanity, pronouncing the White Whale to be no less a

being than the Shaker God incarnated; the Shakers receiving the Bible.

But when, some year or two afterwards, Moby Dick was fairly sighted

from the mast-heads, Macey, the chief mate, burned with ardor to

encounter him; and the captain himself being not unwilling to let

him have the opportunity, despite all the archangel's denunciations

and forewarnings, Macey succeeded in persuading five men to man his

boat. With them he pushed off; and, after much weary pulling, and many

perilous, unsuccessful onsets, he at last succeeded in getting one

iron fast. Meantime, Gabriel, ascending to the main-royal mast-head,

was tossing one arm in frantic gestures, and hurling forth

prophecies of speedy doom to the sacrilegious assailants of his

divinity. Now, while Macey, the mate, was standing up in his boat's

bow, and with all the reckless energy of his tribe was venting his

wild exclamations upon the whale, and essaying to get a fair chance

for his poised lance, lo! a broad white shadow rose from the sea; by

its quick, fanning motion, temporarily taking the breath out of the

bodies of the oarsmen. Next instant, the luckless mate, so full of

furious life, was smitten bodily into the air, and making a long arc

in his descent, fell into the sea at the distance of about fifty

yards. Not a chip of the boat was harmed, nor a hair of any

oarsman's head; but the mate for ever sank.

  It is well to parenthesize here, that of the fatal accidents in

the Sperm-Whale Fishery, this kind is perhaps almost as frequent as

any. Sometimes, nothing is injured but the man who is thus

annihilated; oftener the boat's bow is knocked off, or the

thigh-board, on which the headsman stands, is torn from its place

and accompanies the body. But strangest of all is the circumstance,

that in more instances than one, when the body has been recovered, not

a single mark of violence is discernible the man being stark dead.

  The whole calamity, with the falling form of Macey, was plainly

descried from the ship. Raising a piercing shriek- "The vial! the

vial!" Gabriel called off the terror-stricken crew from the further

hunting of the whale. This terrible event clothed the archangel with

added influence; because his credulous disciples believed that he

had specifically fore-announced it, instead of only making a general

prophecy, which any one might have done, and so have chanced to hit

one of many marks in the wide margin allowed. He became a nameless

terror to the ship.

  Mayhew having concluded his narration, Ahab put such questions to

him, that the stranger captain could not forbear inquiring whether

he intended to hunt the White Whale, if opportunity should offer. To

which Ahab answered- "Aye." Straightway, then, Gabriel once more

started to his feet, glaring upon the old man, and vehemently

exclaimed, with downward pointed finger- "Think, think of the

blasphemer- dead, and down there!- beware of the blasphemer's end!"

  Ahab stolidly turned aside; then said to Mayhew, "Captain, I have

just bethought me of my letter-bag; there is a letter for one of thy

officers, if I mistake not. Starbuck, look over the bag."

  Every whale-ship takes out a goodly number of letters for various

ships, whose delivery to the persons to whom they may be addressed,

depends upon the mere chance of encountering them in the four

oceans. Thus, most letters never reach their mark; and many are only

received after attaining an age of two or three years or more.

  Soon Starbuck returned with a letter in his hand. It was sorely

tumbled, damp, and covered with a dull, spotted, green mould, in

consequence of being kept in a dark locker of the cabin. Of such a

letter, Death himself might well have been the post-boy.

  "Can'st not read it?" cried Ahab. "Give it me, man. Aye, aye, it's

but a dim scrawl;- what's this?" As he was studying it out, Starbuck

took a long cutting-spade pole, and with his knife slightly split

the end, to insert the letter there, and in that way, hand it to the

boat, without its coming any closer to the ship.

  Meantime, Ahab holding the letter, muttered, "Mr. Har- yes, Mr.

Harry- (a woman's pinny hand,- the man's wife, I'll wager)- Aye- Mr.

Harry Macey, Ship Jeroboam; why it's Macey, and he's dead!"

  "Poor fellow! poor fellow! and from his wife," sighed Mayhew; "but

let me have it."

  "Nay, keep it thyself," cried Gabriel to Ahab; "thou art soon

going that way."

  "Curses throttle thee!" yelled Ahab. "Captain Mayhew, stand by now

to receive it"; and taking the fatal missive from Starbuck's hands, he

caught it in the slit of the pole, and reached it over towards the

boat. But as he did so, the oarsmen expectantly desisted from

rowing; the boat drifted a little towards the ship's stern; so that,

as if by magic, the letter suddenly ranged along with Gabriel's

eager hand. He clutched it in an instant, seized the boat-knife, and

impaling the letter on it, sent it thus loaded back into the ship.

It fell at Ahab's feet. Then Gabriel shrieked out to his comrades to

give way with their oars, and in that manner the mutinous boat rapidly

shot away from the Pequod.

  As, after this interlude, the seamen resumed their work upon the

jacket of the whale, many strange things were hinted in reference to

this wild affair.