Moby Dick; Or, The Whale
Page 66
CHAPTER 66
The Shark Massacre
When in the Southern Fishery a captured Sperm Whale, after longand weary toil, is brought alongside late at night, it is not,as a general thing at least, customary to proceed at once to the businessof cutting him in. For that business is an exceedingly laborious one;is not very soon completed; and requires all hands to set about it.Therefore, the common usage is to take in all sail; lash the helm a'lee;and then send every one below to his hammock till daylight,with the reservation that, until that time, anchor-watches shall be kept;that is, two and two for an hour, each couple, the crew in rotationshall mount the deck to see that all goes well.
But sometimes, especially upon the Line in the Pacific,this plan will not answer at all; because such incalculablehosts of sharks gather round the moored carcase, that werehe left so for six hours, say, on a stretch, little more thanthe skeleton would be visible by morning. In most other partsof the ocean, however, where these fish do not so largely abound,their wondrous voracity can be at times considerably diminished,by vigorously stirring them up with sharp whaling-spades,a procedure notwithstanding, which, in some instances,only seems to tickle them into still greater activity.But it was not thus in the present case with the Pequod's sharks;though, to be sure, any man unaccustomed to such sights,to have looked over her side that night, would have almostthought the whole round sea was one huge cheese, and those sharksthe maggots in it.
Nevertheless, upon Stubb setting the anchor-watch afterhis supper was concluded; and when, accordingly Queequegand a forecastle seaman came on deck, no small excitementwas created among the sharks; for immediately suspendingthe cutting stages over the side, and lowering three lanterns,so that they cast long gleams of light over the turbid sea,these two mariners, darting their long whaling-spades,* keptup an incessant murdering of the sharks, by striking the keensteel deep into their skulls, seemingly their only vital part.But in the foamy confusion of their mixed and struggling hosts,the marksmen could not always hit their mark; and this broughtabout new revelations of the incredible ferocity of the foe.They viciously snapped, not only at each other's disembowelments,but like flexible bows, bent round, and bit their own;till those entrails seemed swallowed over and over again bythe same mouth, to be oppositely voided by the gaping wound.Nor was this all. It was unsafe to meddle with the corpsesand ghosts of these creatures. A sort of generic or Pantheisticvitality seemed to lurk in their very joints and bones,after what might be called the individual life had departed.Killed and hoisted on deck for the sake of his skin,one of these sharks almost took poor Queequeg's hand off,when he tried to shut down the dead lid of his murderous jaw.
*The whaling-spade used for cutting-in is made of the very best steel;is about the bigness of a man's spread hand; and in general shape,corresponds to the garden implement after which it is named; only itssides are perfectly flat, and its upper end considerably narrowerthan the lower. This weapon is always kept as sharp as possible;and when being used is occasionally honed, just like a razor.In its socket, a stiff pole, from twenty to thirty feet long,is inserted for a handle.
"Queequeg no care what god made him shark," said the savage,agonizingly lifting his hand up and down; "wedder Fejee god orNantucket god; but de god wat made shark must be one dam Ingin."