Moby Dick; Or, The Whale

by Herman Melville

  According to usage they were pumping the ship next morning;and lo! no inconsiderable oil came up with the water;the casks below must have sprung a bad leak. Much concernwas shown; and Starbuck went down into the cabin to reportthis unfavorable affair.*

  *In Sperm-whalemen with any considerable quantity of oil on board,it is a regular semiweekly duty to conduct a hose into the hold,and drench the casks with sea-water; which afterwards,at varying intervals, is removed by the ship's pumps.Hereby the casks are sought to be kept damply tight; while bythe changed character of the withdrawn water, the marinersreadily detect any serious leakage in the precious cargo.

  Now, from the South and West the Pequod was drawing nigh to Formosaand the Bashee Isles, between which lies one of the tropical outletsfrom the China waters into the Pacific. And so Starbuck found Ahabwith a general chart of the oriental archipelagoes spread before him;and another separate one representing the long eastern coastsof the Japanese islands--Niphon, Matsmai, and Sikoke. With hissnow-white new ivory leg braced against the screwed leg of his table,and with a long pruning-hook of a jack-knife in his hand, the wondrousold man, with his back to the gangway door, was wrinkling his brow,and tracing his old courses again.

  "Who's there?" hearing the footstep at the door, but not turninground to it. "On deck! Begone!"

  "Captain Ahab mistakes; it is I. The oil in the hold is leaking, sir.We must up Burtons and break out."

  "Up Burtons and break out? Now that we are nearing Japan;heave-to here for a week to tinker a parcel of old hoops?"

  "Either do that, sir, or waste in one day more oil than wemay make good in a year. What we come twenty thousand milesto get is worth saving, sir."

  "So it is, so it is; if we get it."

  "I was speaking of the oil in the hold, sir."

  "And I was not speaking or thinking of that at all.Begone! Let it leak! I'm all aleak myself. Aye! leaks in leaks!not only full of leaky casks, but those leaky casks are in aleaky ship; and that's a far worse plight than the Pequod's, man.Yet I don't stop to plug my leak; for who can find it inthe deep-loaded hull; or how hope to plug it, even if found,in this life's howling gale? Starbuck! I'll not havethe Burtons hoisted."

  "What will the owners say, sir?"

  "Let the owners stand on Nantucket beach and outyellthe Typhoons. What cares Ahab? Owners, owners? Thou artalways prating to me, Starbuck, about those miserly owners,as if the owners were my conscience. But look ye, the only realowner of anything is its commander; and hark ye, my conscienceis in this ship's keel.--On deck!"

  "Captain Ahab," said the reddening mate, moving further into the cabin,with a daring so strangely respectful and cautious that it almost seemednot only every way seeking to avoid the slightest outward manifestationof itself, but within also seemed more than half distrustful of itself;"A better man than I might well pass over in thee what he would quicklyenough resent in a younger man; aye, and in a happier, Captain Ahab."

  "Devils! Dost thou then so much as dare to critically thinkof me?--On deck!"

  "Nay, sir, not yet; I do entreat. And I do dare, sir--to be forbearing!Shall we not understand each other better than hitherto, Captain Ahab?"

  Ahab seized a loaded musket from the rack (forming part of mostSouth-Sea-men's cabin furniture), and pointing it towardsStarbuck, exclaimed: "There is one God that is Lord over the earth,and one Captain that is lord over the Pequod.--On deck!"

  For an instant in the flashing eyes of the mate, and his fiery cheeks,you would have almost thought that he had really received the blazeof the levelled tube. But, mastering his emotion, he half calmly rose,and as he quitted the cabin, paused for an instant and said:"Thou hast outraged, not insulted me, Sir; but for that I ask thee not tobeware of Starbuck; thou wouldst but laugh; but let Ahab beware of Ahab;beware of thyself, old man."

  "He waxes brave, but nevertheless obeys; most carefulbravery that!" murmured Ahab, as Starbuck disappeared."What's that he said--Ahab beware of Ahab--there's something there!"Then unconsciously using the musket for a staff, with an ironbrow he paced to and fro in the little cabin; but presentlythe thick plaits of his forehead relaxed, and returning the gunto the rack, he went to the deck.

  "Thou art but too good a fellow, Starbuck," he said lowly to the mate;then raising his voice to the crew: "Furl the t'gallant-sails,and close-reef the top-sails, fore and aft; back the main-yard;up Burtons, and break out in the main-hold."

  It were perhaps vain to surmise exactly why it was, that as respectingStarbuck, Ahab thus acted. It may have been a flash of honestyin him; or mere prudential policy which, under the circumstance,imperiously forbade the slightest symptom of open disaffection,however transient, in the important chief officer of his ship.However it was, his orders were executed; and the Burtons were hoisted.

  CHAPTER 110

  Queequeg in His Coffin