BN North

Rochester

Landmark & historical place

MOBY-DICK

OR

THE WHALE



ETYMOLOGY

(SUPPLIED BY A LATE CONSUMPTIVE USHER TO
A GBAMMAB SCHOOL)

THE pale Usher threadbare in coat, heart, body, and brain ;
I see him now. He was ever dusting his old lexicons and
grammars, with a q***r handkerchief, mockingly embellished
with all the gay flags of all the known nations of the world.
He loved to dust his old grammars ; it somehow mildly
reminded him of his mortality.



ETYMOLOGY



' WHILE you take in hand to school others, and to teach
them by what name a whale-fish is to be called in our tongue,
leaving out, through ignorance, the letter H, which almost
alone maketh up the signification of the word, you deliver
that which is not true.' Hakluyt.

1 WHALE. * * * Sw. and Dan. hval. This animal is
named from roundness or rolling ; for in Dan. hvalt is arched
or vaulted.' Webster's Dictionary.

' WHALE. * * * It is more immediately from the Dut.
and Ger. W alien ; A.S. Walw-ian y to roll, to wallow.'

Richardson's Dictionary.

Hebrew.

Greek.

Latin,

Anglo-Saxon.

Danish.

Dutch.

Swedish.

Icelandic.

English.



in,



CETUS,

WHCEL,

HVALT,

WAL,

HWAL,

WHALE,

WHALE,

BALEINE,

BALLENA,

PEKEE-NUEE-NUEE,

PEHEE-NUEE-NUEE,



French.
Spanish.
Feegee.
Erromangoan.



EXTRACTS
(SUPPLIED BY A SUB-SUB-LIBRARIAN)

IT will be seen that this mere painstaking burrower and
grub -worm of a poor devil of a Sub -Sub appears to have gone
through the long Vaticans and street-stalls of the earth, pick-
ing up whatever random allusions to whales he could anyways
find in any book whatsoever, sacred or profane. Therefore
you must not, in every case at least, take the higgledy-piggledy
whale statements, however authentic, in these extracts, for
veritable gospel cetology. Far from it. As touching the
ancient authors generally, as well as the poets here appearing,
these extracts are solely valuable or entertaining, as affording
a glancing bird's-eye view of what has been promiscuously
said, thought, fancied, and sung of Leviathan, by many
nations and generations, including our own.

So fare thee well, poor devil of a Sub-Sub, whose commen-
tator I am. Thou belongest to that hopeless, sallow tribe
which no wine of this world will ever warm ; and for whom
even Pale Sherry would be too rosy-strong ; but with whom
one sometimes loves to sit, and feel poor-devilish, too ; and
grow convivial upon tears ; and say to them bluntly with full
eyes and empty glasses, and in not altogether unpleasant
sadness Give it up, Sub-Subs ! For by how much the more
pains ye take to please the world, by so much the more shall
ye forever go thankless ! Would that I could clear out
Hampton Court and the Tuileries for ye ! But gulp down
your tears and hie aloft to the royal-mast with your hearts ;
for your friends who have gone before are clearing out the
seven-storied heavens, and making refugees of long-pampered
Gabriel, Michael, and Raphael, against your coming. Here
ye strike but splintered hearts together there, ye shall
strike unsplinterable glasses!



xii



EXTRACTS

' And God created great whales.'



Genesis.



* Leviathan maketh a path to shine after him ;
One would think the deep to be hoary.'

Job.

' Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up
Jonah.' Jonah.

' There go the ships ; there is that Leviathan whom thou
hast made to play therein.' Psalms.

' In that day, the Lord with his sore, and great, and strong
sword, shall punish Leviathan the piercing serpent, even
Leviathan that crooked serpent ; and he shall slay the dragon
that is in the sea.' Isaiah.

* And what thing soever besides cometh within the chaos
of this monster's mouth, be it beast, boat, or stone, down it
goes all incontinently that foul great swallow of his, and
perisheth in the bottomless gulf of his paunch.'

HollancFs Plutarch's Morals.

' The Indian Sea breedeth the most and the biggest fishes
that are : among which the Whales and Whirlpooles called
Balaene, take up as much in length as four acres or arpens of
land.' Holland's Pliny.

' Scarcely had we proceeded two days on the sea, when
about sunrise a great many Whales and other monsters of
the sea, appeared. Among the former, one was of a most
monstrous size. * * * This came towards us, open-
mouthed, raising the waves on all sides, and beating the sea
before him into a foam.'

Tooke's Lucian. The True History.

xiii



xiv MOBY-DICK

' He visited this country also with a view of catching horse -
whales, which had bones of very great value for their teeth,
of which he brought some to the king. * * * The best
whales were catched in his own country, of which some were
forty-eight, some fifty yards long. He said that he was one
of six who had killed sixty in two days.'

Other or Octher's verbal narrative taken down
from his mouth by King Alfred, A.D. 890.

1 And whereas all the other things, whether beast or vessel,
that enter into the dreadful gulf of this monster's (whale's)
mouth, are immediately lost and swallowed up, the sea-
gudgeon retires into it in great security, and there sleeps.'
Montaigne 1 s Apology for Eaimond Sebond.

' Let us fly, let us fly ! Old Nick take me if it is not
Leviathan described by the noble prophet Moses in the life
of patient Job.' Rabelais.

' This whale's liver was two cart-loads.'

Stowe's Annals.

1 The great Leviathan that maketh the seas to seethe like
boiling pan.' Lord Bacon's Version of the Psalms.

' Touching that monstrous bulk of the whale or ork we
have received nothing certain. They grow exceeding fat,
insomuch that an incredible quantity of oil will be extracted
out of one whale.' Ibid. History of Life and Death.

1 The sovereignest thing on earth is parmacetti for an in-
ward bruise.' King Henry.

' Very like a whale.' Hamlet.

' Which to secure, no skill of leach's art
Mote him availle, but to returne againe
To his wound's worker, that with lowly dart,
Dinting his breast, had bred his restless paine,
Like as the wounded whale to shore flies thro' the maine.'

The Fairie Queen.

' Immense as whales, the motion of whose vast bodies can
in a peaceful calm trouble the ocean till it boil.'

Sir William Davenant's Preface to Gondibert.



EXTRACTS xv

' What s***maceti! is, men might justly doubt, since the
learned Hosmannus in his work of thirty years, saith plainly,
Nescio quid sit.'

Sir T. Browne's Of S***ma Ceti and the
S***ma Ceti Whale. Vide his V.E.

' Like Spencer's Talus with his modern flail

He threatens ruin with his ponderous tail.
******

Their fixed jav'lins in his side he wears,
And on his back a grove of pikes appears.'

Waller's Battle of the Summer Islands.

' By art is created that great Leviathan, called a Common-
wealth or State (in Latin, Civitas) which is but an artificial
man.' Opening sentence of Hobbes's Leviathan.

'Silly Mansoul swallowed it without chewing, as if it had
been a sprat in the mouth of a whale.'

Pilgrim's Progress.
* That sea beast

Leviathan, which God of all his works
Created hugest that swim the ocean stream.'

Paradise Lost.
4 There Leviathan,

Hugest of living creatures, in the deep
Stretched like a promontory sleeps or swims,
And seems a moving land ; and at his gills
Draws in, and at his breath spouts out a sea.'

Ibid.

' The mighty whales which swim in a sea of water, and
have a sea of oil swimming in them.'

Fuller's Profane and Holy State.
' So close behind some promontory lie

The huge Leviathans to attend their prey,
And give no chace, but swallow in the fry,

Which through their gaping jaws mistake the way.'
Dry den's Annus Mirabilis.

' While the whale is floating at the stern of the ship, they
cut off his head, and tow it with a boat as near the shore as it
will come ; but it will be aground in twelve or thirteen feet
water.'

Thomas Edge's Ten Voyages to Spitzbergen, in Purchas.



xvi MOBY-DICK

* In their way they saw many whales sporting in the ocean,
and in wantonness fuzzing up the water through their pipes
and vents, which nature has placed on their shoulders.'

Sir T. Herberts Voyages into Asia and Africa. Harris Coll.

4 Here they saw such huge troops of whales, that they were
forced to proceed with a great deal of caution for fear they
should run their ship upon them.'

Schouten's Sixth Circumnavigation.

* We set sail from the Elbe, wind N.E. in the ship called
The Jonas-in-the-Whale. * * *

Some say the whale can't open his mouth, but that is a
fable. * * *

They frequently climb up the masts to see whether they
can see a whale, for the first discoverer has a ducat for his
pains. * * *

I was told of a whale taken near Shetland, that had above
a barrel of herrings in his belly. * * *

One of our harp**neers told me that he caught once a
whale in Spitzbergen that was white all over.'

A Voyage to Greenland, A.D. 1671. Harris Coll.

' Several whales have come in upon this coast (Fife). Anno
1652, one eighty feet in length of the whale -bone kind came
in, which, (as I was informed) besides a vast quantity of oil,
did afford 500 weight of baleen. The jaws of it stand for a
gate in the garden of Pitferren.'

Sibbald's Fife and Kinross.

4 Myself have agreed to try whether I can master and kill
this S***ma-ceti whale, for I could never hear of any of that
sort that was killed by any man, such is his fierceness and
swiftness.'

Richard Strafford's Letter from the Bermudas.
Phil. Trans. A.D. 1668.

' Whales in the sea
God's voice obey.'

N. E. Primer.

1 We saw also abundance of large whales, there being more
in those southern seas, as I may say, by a hundred to one ;
than we have to the northward of us.'

Captain Cowley's Voyage round the Globe, A.D. 1729.



EXTRACTS xvii

****** an( j ^e breath of the whale is fre-
quently attended with such an insupportable smell, as to
bring on a disorder of the brain.'

Ulloa's South America.

1 To fifty chosen sylphs of special note,
We trust the important charge, the petticoat.
Oft have we known that seven-fold fence to fail,
Tho' stuffed with hoops and armed with ribs of whale.'

R**e of the Lock.

' If we compare land animals in respect to magnitude, with
those that take up their abode in the deep, we shall find they
will appear contemptible in the comparison. The whale is
doubtless the largest animal in creation.'

Goldsmith's Nat. Hist.

' If you should write a fable for little fishes, you would
make them speak like great whales.'

Goldsmith to Johnson.

' In the afternoon we saw what was supposed to be a rock,
but it was found to be a dead whale, which some Asiatics had
killed, and were then towing ashore. They seemed to en-
deavour to conceal themselves behind the whale, in order to
avoid being seen by us.' Cook's Voyages.

' The larger whales, they seldom venture to attack. They
stand in so great dread of some of them, that when out at
sea they are afraid to mention even their names, and carry
dung, lime-stone, juniper-wood, and some other articles of
the same nature in their boats, in order to terrify and prevent
their too near approach.'

Uno Von Troil's Letters on Banks' s and
Solander's Voyage to Iceland in 1772.

' The S***macetti Whale found by the Nantuckois, is
an active, fierce animal, and requires vast address and bold-
ness in the fishermen.'

Thomas Jefferson's Whale Memorial to the
French Minister in 1778.

1 And pray, sir, what in the world is equal to it ? '

Edmund Burke's Reference in Parliament

to the Nantucket Whale Fishery.
VOL. I. b



xviii MOBY-DICK

' Spain a great whale stranded on. the shores of Europe.'

Edmund Burke. (Somewhere.}

' A tenth branch of the king's ordinary revenue, said to
be grounded on the consideration of his guarding and pro-
tecting the seas from pirates and robbers, is the right to
royal fish, which are whale and sturgeon. And these, when
either thrown ashore or caught near the coast, are the pro-
perty of the king.' Blackstone.

c Soon to the sport of death the crews repair :
Rodmond unerring o'er his head suspends
The barbed steel, and every turn attends.'

Falconer's Shipwreck.

' Bright shone the roofs, the domes, the spires,

And rockets blew self driven,
To hang their momentary fire
Around the vault of heaven.

' So fire with water to compare,

The ocean serves on high,

Up-spouted by a whale in air,

To express unwieldy joy.'

Cowper, On the Queen's Visit to London.

' Ten or fifteen gallons of blood are thrown out of the heart
at a stroke, with immense velocity.'

John Hunter's Account of the Dissection
of a Whale. (A small-sized one.)

' The aorta of a whale is larger in the bore than the main
pipe of the water- works at London Bridge, and the water
roaring in its passage through that pipe is inferior in impetus
and velocity to the blood gushing from the whale's heart.'

Paley's Theology.

' The whale is a mammiferous animal without hind feet.'

Baron Cuvier.

' In 40 degrees south, we saw S***macetti Whales, but did
not take any till the first of May, the sea being then covered
with them.'

Colnett's Voyage for the Purpose of Extending
the S***macetti Whale Fishery.



EXTRACTS xix

' In the free element beneath me swam,
Floundered and dived, in play, in chace, in battle,
Fishes of every colour, form, and kind ;
Which language cannot paint, and mariner
Had never seen ; from dread Leviathan
To insect millions peopling every wave :
Gather'd in shoals immense, like floating islands,
Led by mysterious instincts through that waste
And trackless region, though on every side
Assaulted by voracious enemies,
Whales, sharks, and monsters, arm'd in front or jaw,
With swords, saws, spiral horns, or hooked fangs.'

Montgomery' ' ye have heard of that, I dare say. Oh yes, that
every one knows a 'most I mean they know he 's only
one leg ; and that a parmacetti took the other off.'

4 My friend/ said I, ' what all this gibberish of yours is
about, I don't know, and I don't much care ; for it seems
to me that you must be a little damaged in the head.
But if you are speaking of Captain Ahab of that ship there,
the Pequod, then let me tell you, that I know all about
the loss of his leg.'

' All about it, eh sure you do ? all ? '

* Pretty sure.'

With finger pointed and eye levelled at the Pequod, the
beggar-like stranger stood a moment, as if in a troubled
re very ; then starting a little, turned and said, ' Ye Ve
shipped, have ye ? Names down on the papers ? Well,
well, what 's signed, is signed ; and what 's to be, will be ;
and then again, perhaps it won't be, after all. Anyhow,
it's all fixed and arranged a 'ready ; and some sailors
or other must go with him, I suppose ; as well these as
any other men, God pity 'em ! Morning to ye, shipmates,
morning ; the ineffable heavens bless ye ; I 'm sorry I
stopped ye.'

' Look here, friend,' said I, 'if you have anything im-
portant to tell us, out with it ; but if you are only trying
to bamboozle us, you are mistaken in your game ; that 's
all I have to say.'

' And it 's said very well, and I like to hear a chap talk
up that way ; you are just the man for him the likes of
ye. Morning to ye, shipmates, morning ! Oh ! when ye get
there, tell 'em I Ve concluded not to make one of 'em.'

' Ah, my dear fellow, you can't fool us that way you



118 MOBY-DICK

can't fool us. It is the easiest thing in the world for a man
to look as if he had a great secret in him.'

' Morning to ye, shipmates, morning.'

' Morning it is,' said I. ' Come along, Queequeg, let 's
leave this crazy man. But stop, tell me your name, will
you?'

^Elijah/

Elijah ! thought I, and we walked away, both comment-
ing, after each other's fashion, upon this ragged old sailor ;
and agreed that he was nothing but a humbug, trying to
be a bugbear. But we had not gone perhaps above a
hundred yards, when chancing to turn a corner, and look-
ing back as I did so, who should be seen but Elijah follow-
ing us, though at a distance. Somehow, the sight of him
struck me so, that I said nothing to Queequeg of his being
behind, but passed on with my comrade, anxious to see
whether the stranger would turn the same corner that we
did. He did ; and then it seemed to me that he was
do***ng us, but with what intent I could not for the life
of me imagine. This circumstance, coupled with his
ambiguous, half-hinting, half-revealing, shrouded sort of
talk, now begat in me all kinds of vague wonderments
and half -apprehensions, and all connected with the
Pequod ; and Captain Ahab ; and the leg he had lost ;
and the Cape Horn fit ; and the silver calabash ; and what
Captain Peleg had said of him, when I left the ship the
day previous ; and the prediction of the squaw Tistig ;
and the voyage we had bound ourselves to sail ; and a
hundred other shadowy things.

I was resolved to satisfy myself whether this ragged Elijah
was really do***ng us or not, and with that intent crossed
the way with Queequeg, and on that side of it retraced our
steps. But Elijah passed on, without seeming to notice
us. This relieved me ; and once more, and finally as it
seemed to me, I pronounced him in my heart, a humbug.



CHAPTER XX



ALL ASTIR

A DAY or two passed, and there was great activity aboard
the Pequod. Not only were the old sails being mended,
but new sails were coming on board, and bolts of canvas,
and coils of rigging ; in short, everything betokened that
the ship's preparations were hurrying to a close. Captain
Peleg seldom or never went ashore, but sat in his wigwam
keeping a sharp look-out upon the hands : Bildad did all
the purchasing and providing at the stores ; and the men
employed in the hold and on the rigging were working till
long after night-fall.

On the day following Queequeg's signing the articles,
word was given at all the inns where the ship's company were
stopping, that their chests must be on board before night,
for there was no telling how soon the vessel might be sailing.
So Queequeg and I got down our traps, resolving, how-
ever, to sleep ashore till the last. But it seems they always
give very long notice in these cases, and the ship did not
sail for several days. But no wonder ; there was a good
deal to be done, and there is no telling how many things
to be thought of, before the Pequod was fully equipped.

Everyone knows what a multitude of things beds,
saucepans, knives and forks, shovels and tongs, napkins,
nut -crackers, and what not, are indispensable to the
business of housekeeping. Just so with whaling, which
necessitates a three -years' housekeeping upon the wide
ocean, far from all grocers, costermongers, doctors, bakers,
and bankers . And though this also holds true of merchant



120 MOBY-DICK

vessels, yet not by any means to the same extent as with
whalemen. For besides the great length of the whaling
voyage, the numerous articles peculiar to the prosecution
of the fishery, and the impossibility of replacing them at
the remote harbours usually frequented, it must be
remembered, that of all ships, whaling-vessels are the most
exposed to accidents of all kinds, and especially to the
destruction and loss of the very things upon which the
success of the voyage most depends. Hence, the spare
boats, spare spars, and spare lines and harp**ns, and spare
everythings, almost, but a spare captain and duplicate
ship.

At the period of our arrival at the Island, the heaviest
storage of the Pequod had been almost completed ; com-
prising her beef, bread, water, fuel, and iron hoops and
staves. But, as before hinted, for some time there was a
continual fetching and carrying on board of divers odds
and ends of things, both large and small.

Chief among those who did this fetching and carrying
was Captain Bildad's sister, a lean old lady of a most
determined and indefatigable spirit, but withal very kind-
hearted, who seemed resolved that, if she could help it,
nothing should be found wanting in the Pequod, after
once fairly getting to sea. At one time she would come
on board with a jar of pickles for the steward's pantry ;
another time with a bunch of quills for the chief mate's
desk, where he kept his log ; a third time with a roll of
flannel for the small of some one's rheumatic back. Never
did any woman better deserve her name, which was
Charity Aunt Charity, as everybody called her. And
like a sister of charity did this charitable Aunt Charity
bustle about hither and thither, ready to turn her hand
and heart to anything that promised to yield safety,
comfort, and consolation to all on board a ship in which
her beloved brother Bildad was concerned, and in



ALL ASTIR 121

which she herself owned a score or two of well-saved
dollars.

But it was startling to see this excellent-hearted
Quakeress coming on board, as she did the last day, with
a long oil-ladle in one hand, and a still longer whaling-
lance in the other. Nor was Bildad himself nor Captain
Peleg at all backward. As for Bildad, he carried about
with him a long list of the articles needed, and at every
fresh arrival, down went his mark opposite that article
upon the paper. Every once and a while Peleg came
hobbling out of his whalebone den, roaring at the men
down the hatchways, roaring up to the riggers at the
mast-head, and then concluded by roaring back into his
wigwam.

During these days of preparation, Queequeg and I often
visited the craft, and as often I asked about Captain
Ahab, and how he was, and when he was going to come on
board his ship. To these questions they would answer,
that he was getting better and better, and was expected
aboard every day ; meantime, the two captains, Peleg
and Bildad, could attend to everything necessary to fit the
vessel for the voyage. If I had been downright honest
with myself, I would have seen very plainly in my heart
that I did but half fancy being committed this way to
so long a voyage, without once laying my eyes on the man
who was to be the absolute dictator of it, so soon as the
ship sailed out upon the open sea. But when a man
suspects any wrong, it sometimes happens that if he be
already involved in the matter, he insensibly strives to
cover up his suspicions even from himself. And much
this way it was with me. I said nothing, and tried to
think nothing.

At last it was given out that some time next day the
ship would certainly sail. So next morning, Queequeg
and I took a very early start.



CHAPTER XXI

GOING ABOARD

IT was nearly six o'clock, but only gray imperfect misty
dawn, when we drew nigh the wharf.

' There are some sailors running ahead there, if I see
right/ said I to Queequeg, ' it can't be shadows ; she 's off
by sunrise, I guess ; come on ! '

' Avast ! ' cried a voice, whose owner at the same time
coming close behind us, laid a hand upon both our
shoulders, and then insinuating himself between us, stood
stooping forward a little, in the uncertain twilight,
strangely peering from Queequeg to me. It was
Elijah.

c Going aboard ? '

' Hands off, will you,' said I.

' Lookee here,' said Queequeg, shaking himself, ' go
'way ! '

' Ain't going aboard, then ? '

' Yes, we are,' said I, ' but what business is that of
yours ? Do you know, Mr. Elijah, that I consider you a
little impertinent ? '

' No, no, no ; I wasn't aware of that,' said Elijah,
slowly and wonderingly looking from me to Queequeg,
with the most unaccountable glances.

' Elijah,' said I, ' you will oblige my friend and me by
withdrawing. We are going to the Indian and Pacific
Oceans, and would prefer not to be detained.'

c Ye be, be ye ? Coming back afore breakfast ? '

' He 's cracked, Queequeg,' said I ; ' come on.'
122



GOING ABOARD 123

' Halloa ! ' cried stationary Elijah, hailing us when we
had removed a few paces.

' Never mind him/ said I ; ' Queequeg, come on. 5

But he stole up to us again, and suddenly clapping his
hand on my shoulder, said, ' Did ye see anything looking
like men going toward that ship a while ago ? '

Struck by this plain matter-of-fact question, I answered,
saying, ' Yes, I thought I did see four or five men ; but it
was too dim to be sure.'

' Very dim, very dim,' said Elijah. ' Morning to ye.'

Once more we quitted him ; but once more he came
softly after us ; and touching my shoulder again, said,
4 See if you can find 'em now, will ye ? '

' Find who ? '

* Morning to ye ! morning to ye ! ' he rejoined, again
moving off. ' Oh ! I was going to warn ye against
but never mind, never mind it 's all one, all in the
family too ; sharp frost this morning, ain't it ? Good-
bye to ye. Shan't see ye again very soon, I guess ; unless
it 's before the Grand Jury.' And with these cracked
words he finally departed, leaving me, for the moment, in
no small wonderment at his frantic impudence.

At last, stepping on board the Peqiiod, we found every-
thing in profound quiet, not a soul moving. The cabin
entrance was locked within ; the hatches were all on, and
lumbered with coils of rigging. Going forward to the
forecastle, we found the slide of the scuttle open. Seeing
a light, we went down, and found only an old rigger there,
wrapped in a tattered pea-jacket. He was thrown at
whole length upon two chests, his face downward and
enclosed in his folded arms. The profoundest slumber
slept upon him.

' Those sailors we saw, Queequeg, where can they have
gone to ? ' said I, looking dubiously at the sleeper. But
it seemed that, when on the wharf, Queequeg had not at



124 MOBY-DICK

all noticed what I now alluded to ; hence I would have
thought myself to have been optically deceived in that
matter, were it not for Elijah's otherwise inexplicable
question. But I beat the thing down ; and again mark-
ing the sleeper, jocularly hinted to Queequeg that perhaps
we had best sit up with the body ; telling him to estab-
lish himself accordingly. He put his hand upon the
sleeper's rear, as though feeling if it was soft enough ; and
then, without more ado, sat quietly down there.

' Gracious ! Queequeg, don't sit there,' said I.

c Oh ! perry dood seat,' said Queequeg, ' my country
way ; won't hurt him face.'

' Face ! ' said I, ' call that his face ? very benevolent
countenance then ; but how hard he breathes, he ? s
heaving himself ; get off, Queequeg, you are heavy, it 's
grinding the face of the poor. Get off, Queequeg ! Look,
he '11 twitch you off soon. I wonder he don't wake.'

Queequeg removed himself to just beyond the head of
the sleeper, and lighted his tomahawk-pipe. I sat at the
feet. We kept the pipe passing over the sleeper, from
one to the other. Meanwhile, upon questioning him in
his broken fashion, Queequeg gave me to understand
that, in his land, owing to the absence of settees and sofas
of all sorts, the king, chiefs, and great people generally,
were in the custom of fattening some of the lower orders
for ottomans ; and to furnish a house comfortably in that
respect, you had only to buy up eight or ten lazy fellows,
and lay them round in the piers and alcoves. Besides,
it was very convenient on an excursion ; much better
than those garden-chairs which are convertible into
walking-sticks ; upon occasion, a chief calling his attend-
ant, and desiring him to make a settee of himself
under a spreading tree, perhaps in some damp marshy
place.

While narrating these things, every time Queequeg



GOING ABOARD 125

received the tomahawk from me, he flourished the hatchet -
side of it over the sleeper's head.

' What 's that for, Queequeg ? '

' Perry easy, kill-e ; oh ! perry easy ! '

He was going on with some wild reminiscences about
his tomahawk-pipe, which, it seemed, had in its two uses
both brained his foes and soothed his soul, when we were
directly attracted to the sleeping rigger. The strong
vapour now completely filling the contracted hole, it began
to tell upon him. He breathed with a sort of muffledness ;
then seemed troubled in the nose ; then revolved over
once or twice ; then sat up and rubbed his eyes.

4 Halloa ! ' he breathed at last, ' who be ye smokers ? '

' Shipped men/ answered I. c When does she sail ? '

' Ay, ay, ye are going in her, be ye ? She sails to-
day. The captain came aboard last night.'

' What captain ? Ahab ? '

' Who but him indeed ? '

I was going to ask him some further questions concern-
ing Ahab, when we heard a noise on deck.

' Halloa ! Starbuck 's astir,' said the rigger. ' He 's
a lively chief mate, that ; .good man, and a pious ; but
all alive now, I must turn to.' And so saying he went on
deck, and we followed.

It was now clear sunrise. Soon the crew came on board
in twos and threes ; the riggers bestirred themselves ; the
mates were actively engaged ; and several of the shore
people were busy in bringing various last things on board.
Meanwhile Captain Ahab remained invisibly enshrined
within his cabin.



CHAPTER XXII

MERRY CHRISTMAS

AT length, toward noon, upon the final dismissal of the
ship's riggers, and after the Pequod had been hauled out
from the wharf, and after the ever-thoughtful Charity
had come off in a whale-boat, with her last gift a night-
cap for Stubb, the second mate, her brother-in-law, and
a spare Bible for the steward after all this, the two
captains, Peleg and Bildad, issued from the cabin, and
turning to the chief mate, Peleg said :

' Now, Mr. Starbuck, are you sure everything is right ?
Captain Ahab is all ready just spoke to him nothing
more to be got from shore, eh ? Well, call all hands,
then. Muster 'em aft here blast 'em ! '

' No need of profane words, however great the hurry,
Peleg,' said Bildad, ' but away with thee, friend Starbuck,
and do our bidding.'

How now ! Here upon the very point of starting for
the voyage, Captain Peleg and Captain Bildad were going
it with a high hand on the quarter-deck, just as if they
were to be joint-commanders at sea, as well as to all
appearances in port. And, as for Captain Ahab, no sign
of him was yet to be seen ; only, they said he was in the
cabin. But then, the idea was, that his presence was by
no means necessary in getting the ship under weigh, and
steering her well out to sea. Indeed, as that was not at
all his proper business, but the pilot's ; and as he was not
yet completely recovered so they said therefore, Cap-
tain Ahab stayed below. And all this seemed natural

126



MEKRY CHRISTMAS 127

enough ; especially as in the merchant service many
captains never show themselves on deck for a consider-
able time after heaving up the anchor, but remain over
the cabin table, having a farewell merry-making with
their shore friends, before they quit the ship for good
with the pilot.

But there was not much chance to think over the
matter, for Captain Peleg was now all alive. He seemed to
do most of the talking and commanding, and not Bildad.

' Aft here, ye sons of bachelors,' he cried, as the sailors
lingered at the mainmast. ' Mr. Starbuck, drive 'em
aft.'

' Strike the tent there ! ' was the next order. As I
hinted before, this whalebone marquee was never pitched
except in port ; and on board the Pequod, for thirty years,
the order to strike the tent was well known to be the next
thing to heaving up the anchor.

' Man the capstan ! Blood and thunder ! jump ! '
was the next command, and the crew sprang for the
handspikes.

Now, in getting under weigh, the station generally
occupied by the pilot is the forward part of the ship.
And here Bildad, who, with Peleg, be it known, in addi-
tion to his other offices, was one of the licensed pilots of
the port he being suspected to have got himself made a
pilot in order to save the Nantucket pilot -fee to all the
ships he was concerned in, for he never piloted any other
craft Bildad, I say, might now be seen actively engaged
in looking over the bows for the approaching anchor,
and at intervals singing what seemed a dismal stave of
psalmody, to cheer the hands at the windlass, who roared
forth some sort of a chorus about the girls in Booble Alley,
with hearty goodwill. Nevertheless, not three days
previous, Bildad had told them that no profane songs
would be allowed on board the Pequod, particularly in




128 MOBY-DICK

getting under weigh ; and Charity, his sister, had placed
a small choice copy of Watts in each seaman's berth.

Meantime, overseeing the other part of the ship, Captain
Peleg ripped and swore astern in the most frightful
manner. I almost thought he would sink the ship before
the anchor could be got up ; involuntarily I paused on my
handspike, and told Queequeg to do the same, thinking
of the perils we both ran, in starting on the voyage with
such a devil for a pilot. I was comforting myself, how-
ever, with the thought that in pious Bildad might be
found some salvation, spite of his seven hundred and
seventy-seventh lay ; when I felt a sudden sharp poke
in my rear, and turning round, was horrified at the
apparition of Captain Peleg in the act of withdrawing
his leg from my immediate vicinity. That was my first
kick.

' Is that the way they heave in the marchant service ? '
he roared. ' Spring, thou sheep-head ; spring, and break
thy backbone ! Why don't ye spring, I say, all of ye
spring ! Quohag ! spring, thou chap with the red
whiskers ; spring there, Scotch-cap ; spring, thou green
pants. Spring, I say, all of ye, and spring your eyes out ! '
And so saying, he moved along the windlass, here and
there using his leg very freely, while imperturbable Bildad
kept leading off with his psalmody. Thinks I, Captain
Peleg must have been drinking something to-day.

At last the anchor was up, the sails were set, and off
we glided. It was a short, cold Christmas ; and as the
short northern day merged into night, we found ourselves
almost broad upon the wintry ocean, whose freezing spray
cased us in ice, as in polished armour. The long rows of
teeth on the bulwarks glistened in the moonlight ; and
like the white ivory tusks of some huge elephant, vast
curving icicles depended from the bows.

Lank Bildad, as pilot, headed the first watch, and ever



MERRY CHRISTMAS 129

and anon, as the old craft deep dived into the green seas,
and sent the shivering frost all over her, and the winds
howled, and the cordage rang, his steady notes were
heard,

* Sweet fields beyond the swelling flood,

Stand dressed in living green.

So to the Jews old Canaan stood,

While Jordan rolled between.'

Never did those sweet words sound more sweetly to me
than then. They were full of hope and fruition. Spite
of this frigid winter night in the boisterous Atlantic,
spite of my wet feet and wetter jacket, there was yet, it
then seemed to me, many a pleasant haven in store ; and
meads and glades so eternally vernal, that the grass shot
up by the spring, untrodden, unwilted, remains at
midsummer.

At last we gained such an offing, that the two pilots
were needed no longer. The stout sail-boat that had
accompanied us began ranging alongside.

It was curious and not unpleasing, how Peleg and Bildad
were affected at this juncture, especially Captain Bildad.
For loath to depart, yet ; very loath to leave, for good,
a ship bound on so long and perilous a voyage beyond
both stormy Capes ; a ship in which some thousands of
his hard-earned dollars were invested ; a ship, in which
an old shipmate sailed as captain ; a man almost as old
as he, once more starting to encounter all the terrors of
the pitiless jaw ; loath to say good-bye to a thing so every
way brimful of every interest to him, poor old Bildad
lingered long ; paced the deck with anxious strides ; ran
down into the cabin to speak another farewell word there ;
again came on deck, and looked to windward ; looked
toward the wide and endless waters, only bounded by the
* r-off unseen Eastern Continents ; looked toward the

VOL. I. I



130 MOBY-DICK

land ; looked aloft ; looked right and left ; looked every-
where and nowhere ; and at last, mechanically coiling
a rope upon its pin, convulsively grasped stout Peleg
by the hand, and holding up a lantern, for a moment stood
gazing heroically in his face, as much as to say, * Never-
theless, friend Peleg, I can stand it ; yes, I can.'

As for Peleg himself, he took it more like a philosopher ;
but for all his philosophy, there was a tear twinkling in
his eye, when the lantern came too near. And he, too,
did not a little run from cabin to deck now a word
below, and now a word with Starbuck, the chief mate.

But, at last, he turned to his comrade, with a final sort
of look about him, 4 Captain Bildad come, old ship-
mate, we must go. Back the main-yard there ! Boat
ahoy ! Stand by to come close alongside, now ! Careful,
careful ! come, Bildad, boy say your last. Luck to ye,
Starbuck luck to ye, Mr. Stubb luck to ye, Mr. Flask
good-bye, and good luck to ye all and this day three
years I '11 have a hot supper smoking for ye in old
Nantucket. Hurrah and away ! '

' God bless ye, and have ye in His holy keeping, men/
murmured old Bildad, almost incoherently. ' I hope
ye '11 have fine weather now, so that Captain Ahab may
soon be moving among ye a pleasant sun is all he needs,
and ye '11 have plenty of them in the tropic voyage ye go.
Be careful in the hunt, ye mates. Don't stave the boats
needlessly, ye harp**neers ; good white cedar plank is
raised full three per cent, within the year. Don't forget
your prayers, either. Mr. Starbuck, mind that cooper
don't waste the spare staves. Oh ! the sail-needles are
in the green locker ! Don't whale it too much a Lord's
days, men ; but don't miss a fair chance either, that 's
rejecting Heaven's good gifts. Have an eye to the
molasses tierce, Mr. Stubb ; it was a little leaky, I thought.
If ye touch at the islands, Mr. Flask, beware of fornica-



MERRY CHRISTMAS 131

tion. Good-bye, good-bye ! Don't keep that cheese too
long down in the hold, Mr. Starbuck ; it '11 spoil. Be
careful with the butter twenty cents the pound it was,
and mind ye, if

' Come, come, Captain Bildad ; stop palavering,
away ! ' and with that, Peleg hurried him over the side,
and both dropped into the boat.

Ship and boat diverged ; the cold, damp night breeze
blew between ; a screaming gull flew overhead ; the two
hulls wildly rolled ; we gave three heavy-hearted cheers,
and blindly plunged like fate into the lone Atlantic.



CHAPTER XXIII

THE LEE SHORE

SOME chapters back, one Bulkington was spoken of, a tall,
new-landed mariner, encountered in New Bedford at the
inn.

When on that shivering winter's night the Pequod
thrust her vindictive bows into the cold malicious waves,
who should I see standing at her helm but Bulkington !
I looked with sympathetic awe and fearfulness upon the
man, who in mid- winter just landed from a four years'
dangerous voyage, could so unrestingly push off again
for still another tempestuous term. The land seemed
scorching to his feet. Wonderfullest things are ever the
unmentionable ; deep memories yield no epitaphs ; this
six-inch chapter is the stoneless grave of Bulkington. Let
me only say that it fared with him as with the storm-tossed
ship, that miserably drives along the leeward land. The
port would fain give succour ; the port is pitiful ; in the
port is safety, comfort, hearthstone, supper, warm
blankets, friends, all that 's kind to our mortalities. But
in that gale, the port, the land, is that ship's direst
jeopardy ; she must fly all hospitality ; one touch of land,
though it but graze the keel, would make her shudder
through and through. With all her might she crowds all
sail off shore ; in so doing, fights 'gainst the very winds
that fain would blow her homeward ; seeks all the lashed
sea's landlessness again ; for refuge's sake forlornly
rushing into peril ; her only friend her bitterest foe !

Know ye, now, Bulkington ? Glimpses do ye seem to

132



THE LEE SHORE 133

see of that mortally intolerable truth ; that all deep,
earnest thinking is but the intrepid effort of the soul to
keep the open independence of her sea ; while the wildest
winds of heaven and earth conspire to cast her on the
treacherous, slavish shore ?

But as in landlessness alone resides the highest truth,
shoreless, indefinite as God so, better is it to perish in
that howling infinite, than be ingloriously dashed upon
the lee, even if that were safety ! For worm-like, then,
oh ! who would craven crawl to land ! Terrors of the
terrible ! is all this agony so vain ? Take heart, take
heart, Bulkington ! Bear thee grimly, demigod ! Up
from the spray of thy ocean-perishing straight up,
leaps thy apotheosis !



CHAPTER XXIV

THE ADVOCATE

As Queequeg and I are now fairly embarked in this busi-
ness of whaling ; and as this business of whaling has some-
how come to be regarded among landsmen as a rather
unpoetical and disreputable pursuit ; therefore, I am all
anxiety to convince ye, ye landsmen, of the injustice
hereby done to us hunters of whales.

In the first place, it may be deemed almost superfluous
to establish the fact, that among people at large, the
business of whaling is not accounted on a level with what
are called the liberal professions. If a stranger were
introduced into any miscellaneous metropolitan society,
it would but slightly advance the general opinion of his
merits, were he presented to the company as a harp**neer,
say ; and if in emulation of the naval officers he should
append the initials S.W.F. (S***m Whale Fishery) to
his visiting card, such a procedure would be deemed pre-
eminently presuming and ridiculous.

Doubtless one leading reason why the world declines
honouring us whalemen is this : they think that, at best,
our vocation amounts to a butchering sort of business ;
and that when actively engaged therein, we are surrounded
by all manner of defilements. Butchers we are, that is
true. But butchers, also, and butchers of the bloodiest
badge, have been all Martial Commanders whom the world
invariably delights to honour. And as for the matter of
the alleged uncleanliness of our business, ye shall soon
be initiated into certain facts hitherto pretty generally

134



THE ADVOCATE 185

unknown, and which, upon the whole, will triumphantly
plant the s***m whale-ship at least among the cleanliest
things of this tidy earth. But even granting the charge
in question to be true ; what disordered slippery decks
of a whale-ship are comparable to the unspeakable carrion
of those battlefields from which so many soldiers return
to drink in all ladies' plaudits ? And if the idea of peril
so much enhances the popular conceit of the soldier's
profession ; let me assure ye that many a veteran who
has freely marched up to a battery, would quickly recoil
at the apparition of the s***m whale's vast tail, fanning
into eddies the air over his head. For what are the
comprehensible terrors of man compared with the inter- i
linked terrors and wonders of God !

But, though the world scouts at us whale-hunters, yet
does it unwittingly pay us the profoundest homage ; yea,
an all-abounding adoration ! for almost all the tapers,
lamps, and candles that burn round the globe, burn,
as before so many shrines, to our glory !

But look at this matter in other lights ; weigh it in all
sorts of scales ; see what we whalemen are, and have been.

Why did the Dutch in De Witt's time have admirals
of their whaling-fleets ? Why did Louis xvi. of France,
at his own personal expense, fit out whaling-ships from
Dunkirk, and politely invite to that town some score or
two of families from our own island of Nantucket ? Why
did Britain between the years 1750 and 1788 pay to her
whalemen in bounties upward of 1,000,000 ? And
lastly, how comes it that we whalemen of America now\
outnumber all the rest of the banded whalemen hi the \
world ; sail a navy of upward of seven hundred vessels ;
manned by eighteen thousand men ; yearly consuming
4,000,000 of dollars ; the ships worth, at the time of
sailing, $20,000,000 ; and every year importing into our
harbours a well-reaped harvest of $7,000,000. How



136 MOBY-DICK

comes all this, if there be not something puissant in
whaling ?

But this is not the half ; look again.
I freely assert, that the cosmopolite philosopher cannot,
for his life, point out one single peaceful influence, which
within the last sixty years has operated more potentially
upon the whole broad world, taken in one aggregate, than
the high and mighty business of whaling. One way and
another, it has begotten events so remarkable in them-
selves, and so continuously momentous in their sequential
f issues, that whaling may well be regarded as that Egyptian
/ mother, who bore offspring themselves pregnant from her
womb. It would be a hopeless, endless task to catalogue
all these things. Let a handful suffice. For many years
\ past the whale-ship has been the pioneer in ferreting out
the remotest and least known parts of the earth. She has
explored seas and archipelagoes which had no chart,
where no Cook or Vancouver had ever sailed. If Ameri-
can and European men-of-war now peacefully ride in once
savage harbours, let them fire salutes to the honour and
the glory of the whale-ship, which originally showed them
the way, and first interpreted between them and the
savages. They may celebrate as they will the heroes
of exploring expeditions, your Cooks, your Krusen-
sterns ; but I say that scores of anonymous captains
have sailed out of Nantucket, that were as great, and
greater than your Cook and your Krusenstern. For in
their succourless empty-handedness, they, in the heathen-
ish sharked waters, and by the beaches of unrecorded,
javelin islands, battled with virgin wonders and terrors
that Cook with all his marines and muskets would not
willingly have dared. All that is made such a flourish of
in the old South Sea Voyages, those things were but the
lifetime commonplaces of our heroic Nantucketers.
Often, adventures which Vancouver dedicates three



THE ADVOCATE 137

chapters to, these men accounted unworthy of being set
down in the ship's common log. Ah, the world ! Oh,
the world !

Until the whale-fishery rounded Cape Horn, no com-
merce but colonial, scarcely any in*******se but colonial,
was carried on between Europe and the long line of the
opulent Spanish provinces on the Pacific coast. It was
the whaleman who first broke through the jealous policy
of the Spanish crown, touching those colonies ; and, if
space permitted, it might be distinctly shown how from
those whalemen at last eventuated the liberation of Peru,
Chili, and Bolivia from the yoke of Old Spain, and the
establishment of the eternal democracy in those parts.

That great America on the other side of the sphere,
Australia, was given to the enlightened world by the
whaleman. After its first blunder-born discovery by a
Dutchman, all other ships long shunned those shores as
pestiferously barbarous ; but the whale -ship touched
there. The whale-ship is the true mother of that now
mighty colony. Moreover, in the infancy of the first
Australian settlement, the emigrants were several times
saved from starvation by the benevolent biscuit of the
whale -ship luckily dropping an anchor in their waters.
The uncounted isles of all Polynesia confess the same
truth, and do commercial homage to the whale-ship, that
cleared the way for the missionary and the merchant, and
in many cases carried the primitive missionaries to their
first destinations. If that double -bolted land, Japan,
is ever to become hospitable, it is the whale-ship alone
to whom the credit will be due ; for already she is on the
threshold.

But if, in the face of all this, you still declare that
whaling has no aesthetically noble associations connected
with it, then am I ready to shiver fifty lances with you

jre, and unhorse you with a split helmet every time.



138 MOBY-DICK

The whale has no famous author, and whaling no
famous chronicler, you will say.

The whale no famous author, and whaling no famous
chronicler ? Who wrote the first account of our levia-
than ? Who but mighty Job ! And who composed the
first narrative of a whaling voyage ? Who, but no less
a prince than Alfred the Great, who, with his own royal
pen, took down the words from Other, the Norwegian
whale -hunter of those times ! And who pronounced our
glowing eulogy in Parliament ? Who, but Edmund
Burke !

True enough, but then whalemen themselves are poor
devils ; they have no good blood in their veins.

No good blood in their veins ? They have something
better than royal blood there. The grandmother of
Benjamin Franklin was Mary Morrel ; afterward, by
marriage, Mary Folger, one of the old settlers of Nantucket ?
and the ancestress to a long line of Folgers and har-
p**neers all kith and kin to noble Benjamin this day
darting the barbed iron from one side of the world to
the other.

Good again ; but then all confess that somehow whal-
ing is not respectable.

Whaling not respectable ? Whaling is imperial ! By old
English statutory law, the whale is declared 'a royal fish.' l

Oh, that 's only nominal ! The whale himself has never
figured in any grand imposing way.

The whale never figured in any grand imposing way ?
In one of the mighty triumphs given to a Roman general
upon his entering the world's capital, the bones of a whale,
brought all the way from the Syrian coast, were the most
conspicuous object in the cymballed procession. 1

Grant it, since you cite it ; but, say what you will,
there is no real dignity in whaling.

1 See subsequent chapters for something more on this head.






THE ADVOCATE 139

No dignity in whaling ? The dignity of our calling the
very heavens attest. Cetus is a constellation in the south !
No more ! Drive down your hat in presence of the Czar,
and take it off to Queequeg ! No more ! I know a man
that, in his lifetime, has taken three hundred and fifty
whales. I account that man more honourable than that
great captain of antiquity who boasted of taking as many
walled towns.

And, as for me, if, by any possibility, there be any as
yet undiscovered prime thing in me ; if I shall ever
deserve any real repute in that small but high hushed
world which I might not be unreasonably ambitious of ;
if hereafter I shall do anything that, upon the whole,
a man might rather have done than to have left undone ;
if, at my death, my executors, or more properly my
creditors, find any precious MSS. in my desk, then here
I prospectively ascribe all the honour and the glory to
whaling ; for a whale -ship was my Yale College and my
Harvard.