Chapter 18 The First Day Boats!
Boats! cried Captain Ahab.
Get into your boats, men!
The captain shouted his orders while climbing down from the upper deck.
He was at the side of the ship in only a few quick steps.
Soon all the boats but Starbucks were in the water.
The sea was smooth and calm.
It was like a carpet laid out before them.
All the men rowed swiftly, but they approached their target with care.
Captain Ahab's boat was in the front.
They were so close to the white whale that they could see his hump gliding smoothly through the water.
Captain Ahab was breathless.
He could see the whale's wrinkled head poking out of the sea.
It was a beautiful sight.
Bubbles danced alongside Moby Dick's head as he passed through the water.
Birds hovered over the white whale's back.
They swooped down to the water, then back up into the sky.
Sticking straight out of the whale's back was a long harpoon.
It was another reminder of a hunter who had fought against the whale and lost.
I understood how Moby Dick could draw so many men who believed they could conquer and capture this beast.
At this moment, the whale was easy to approach.
Moby Dick looked gentle.
This was a lie.
Moby Dick at long last lifted himself up from the water.
He arched his tremendous body into a perfect curve.
He revealed his enormous head and terrifying jaw.
Then the whale crashed back into the water, spraying foam across the approaching boats, and dove back under
The men in the boats held their oars up.
They were ready to drop them into the water and start rowing at their captain's call.
Everyone waited for Moby Dick to reappear.
One of the men pointed to the sky.
"'The birds!' he called.
"'The birds!'
All the birds were suddenly flying toward Ahab's boat.
They were making joyous cries.
The birds could already see what was about to happen.
The sea began to swell.
Ahab looked down.
There was a white spot far beneath his boat.
It grew larger and larger.
The white spot became a giant mass beneath the boat.
It turned to the side and showed two terrifying rows of teeth to Ahab.
It was Moby Dick rising from the bottom.
His mouth was open and he was preparing to swallow Ahab's boat.
Ahab grabbed an oar from one of the men and quickly turned the vessel.
He then made his way to the front, picked up a harpoon, and took his position.
He told his men to get ready.
They should start rowing at his command.
This move should have put them beside the whale's head when he reached the surface.
Moby Dick must have realized this, however, for he moved to follow Ahab.
The white whale rolled over and rose to the surface underbelly first.
His mouth was open wide.
His lower jaw rose over the boat, and Moby Dick tried to bite down.
One of his teeth barely missed Ahab as it clamped into one end of the boat.
The white whale held it tightly in his mouth and then shook it like a cat would shake a mouse.
The men tried to escape his jaws by moving to one end of the boat.
That is, all of the men except Ahab.
He kept to his spot at the front.
The men could not go very far, though.
The boat was small, especially when compared with the whale's enormous jaw.
The men tried to hit him with oars and harpoons.
It was impossible to get a good shot.
They could not reach around his jaw.
Too much of the boat was in the whale's mouth.
Their boat was starting to break up around them.
Ahab used oars and the harpoon to stab at the whale.
He beat with all his fury but had no success.
The small boat snapped in two.
All the men landed in the water.
They swam back together and clung to half of the wreck.
They bobbed up and down in the waves.
Ahab was thrown face first into the water.
He sank beneath the surface. whale moved away from the wreckage.
He swam a short distance from them.
The top part of his head was so large that it rose twenty feet above the surface.
The waves bounced against him as he waded.
Then he started to swim again.
He circled the wreckage and the crew.
He was so powerful that he began to form a whirlpool.
Ahab was struggling in the water.
It was difficult for him to swim with one leg.
His men were clinging to the wrecked boat and could not get to him.
The other whale boats, including the one I was on, were unharmed.
We all witnessed the entire scene and wanted desperately to help the captain, but it was impossible to cross the path the whale made.
His circles started getting smaller and smaller.
All of the men were trapped in the middle.
Ahab shouted to the men still on the Pequod, "'Sail on!' he shouted.
"'Sail!'
A giant wave washed over him and cut off his speech.
Sail on the whale, he called.
Drive him off.
The Pequod did just that.
She sailed into the whale's circular path and cut him off.
Moby Dick swam away and the whale boats moved in for the rescue.
Stubbs dragged Captain Ahab into his boat.
My boat had already arrived back at the Pequod.
Queequeg and I leaned on the railing of the ship to watch Ahab's rescue.
The old man lay on the bottom of Stubbs' boat, broken and bruised.
He called Stubbs to him.
Where is the harpoon?
He asked.
Did we lose the harpoon?
No, sir, Stubbs replied.
We have it right here.
Good, Ahab sighed.
Place it with me, please.
Stubbs laid the harpoon on Ahab's chest.
And the men, Ahab asked, did we lose any men?
Stubbs shook his head.
None, sir.
He said they are all right here. me up, Ahab said.
I want to stand.
Stubbs and another man helped their captain stand up.
He looked out in the direction that Moby Dick swam.
Look, Ahab shouted.
I can see him now.
That's his spout, sending spray from the sea.
That's all I needed.
He shouted, I have my strength back.
Get your oars ready.
Arm the harpoons.
We are back in this fight.
The white whale, however, was still swimming away with great speed.
It was too great for a small boat powered by oars.
There was no way they could keep up.
So the two remaining boats were lifted back onto the Pequod and the great ship took chase.
In no time at all, we were following the foamy path of the white whale.
The men in the mastheads watched for signs of Moby Dick.
Whenever one could see the white mass breaking the surface, he called to the crew.
He also let them know when the whale drove under.
Ahab paced back and forth on the deck.
Waiting for Moby Dick to surface again, he was extremely agitated.
He counted the minutes until an hour was up.
An hour was as long as a whale could last underwater.
As soon as that last second was counted, he called to the crew.
"'Has anyone seen him?'
Ahab called.
"'Will anyone win the doubloon?'
When the answer came back as no Ahab became more depressed, he would not leave the deck.
He stared into the water, waiting, waiting for some kind of sign.
Waiting continued through the night and into the next day.
