Chapter 13 Tying a Whale to a Ship.
When a whale is tied to the side of a ship, it has to be cut up slowly and carefully.
Whaling ships are gone for a very long time.
Whalers always hope to capture many whales.
The more whales you get, the more oil you will have to sell at the end.
It would be impossible to bring a whole whale on board.
They're simply too big.
So we have to tie the whale to the side of the ship and cut it off.
Then we take the oil and the parts we need and store them on the ship.
A whaling ship is often at sea for several years.
The oil can be stored in the giant tank or barrels on the ship all that time without spoiling.
It is the job of the harpooners to do most of the cutting.
They are experts with knives.
Also, the work can be dangerous.
Harpooners just seem less worried about the danger.
Perhaps this is because they are used to it.
With the whale chained to the side.
Each harpooner ties a rope to his belt and dangles from the side of the ship.
The ropes get strapped to a beam that is attached to the railing and hung over the water.
This gives the harpooner a lot of room to move over the beast.
Another crew member stands in the ship near this beam to help guide his harpooner's rope.
Each harpooner has his own guide.
They work as a team.
The harpooners swing back and forth through the water while carving pieces of the whale.
They send pieces of meat back up to the ship.
There are many dangers associated with this task.
The harpooners could easily smash against the side of the ship.
They could also get tangled in the rope and trapped underwater.
Quickweg and I were a very good team.
He trusted me to hold tight and guide his rope well.
I trusted him to move confidently and judge his distances properly.
He also had to stay very aware of all the sharks in the water below.
Having the dead whale close to the ship brought in sharks looking for a meal.
There is one more problem with cutting up a whale, and you may have thought of it already.
A whale is a very heavy creature.
This, of course, means that the ship might lean to one side under all this weight.
One time when we had a whale attached to the side of the Pequod, we were tilted so far over that we had to climb across the deck to the high end.
In order to get to the other side, we had to pull ourselves along using the masthead as a step.
Anything that was not secured to the deck slid down to the low end.
In whaling, this happens occasionally, and the captain usually has to make an important decision.
Do you risk damaging your ship, or do you let the whale go?
In this instance, though, Ahab did not make the decision.
He was too preoccupied with his charts and maps to focus on what was happening at the moment on the Pequod.
His mission to capture the white whale was far too important.
Starbuck made the call to cut the rope and let the whale go.
He ordered Queequeg to use his knife to cut through the line.
Some of us stood by the side of the ship as the giant sank slowly into the deep ocean.
It was sad to think that this magnificent beast had been killed for no reason.
Unfortunately, though, this was just one of the harsh truths of whaling.
It was not an easy job.
