Chapter 15 The Jungfrau One day we came upon another ship called the Jungfrau.
We did not have to approach her and call out.
She came right up beside us.
The crew was very anxious to make contact with the Pequod.
As soon as the ships were close enough, the Jungfrau dropped a rowboat into the water.
The captain rowed over to us.
What's that he has in his hand?
Starbuck asked.
The captain was carrying a small tin.
He held it up high while his men rode.
It looked as though he was trying to keep it safe.
I think it's a lamp, Stubbs said.
And so it was.
The captain was carrying an oil lamp to the Pequod.
My word, Starbuck exclaimed.
They've run out of oil.
They're a whaling ship, hunting for prey, and they've run out of whale oil.
Does that mean they have no whales in their hold?
Everyone on deck shook their heads in amazement.
They must have been at sea for many months without catching a whale.
As soon as the captain, named Derek, we found out, climbed on board, Ahab approached him.
He wanted to know if the Jungfrau had seen Moby Dick.
Captain Derrick tried to answer Ahab, but he did not speak English well.
The Jungfrau was a German ship.
He struggled with the words, but eventually made Ahab understand.
They had not seen the white whale.
Captain Derrick explained that he needed to refill the oil can.
We led him, of course.
Then he headed back to his own boat.
He was almost back at the Jungfrau when we all spotted a group of whales.
The captain of the Jungfrau did not even bother getting out of his rowboat.
He passed the oil can to a man on deck and took off.
Boats from both ships quickly dropped into the water.
The chase was on.
There were eight whales, an average-sized pod.
The creatures knew they were in danger.
They swam close together, bumping into one another.
It was difficult to get our boats close enough.
All the mates from the Pequod Starbuck, Stubbs and Flask shouted to one another and to their crews.
They spoke in rough tones.
They called one another dogs.
They taunted one another to row harder.
It was all meant as encouragement, though.
They were pushing the others to work harder.
It was all part of the game, the challenge to get to the whales first.
They wanted to beat the German boat.
Captain Derek made too many mistakes.
He was rushing to the whales and not concentrating on everything that he needed to do.
His oars were getting caught in the waves.
He could not keep up with the boats from the Pequod.
With so many waves and all this excitement, his small boat almost flipped over.
That was when we took the lead.
Without thinking or worrying about it, our men moved the boats into position.
In no time, all four of our boats had one of the whales surrounded.
The whale was in a terrible state of fright.
It thrashed about and tried to get away, but we held our position.
At the last moment, the harpooner in Derek's boat was about to fire, but he missed his chance.
All three of our harpooners stood up almost in a straight line.
They shot their harpoons.
Their spears darted over the heads of the Germans and made a perfect landing in the whale's back.
In all the excitement, Derek's boat was knocked to the side.
The captain and his harpooner were cast out into the sea.
Everything else happened very quickly.
Our men held onto the rope and pulled as tightly as they could.
The whale made terrible sounds.
It was so heavy that we were all afraid that the rope would break.
We held on, though.
The whale breathed its last breath and we went about our business of dragging it back to the Pequod.
