Moby Dick; Or, The Whale

Towing the Whale

Stubb’s freshly killed whale lies some distance from the Pequod, so under calm conditions, three boats form a tandem to slowly tow the massive, sluggish carcass back to the ship. Eighteen men labor for hours to move the enormous mass, with the effort underscoring the whale’s staggering size. As darkness falls, three lights in the Pequod’s main rigging guide the towing boats back toward the vessel.

Securing the Whale

Captain Ahab briefly appears on deck to issue standard orders to secure the dead whale for the night, then retires to his cabin until morning, still preoccupied with his monomaniacal quest to kill Moby Dick. The crew moors the whale to the Pequod by tying its head to the ship’s stern and its tail to the bows, so the two vessels appear yoked together like colossal bullocks in the darkness. A footnote explains the clever method the crew uses to fasten a chain around the whale’s heavy, flexible tail that would otherwise sink below the surface out of reach.

Stubb’s Excitement

Unlike the quiet, dissatisfied Ahab, Stubb, the Pequod’s second mate, is flushed with the thrill of his successful kill, displaying an unusual but good-natured excitement that leads his superior Starbuck to cede full deck management to him temporarily. Stubb’s liveliness is partly driven by his reputation as a lover of fine food, and his strong fondness for whale meat as a delicacy; he immediately demands a steak cut from the tapered end of his dead whale for his supper.

The Shark Feast

While Stubb eats his whale steak at the capstan head under the glow of two sperm oil lanterns, thousands of sharks swarm around the moored whale carcass, feasting ravenously on its blubber. The sharks’ sharp tail slaps against the ship’s hull startle the sleeping crew below, and they can be seen wallowing in the dark water, gouging out large, symmetrical chunks of blubber from the whale’s body. The text notes that sharks are never more numerous or high-spirited than when gathered around a dead sperm whale moored to a whaleship at night.