CHAPTER THREE

The Mysterious Captain Ahab

The next morning I borrowed a cart and we brought our things to the dock where the ships were. He told me a story about the first time he had seen a cart. He didn't know what to do with it, so he tied his sea chest to it and carried both the cart and the sea chest on his shoulders.

"Didn't people look at you? Didn't they laugh?" I asked.

"People all laugh in different ways," he replied. "I'll tell you another story. Once a sea captain from a Christian country came to visit Kokovoko Island. We told him to come along to the wedding of my sister. The High Priest gave the captain a big bowl of coconut juice. The captain was to put his fingers into it so as to bless the coconut juice before giving it to the other guests. The captain wasn't too smart. He started to wash his hands in the coconut juice ...  What you think now? Do you think that my people did not laugh?"

"Yes, Queequeg," I said. "I guess they did."

We had reached the Moss, which was a small ship sailing from New Bedford to Nantucket. When we came on board, some of the passengers started to make fun of Queequeg. One passenger shouted, "Uncivilized!" to him, which made Queequeg particularly angry. Dropping his harpoon, Queequeg picked up the rude man and threw him high into the air. As the rude man was coming down, Queequeg gently hit the man's back in the middle of his fall, which caused the fellow to land on his feet. Queequeg then turned around and calmly lit his axe-pipe, as if nothing had happened.

The man, however, was greatly upset and ran to complain to the captain. The captain came running towards us. "What in thunder do you mean by a trick like that? You might have killed this fellow!" he shouted.

"What did he say?" asked Queequeg calmly.

"The captain said you near killed that fellow there," I said, also quite calmly, pointing to the shaking, frightened man.

Suddenly Queequeg's face was filled with hatred. "Kill him?" he shouted. "He's just a small fish. I don't kill a small fish; I kill big whales!"

"I'll kill you, human-eater," shouted the captain, "if you try any tricks again. So watch out because I'm keeping my eyes on you."

However, it was the captain who had to watch out. Something had gone wrong when the mainsail was being raised. The boom, or long low pole that kept the sail stretched out, started to swing from side to side. It was making huge sweeps of the deck. On one sweep, it pushed the rude man overboard, and then continued to swing back and forth. It looked like it wouldn't stop until the boom had snapped. Nobody was doing anything on deck because they were frozen with fear. Also, nobody had any idea what to do to stop it.

But Queequeg had an idea. First he dropped to the ground and crawled under the swinging path of the boom. He did this until he was able to reach a rope, which he then tied one end of it to the sides of the upper deck. The other end he flung out like a rope with a circle at the end and caught the boom as it went over his head. The swinging boom was quickly stopped.

Next he quickly took off his shirt and perfectly dove into the freezing, dark water. I wasn't able to see anything except Queequeg swimming around. Suddenly he disappeared underwater. When he came back up to the surface, he was holding a bent form and swimming back to the boat.

Queequeg had saved the rude man, and the captain apologized to Queequeg. After seeing Queequeg's skill and bravery, I made up my mind never to leave my best friend's side.

When our boat, the Moss, arrived back in Nantucket, I had to leave Queequeg for a short while. Queequeg told me that the little statue he carried about—Yojo was its name—had given him a message that I had to follow. It had said that I would have to go alone to find a whaling ship for us to sign up with.

I decided to first look at the ships that were planning a three-year whaling trip. I chose the Pequod—a small vessel that looked like it had been to sea many times. I was introduced to Captain Peleg, one of the two owners of the Pequod. He was suntanned and wrinkled from many years at sea.

"Why do you want to go whaling?" asked Captain Peleg. "You're nothing but a schoolteacher! I want to know before I say you can come aboard this ship."

"Well, sir, I want to experience whaling," I explained.

"Have you ever heard of Captain Ahab?"

"Who's Captain Ahab, sir?"

"He's the captain of this ship. You should take a good look at him! Maybe it'll change your mind about tying yourself up in whaling. ... You'll know you've found him when you see a man with only one leg."

"I suppose he lost the other leg in a whaling accident?" I asked.

"A whaling accident? Young man, no, it was bitten off by the biggest sea monster that was ever seen in the open sea!"

Though I wasn't pleased with the idea of meeting sea monsters aboard a whaling ship, the old captain's story didn't make me change my mind. I told the captain that I expected to meet all kinds of danger and difficulties while whaling. I finally convinced him I was going to sign aboard the Pequod. I also told him about Queequeg. Captain Peleg told me to bring him along. "The more help, the better," he replied. Just when I was about to leave, I realized that I hadn't met the ship's captain—Captain Ahab.

"Where can I find Captain Ahab?" I asked.

"Why do you want to meet him? Do you have business with him? Just be thankful that you're being taken aboard."

"Yes, but I still would like to meet him."

"Well, it's not easy to meet him," said Captain Peleg. "You see, he's sick ... No, he isn't exactly sick, but he's not in good health, either. Anyhow, he doesn't even see me all the time, so I don't think, you being a stranger, he'll agree to see you either. He's kind of bad-tempered at times. Still, he's a good man, a good man. He was named after a king in the Bible."

"I know the story about Ahab. Wasn't the Ahab in the Bible a wicked king who was killed?" I asked.

"Don't you ever say something like that on board the Pequod! I've known Captain Ahab for years, and a better captain at sea there isn't. On his last trip home he did go a little crazy, but that was because of the pain in his leg. Remember it had been bitten off by that whale and the pain was enough to make any man go out of his mind. Also, Ahab's got a beautiful young wife and a son. He's worried about their future, too. Don't judge him just because he has a wicked name from the Bible."

I took my leave from him. I was puzzled about all that Captain Peleg had said. Why did he go through so much trouble to explain the behavior of Captain Ahab? Why did he keep telling me that Captain Ahab was not to blame for his wicked name?

(end of section)