CHAPTER SIX

The Mysterious Five

Aboard this ship I began to learn all sorts of information about whales and about Moby Dick, in particular. The most valued of all whales is the sperm whale, because of its spermaceti—a white, wax-like liquid removed from the oil that is inside the sperm whale's head. Spermaceti is used to light all the lamps of the world. Also, it is the main oil used in making expensive perfume.

Moby Dick was a sperm whale, but he was different than others. I learned it was possible to see him from a great distance because he was different. He not only had a strange snow-white lined forehead and a huge high white hump, but also a huge body lined and spotted with the same color of white. Other sailors who had seen him had given him the nickname of "The White Whale."

Moby Dick was also different in behavior from other whales. He seemed to be more clever than the rest. He was known to swim quickly away from a boat lowered to chase him. But he was only pretending to be scared.

All of a sudden, he would turn around and swim towards those chasing him. He would either break their boat into bits of wood or drive them back to their ship in terror.

There was a story that once before Ahab had gone after Moby Dick with three boats. All three were smashed to pieces by the whale. When Ahab saw his men drowning in the waves of the sea, he grabbed a small knife and ran toward Moby Dick's heart like some wild man in a fight. Just at that moment, Moby Dick stuck out his curved lower jaw beneath Ahab and bit off his leg!

Since then, Ahab wanted revenge against the whale. To Ahab it seemed that all the evil of the world was inside this one whale. If he could kill Moby Dick, then he could save the world from evil. I was quite amazed at how he made the crew believe this too. They also shared his hatred and believed his enemy to also be their own.

One moonlit night, we had all lined up waiting for the scuttlebutt to fill. A scuttlebutt is a barrel for holding the daily fresh water supply. Suddenly, I heard one of the seamen whisper to another, "Did you hear that noise?"

"What noise?"

"Shh! There it is again, under the deck. It sounds like someone coughing."

"Oh, be silent, will you? It's only the noise of your stomach after you ate three soaked cakes for supper—nothing else. Now give me the bucket."

"You can joke if it makes you feel better," said the seaman, "but we'll see what turns up sooner or later. I think there's a person below deck whom none of us have seen yet. And I'm pretty sure old Ahab knows about this too. I heard Stubb tell Flask one morning that he felt there was something strange happening on this boat."

The other sailor didn't say anything to this. Then Tashtego, who was keeping watch, suddenly cried out, "There she blows!" I looked over to where the Indian had seen a whale. Tashtego stood high in the air, his arm stretched out in front of him like a branch.

"There she blows! There! There! There!"

"Where? Where?" everyone shouted excitedly.

"On the lee-beam side of the ship, about two miles away! There's a whole group of them!"

The lee-beam side meant the whales were on the side of the ship away from the wind. Instantly, everybody started moving about and everything became noisy.

"Quick, servant!" cried Ahab. "Tell me what time it is—the time!"

Dough-Boy, the servant, hurried below, looked at the clock, and reported the exact minute to Ahab.

Ahab kept very careful notes of the location and time of whales that had been sighted or captured. He used this to try to understand more about whales and how they lived. He kept a large roll of sea-maps and he would spend hours studying the many lines and drawings. He would draw the way that whales traveled with his pencil. He also studied the currents of all four oceans. All this he did for one reason—to find and kill Moby Dick!

But now we were going after other whales. This was, after all, the main business of the Pequod. Still, I knew that Ahab could not forget his real goal.

The ship was moved out of the wind. Three boats were lowered down to the sea. At this exciting instant, we suddenly heard a loud cry. Everyone looked away from the whales to look at Ahab. The captain wasn't alone on deck. He stood surrounded by five yellow men who seemed to have come out of thin air.

These strangers were now lowering one of the spare boats into the ocean.

"Are you ready, Fedallah?" called Ahab.

"Ready," said a tall, dark figure. He had one evil-looking tooth sticking out from his iron-like lips. His long white hair was twisted and wrapped around his head like an Indian hat. The other men looked like they were a group of natives from the Phillipine Islands, which is near Australia. Sailors who believed in unscientific or old religious thoughts believed people from this area were working with the Devil.

"Lower the boats down, then!" shouted Captain Ahab.

With that order, we leaped down into the three tossed boats below. In the fourth boat, rowed by the five strangers, stood Ahab. Ahab was shouting across the water at Starbuck, Stubb, and Flask to move far so as to cover a larger area.

When Stubb's boat came near to Starbuck's, he yelled out, "What do you think of those five yellow men, sir?"

"I'm sure Ahab brought them aboard in secret before the ship sailed," called Starbuck. "Row strongly, strong there, boys!—I think it's a sad business, Mr Stubb, that Ahab has to keep secrets from his crew. But never mind; nothing's to be done now!"

"That's why he kept going down below deck so often. The men were hiding down there. This has something to do with The White Whale ... Well, well, can't be helped now—Give way, men! We're not hunting the White Whale today!"

I silently remembered the mysterious shadows I had seen moving about the Pequod during the dim light of morning when we were still in Nantucket. I remembered, too, the strange words of that man, Elijah. I would have a lot to think about once this was all over. But for now, all I wanted to do was get close to those whales.

(end of section)