CHAPTER NINE

Another Speaker of Evil

Three boats were now lowered to pull the prize back to the Pequod.

By the time our thirty-six arms and one hundred eighty fingers had moved this vast body, it was already dark. The sight of the dead whale seemed to hurt Ahab. It seemed to remind him that Moby Dick was out there, still alive, still waiting to be killed.

But Stubb was in a good mood from all the excitement. He ordered whale steak for his dinner.

Early the next morning we began the long hard job of cutting up the dead whale. A foot-thick blanket of fat covers a whale like a skin covers an orange. First, Starbuck and Stubb used long knives to dig a hole in the fat. Next, a huge hook was put in the fat, and it took a whole crew of men to pull away just the first strip. Then some men took the strip of fat and began to wind it around and around. This was repeated over and over again until all the fat was taken care of in this way. A single whale has enough fat to make 100 barrels of oil—it is almost a lake of liquid weighing about ten tons.

Our work was interrupted by the cry, "Ship ahead!" It was another whaler out of Nantucket, the Jeroboam. She lowered one of her boats and Starbuck ordered a ladder let down from our ship for the visiting captain. But instead of coming aboard, the Jeroboam's commander, Captain Mayhew, waved his hand to show they would be staying in their little boat.

Captain Mayhew cried out to us that they wouldn't come on board because of a bad illness that had spread to all the crew aboard the Jeroboam.

Stubb thought he recognized one of the oarsmen in the boat. He was a small, wild-eyed young man with spots on his face. "That must be Gabriel!" said Stubb.

There were stories from other crews about a strange man named Gabriel who had been as a Shaker. The Shakers were an American religious group who shook their bodies during their worship. They were Christians, but they lived among themselves and were skilled in furniture making.

After joining this crew, Gabriel had announced himself to be a prophet, that is, a person who can speak directly to God. Saying he was the angel Gabriel, he had demanded command of the ship. The captain ordered him to stop his behavior or he would be dropped back on land. Then Gabriel began to open all sorts of mysterious little bottles. He told the captain that terrible things would happen to them if the captain didn't let him stay aboard.

The crewmen strongly believed in Gabriel's power, so they told the captain that not one of them would stay if Gabriel wasn't obeyed. They wouldn't let him be punished in any way either. Thus, Gabriel had complete freedom on the ship.

When the illness happened, Gabriel had even more power. He told the crew that the disease was there because he had ordered it to happen and that only he had full power to stop it. The sailors believed everything he said.

The Jeroboam had also seen the White Whale. The Chief Mate, Harry Macey, was very eager to go after him when he was spotted. But Gabriel, in his wild manner that sounded like nonsense, warned him not to. He said that Moby Dick was really his Shaker God in a whale's body.

But Macey didn't listen and finally got five men to go with him in his boat. Gabriel continued to speak of evil future events from aboard the ship while one of the men in the boat stuck an iron into Moby Dick.

Suddenly, a broad white shadow rose from the water, and the whale, by the quick and strong movement of its tail, blew the breath out of the oarsmen's bodies. The next moment Macey was thrown into the air and fell into the sea fifty yards away. Not a single bit of the boat was harmed, nor one hair on any oarsman's head. But the mate sank into the sea forever and was never found.

At this point, Captain Mayhew asked Ahab if he would hunt Moby Dick if he had the chance.

"Yes," answered Ahab. Gabriel heard Ahab's answer and quickly jumped to his feet. He looked angrily at the man.

Gabriel shouted, "Beware! Think of Macey—he didn't respect God and now he's dead, down there in the sea! Beware of the same end!"

Ahab turned away. He was troubled by Gabriel. Starbuck remembered that the Nantucket had a letter to deliver to one of the Jeroboam's officers, in case the two ships were to meet. He went to look for it and soon returned, holding a wet, worn piece of mail. It was covered with green spots from being kept in a dark and wet cupboard for too long.

Ahab took the envelope and tried to figure out the writing on the envelope. "Mr Har—yes, a woman's handwriting, the man's wife, I'll bet—Mr Harry Macey, Ship Jeroboam. Why, it's for Macey, but he's dead!"

"Keep it!" cried Gabriel to Ahab. "That's the way you're soon going soon enough!"

"Enough of you!" yelled Ahab. "Captain Mayhew, I'll hand you the letter."

But Gabriel snatched the letter from Captain Mayhew's hand and threw it back to the Pequod. It fell right at Ahab's feet.

(end of section)