CHAPTER TWELVE

On the Trail of the White Whale

"Ship ahoy! Have you seen the White Whale?" Ahab gave this call to a passing ship that was flying an English flag.

The captain of the Samuel Enderby was a strong, sunburned, fine-looking gentleman about sixty years old. The right sleeve of his jacket was flying in the wind.

"Have you seen the White Whale?" Ahab repeated.

"Do you see this?" answered the captain. He held up the right sleeve of his jacket and Ahab gasped. The captain's arm was made of sperm whale bone. Instead of a hand, there was a wooden head like a hammer.

Ahab's boat was quickly lowered for a visit to the ship. When Ahab climbed aboard, the Enderby's captain walked forward and held out his ivory arm. Then Ahab pulled up his trouser leg and crossed it with his ivory leg, saying, "Aye, aye. Let us shake our bones together—an arm and a leg. I bet it was the White Whale who took your arm off."

"Aye," said the captain. "We had spotted some four or five whales and had lowered our boats to hunt them. Just when we managed to harpoon one and get our boat fastened, a bouncing great whale with a milky-white head and hump came up from under the sea."

"It was him! It was Moby Dick!" shouted Ahab.

"There were harpoons sticking into his right side," added the captain.

"Those were mine! Those were my irons!" cried Ahab. "Please, go on, go on."

"That White Whale started to bite at the harpoon line I had in the other whale."

"Aye. He wanted to free the other whale. An old trick. I know him."

"That White Whale held the line in his teeth, and I saw that he was the biggest and most grand whale I had ever seen in all my life. Then I decided to capture him even though he was going mad with anger. I jumped into another boat, grabbed the nearest harpoon, and stuck it into the old whale."

Ahab could hardly control his excitement. "What happened next?" he shouted.

"Next thing I knew, all I could see was black foam, and his tail came right out of the water like a marble building. Suddenly, the tail comes down and cuts my boat in two! Then he starts to run away from our wreck."

"And then?" cried Ahab.

"I grabbed tightly the pole of my harpoon that was sticking in him. I just held strongly to that. But the rolling sea tore me off, and the whale went under water as quickly as lightning. The next thing I knew the point of that cursed harpoon caught me here at my shoulder and carried me down—to Hell's flames, I thought."

Ahab looked at the part where the captain's arm ended. It was right below the shoulder.

"Thank God, the sharp iron point tore through the flesh down the whole length of my arm. It came out at my wrist, and I was free."

The ship's doctor came now to finish the story. "Aye. It was a two-foot wound. Unfortunately, it became infected, and I had to cut off the arm."

"What happened to the White Whale?" asked Ahab. It was clear that this was his only interest.

"We saw him again two more times after that," said the captain.

"Didn't you go after him again?"

"Heavens no! Isn't losing one arm enough?"

The English captain looked thoughtfully at Ahab's ivory leg and asked, "Do you want to go after that whale again?" he asked.

"Perhaps," said Ahab strongly. "I'm going after him even if he tries to run to the end of this world! Tell me which way he was heading."

"East, I think ... " He then turned to Fedallah and whispered, "Good God, is Captain Ahab crazy?"

But Fedallah didn't answer. He put his finger on his lip, jumped over the side of the Samuel Enderby and took our boat's oar. Ahab followed him and was soon standing in the small boat, with his men ready to start rowing. As if trying to warn him, the other captain tried to call out to Ahab, but to no use. Ahab was standing with his back to the Enderby like a statue. He didn't move until our small boat was next to the Pequod.

(end of section)