The Pequod Meets The Bachelor — Moby-Dick

A few weeks after Ahab's harpoon was welded, a jolly ship called the Bachelor sails down before the wind. She is a Nantucket whaler heading home with her last cask of oil wedged in and her hatches bolted shut. Streamers fly from the mastheads. A whale jaw hangs from the bowsprit. Barrels of sperm oil are lashed everywhere, even in the tops. The crew jokes that everything on board is full of oil except the captain's pantaloons pockets, which he keeps empty to stick his hands in with smug pride.

Drums roar on the forecastle. Mates dance with Polynesian girls. Fiddlers play in a boat slung between the masts. The crew even tears down the try-works brick and throws it into the sea like they are pulling down a prison. Their captain stands on the quarter-deck, master of all the fun. On the Pequod Ahab stands shaggy and black with stubborn gloom. As the ships cross paths, one crew celebrates the past and the other dreads the future.

The Bachelor captain shouts come aboard and lifts a bottle. Ahab asks if he has seen the White Whale. The other man laughs and says he does not believe in Moby Dick. Ahab says he is too damned jolly and asks if he lost any men. The answer is only two islanders. Ahab mutters how familiar a fool is. He calls the Pequod an empty ship outward bound while the Bachelor is full and homeward. He orders all sail into the wind. The Pequod crew watch the party ship leave with grave eyes. Ahab pulls out a small vial of Nantucket sand and stares from the vial to the receding ship.