Going Aboard — Moby-Dick

It is almost six o'clock in the morning, but still grey and misty. Ishmael and Queequeg walk toward the wharf. They see sailors running ahead toward the ship.

Suddenly Elijah grabs both their shoulders from behind. He steps between them and peers at their faces in the dim light. He asks if they are going aboard.

Ishmael tells him to take his hands off. Queequeg shakes him off too. Elijah asks if they will come back before breakfast. Ishmael calls him crazy and keeps walking.

Elijah calls after them. Then he catches up again. He asks if they saw men heading toward the ship a while ago. Ishmael says he thought he saw four or five shapes, but it was too dark to be sure.

Elijah almost warns them, then stops himself. He talks about frost and family instead. He says goodbye and hints they might meet again before a Grand Jury, as if there could be legal trouble. Ishmael thinks he is rude and strange.

They climb on board the Pequod. The ship is oddly quiet. The cabin door is locked. The hatches are closed. No one is moving on deck.

They go down into the forecastle through an open hatch. They find one old rigger asleep on two chests, face down in his folded arms.

Ishmael asks where the sailors they saw on the wharf went. Queequeg never noticed them at all. Ishmael tries to laugh off the worry. He jokes they should sit up with the body.

Queequeg presses on the sleeping man's back to test if it is a soft seat. Then he sits on him. Ishmael tells him to get off because the man cannot breathe. Queequeg moves and lights his tomahawk pipe.

They pass the pipe back and forth over the sleeper. Queequeg tells a story about how kings in his country use fattened servants as living chairs. Each time he gets the pipe, he waves the hatchet side over the sleeping man's head.

The smoke fills the small space and wakes the rigger. He sits up rubbing his eyes and asks who is smoking down there.

Ishmael says they are shipped men and asks when the ship sails. The rigger says today. Captain Ahab came aboard last night, he says.

They hear noise on deck. The rigger says Starbuck the chief mate is already up and working. He goes back on deck and they follow.

The sun is up now. Crew members come aboard in groups. Riggers and mates get busy. People from shore bring last supplies.

Captain Ahab stays hidden in his locked cabin the whole time.