The Cabin-Table — Moby-Dick

It is noon on the Pequod. Dough-Boy, the steward, calls out that dinner is ready.

Captain Ahab has been taking the sun's position. He writes the latitude on a smooth tablet built into his ivory leg. He seems not to hear the steward. Then he climbs to the deck and says, Dinner, Mr. Starbuck, and goes into the cabin.

Each mate waits until Ahab is seated above. Starbuck calls Stubb to dinner. Stubb calls Flask. When Flask is alone on the quarter-deck, he kicks off his shoes and dances a silent hornpipe over the spot where Ahab walked. Then he puts on a humble face and goes below like a slave entering a king's court.

Ishmael explains why officers can be bold on deck but meek at dinner. A man hosting his own table has great power for a short time. On a ship, the captain has that power and official command too.

At the cabin table Ahab sits silent like a sea lion surrounded by cubs. The mates watch his knife and eat in awful quiet. Starbuck takes his meat like alms. Flask gets the worst cuts and never dares touch the butter. Since he is last to sit and first to leave, he stays hungry even after becoming an officer.

A rat rattling in the hold gives Stubb a welcome break from the silence.

When the officers finish, the harpooneers come to the same table for the second meal. Queequeg, Tashtego, and Daggoo eat loudly and happily. They demand more food and tease Dough-Boy cruelly. The poor steward shakes with fear and hides in his pantry.

The harpooneers only use the cabin at mealtimes and bedtime. Ahab keeps the cabin as his own. He is lonely and hard to reach, like a winter bear living alone in a hollow tree, feeding on his own gloom.