Not long after Ahab throws away his pipe, he walks the deck one morning after breakfast. He paces back and forth all day. His heavy thoughts seem to turn inside him at every step. Stubb whispers that something inside Ahab is about to break out.
At the end of the day Ahab stops at the rail. He orders Starbuck to send everyone aft. He also orders the mast-head lookouts to come down.
When the whole crew is gathered, Ahab walks among them in silence for a while. Then he shouts the old whale-hunting drill. What do you do when you see a whale? Sing out. Then lower the boats. Then pull with the cry, a dead whale or a stove boat.
The men answer eagerly. Ahab holds up a Spanish gold coin worth sixteen dollars. He nails it to the mast. He promises it to whoever raises a white whale with a wrinkled brow, a crooked jaw, and three holes in his starboard fluke.
Tashtego says the whale must be Moby Dick. Daggoo and Queequeg describe the same marks. Ahab cries out that yes, it is Moby Dick.
Starbuck asks if that white whale took off Ahab's leg. Ahab admits it did. He swears he will chase Moby Dick around the world and through hell itself before he gives up. He asks the crew if they will join him.
The men cheer. Starbuck alone objects. He says he came to hunt whales for oil, not to chase his captain's revenge. He says it is madness and blasphemy to hate a dumb animal.
Ahab answers with a long speech about masks, fate, and hatred. He treats Starbuck's silence as agreement. He orders grog for the crew.
The men gather around the capstan. Ahab makes the harpooneers hold their harpoon sockets like cups. He fills them with rum. They drink and swear together: Death to Moby Dick.
Starbuck turns pale and shivers. The crew breaks up in wild excitement. The voyage is no longer an ordinary whaling trip. It has become Ahab's public crusade.
Coming Up in Chapter 37
Alone in his cabin at sunset, Ahab speaks a soliloquy no crew hears. He envies the blushing waves, compares his burden to the Iron Crown of Lombardy split against his brain, and vows his soul will run on iron rails with no angle to the iron way.
