Stubb and Flask Kill a Right Whale — Moby-Dick

The sperm whale's huge head is still hanging from the Pequod's side. The crew cannot deal with it yet. Other work presses. All they can do is hope the ropes hold.

During the night the ship drifted into waters with patches of yellow brit. That means right whales are nearby. The crew usually looks down on right whales as inferior. The Pequod was not even sent to hunt them. But now that a sperm whale has been killed and beheaded, the order goes out: catch a right whale today if you can.

Soon tall spouts appear. Stubb's boat and Flask's boat chase them. The boats get fast to a whale and are dragged straight toward the ship. It looks like a crash. The whale dives under the keel. The crew shouts cut the line. The boats pay out rope and pull hard to get ahead. For a few minutes it is very dangerous. Then the whale rises on the other side and the boats are free.

Stubb and Flask fight the whale with lances, circling round and round the Pequod. Sharks rush to the fresh blood. At last the right whale rolls over dead.

While they tie up the body, Stubb and Flask talk. Stubb asks why the captain wants this lump of foul lard. Flask says Fedallah told him a charm. If a ship has a sperm whale head on the starboard side and a right whale head on the larboard side at the same time, that ship can never capsize.

They swap stories about Fedallah. Stubb says he is the devil in disguise with his tail coiled in his pocket. Flask wonders if he is making a bargain with Ahab about Moby Dick, trading a soul or a watch. Stubb jokes about ducking the devil overboard. Flask asks if Fedallah wants to kidnap the captain. Stubb says they will find out.

Both whale heads are hoisted. The sperm head on one side and the right head on the other balance the ship. Ishmael jokes that it is like putting Locke's head on one side and Kant's on the other. The ship is sorely strained but upright again, like a mule carrying two heavy baskets. The stripped bodies are cast astern.

At the end Fedallah calmly studies the wrinkles on the right whale's head. He compares them to the lines on his own hand. Ahab stands nearby. Fedallah stands in Ahab's shadow. His shadow seems to blend with the captain's and make it longer. The crew keeps working while strange guesses fly among them.