The Pequod Meets The Virgin — Moby-Dick

The day finally came when the Pequod met another whaling ship called the Jungfrau. Its captain was Derick De Deer from Bremen. Dutch and German whalers used to be the greatest in the world. Now you only see them rarely in the Pacific.

Derick was eager to visit. He rowed over standing in the front of his boat, waving something in his hand. Starbuck thought it was impossible. Stubb joked it was a coffee pot. Flask was right: it was a lamp-feeder and an oil can. Derick was out of oil and had come to beg. His ship was clean, meaning empty of whale oil. That is why it was called the Virgin.

Ahab asked about the White Whale, but Derick did not know anything. The Pequod gave him oil and he left. Right away whales were spotted from both ships. Derick was so eager that he turned his boat around without even taking his oil can and lamp-feeder back. He joined three other German boats in the chase.

Eight whales were swimming fast ahead of the wind. Far behind them swam one huge old bull. He was slow and sick. Yellow growths covered his skin. He had only one fin; the other was a stump. His spout was weak and choking. Stubb joked that he had a stomach ache the size of half an acre.

All the boats from both ships went after this sick bull because he was the biggest, closest, and easiest to catch. Derick's boat got a big head start. He even waved the lamp-feeder at Starbuck, mocking him with the very oil tin Starbuck had just given him. Starbuck was furious and told his men to pull harder. Stubb and Flask urged their crews on too. Derick threw his lamp-feeder and oil can at the other boats to slow them down.

Derick would have won, but a crab fouled his oar and his boat nearly tipped over. That gave the Pequod's three boats their chance. They caught up beside him. The sick whale was a terrible sight. He was terrified and could barely swim, like a bird with a clipped wing that cannot cry out.

Derick's harpooneer tried to throw a long harpoon. But Queequeg, Tashtego, and Daggoo leaped up together and threw their harpoons over the German's head. All three struck the whale. The Pequod boats knocked Derick's boat aside and spilled Derick into the water.

The whale dove deep under the sea. The harpoon lines pulled the boats down until their fronts were almost underwater. Far below, the great whale struggled in silence while only a few inches of rope showed above the water.

The whale came back up, bleeding badly. Whale blood does not stop easily from harpoon wounds. The men lanced him again. He was old, blind, and missing a fin, but they still had to kill him for oil to light weddings and churches.

Flask stabbed a sore spot on the whale's side despite Starbuck telling him to stop. Blood poured out. The whale charged wildly and overturned Flask's boat. Then he rolled over and died.

They tried to tie the body to the Pequod, but it began to sink and almost pulled the whole ship over on its side. Queequeg cut the chains with a hatchet and the whale sank. Inside the body they had found an old rusty harpoon and even a stone spear tip from long ago.

Not long after, the Jungfrau lowered its boats again. But the spout they chased was only a Fin-Back whale, which is too fast to catch. Derick sailed away chasing something he could never catch. Ishmael ends by saying: many are the Fin-Backs, and many are the Dericks.