The Pequod Meets The Rose-Bud — Moby-Dick

A week or two after the grand whale chase, the Pequod sails through calm seas. A bad smell reaches the deck before anyone sees a ship. Stubb guesses the drugged whales from the armada have died and floated up. Soon they spot a French ship called the Bouton de Rose. Vultures circle two dead whales tied alongside. One is a blasted corpse that died at sea. The other is a dried-up whale with almost no oil left inside. Stubb even spots his own cutting spade tangled in the lines on one tail.

Stubb mocks the French crew for taking Pequod leftovers and dry bones. He suspects the dried whale might hold ambergris, a valuable waxy perfume worth more than oil. He rows over to the Rose-Bud. The ship's carved figurehead looks like a drooping rose, but the smell is awful. Stubb asks the English-speaking mate if they have seen Moby Dick. The mate has never heard of a white whale. Stubb reports no to Captain Ahab, then goes back to the French ship with jokes about wax noses and garden air.

The mate hates his captain, a former perfume maker from Cologne on his first voyage. The French sailors work slowly, holding their noses and stuffing tar in their nostrils. Their surgeon yells from the cabin about the stench. Stubb and the mate make a plan. The mate will pretend to translate while telling lies. He tells the captain that Stubb's ship met sailors who died of fever from a blasted whale. Then he warns that the dried whale is even more deadly. The frightened captain orders his crew to cut both whales loose and tow them away.

Stubb offers to help by pulling the lighter whale on a long rope. While the French boats tow one way, he drags the other. When the wind rises, he pretends to let go. The Pequod slips between the ships. Stubb digs into the dried whale behind its fin. A sweet perfume cuts through the stench. He pulls out handfuls of ambergris worth a gold guinea per ounce. His crew cheers like gold hunters. Ahab orders him to stop and come back before he can get more.