Next day, a large ship, the Rachel, was descried, bearing directlydown upon the Pequod, all her spars thickly clustering with men.At the time the Pequod was making good speed through the water;but as the broad-winged windward stranger shot nigh to her,the boastful sails all fell together as blank bladders that are burst,and all life fled from the smitten hull.
"Bad news; she brings bad news," muttered the old Manxman. But ereher commander, who, with trumpet to mouth, stood up in his boat;ere he could hopefully hail, Ahab's voice was heard.
"Hast seen the White Whale?"
"Aye, yesterday. Have ye seen a whale-boat adrift?"
Throttling his joy, Ahab negatively answered this unexpected question;and would then have fain boarded the stranger, when the strangercaptain himself, having stopped his vessel's way, was seendescending her side. A few keen pulls, and his boat-hook soonclinched the Pequod's main-chains, and he sprang to the deck.Immediately he was recognized by Ahab for a Nantucketer he knew.But no formal salutation was exchanged.
"Where was he?--not killed!--not killed!" cried Ahab, closely advancing."How was it?"
It seemed that somewhat late on the afternoon of the day previous,while three of the stranger's boats were engaged with a shoalof whales, which had led them some four or five miles from the ship;and while they were yet in swift chase to windward, the white humpand head of Moby Dick had suddenly loomed up out of the blue water,not very far to leeward; whereupon, the fourth rigged boat--a reserved one--had been instantly lowered in chase.After a keen sail before the wind, this fourth boat--the swiftestkeeled of all--seemed to have succeeded in fastening--at least,as well as the man at the mast-head could tell anything about it.In the distance he saw the diminished dotted boat; and then a swiftgleam of bubbling white water; and after that nothing more;whence it was concluded that the stricken whale must haveindefinitely run away with his pursuers, as often happens.There was some apprehension, but no positive alarm, as yet.The recall signals were placed in the rigging; darkness came on;and forced to pick up her three far to windward boats--ere goingin quest of the fourth one in the precisely opposite direction--the ship had not only been necessitated to leave that boatto its fate till near midnight, but, for the time, to increaseher distance from it. But the rest of her crew being at lastsafe aboard, she crowded all sail--stunsail on stunsail--after the missing boat; kindling a fire in her try-pots for a beacon;and every other man aloft on the look-out. But though when shehad thus sailed a sufficient distance to gain the presumed placeof the absent ones when last seen; though she then paused to lowerher spare boats to pull all around her; and not finding anything,had again dashed on; again paused, and lowered her boats;and though she had thus continued doing till daylight;yet not the least glimpse of the missing keel had been seen.
The story told, the stranger Captain immediately went on to revealhis object in boarding the Pequod. He desired that ship to unitewith his own in the search; by sailing over the sea some four or fivemiles apart, on parallel lines, and so sweeping a double horizon,as it were.
"I will wager something now," whispered Stubb to Flask, "that some onein that missing boat wore off that Captain's best coat; mayhap, his watch--he's so cursed anxious to get it back. Who ever heard of two piouswhale-ships cruising after one missing whale-boat in the heightof the whaling season? See, Flask, only see how pale he looks--pale in the very buttons of his eyes--look--it wasn't the coat--it must have been the-"
"My boy, my own boy is among them. For God's sake--I beg, I conjure"--here exclaimed the stranger Captain to Ahab, who thus far had buticily received his petition. "For eight-and-forty hours let mecharter your ship--I will gladly pay for it, and roundly pay for it--if there be no other way--for eight-and-forty hours only--only that--you must, oh, you must, and you shall do this thing."
"His son!" cried Stubb, "oh, it's his son he's lost!I take back the coat and watch--what says Ahab? We mustsave that boy."
"He's drowned with the rest on 'em, last night," said the old Manxsailor standing behind them; "I heard; all of ye heard their spirits."
Now, as it shortly turned out, what made this incident of the Rachel'sthe more melancholy, was the circumstance, that not only was oneof the Captain's sons among the number of the missing boat's crew;but among the number of the other boats' crews, at the same time,but on the other hand, separated from the ship during the darkvicissitudes of the chase, there had been still another son;as that for a time, the wretched father was plunged to the bottomof the cruellest perplexity; which was only solved for himby his chief mate's instinctively adopting the ordinary procedureof a whaleship in such emergencies, that is, when placed betweenjeopardized but divided boats, always to pick up the majority first.But the captain, for some unknown constitutional reason,had refrained from mentioning all this, and not till forced to itby Ahab's iciness did he allude to his one yet missing boy;a little lad, but twelve years old, whose father with the earnestbut unmisgiving hardihood of a Nantucketer's paternal love,had thus early sought to initiate him in the perils and wondersof a vocation almost immemorially the destiny of all his race.Nor does it unfrequently occur, that Nantucket captains willsend a son of such tender age away from them, for a protractedthree or four years' voyage in some other ship than their own;so that their first knowledge of a whaleman's career shallbe unenervated by any chance display of a father's naturalbut untimely partiality, or undue apprehensiveness and concern.
Meantime, now the stranger was still beseeching his poor boon of Ahab;and Ahab still stood like an anvil, receiving every shock, but withoutthe least quivering of his own.
"I will not go," said the stranger, "till you say aye to me.Do to me as you would have me do to you in the like case.For you too have a boy, Captain Ahab--though but a child,and nestling safely at home now--a child of your old age too--Yes, yes, you relent; I see it--run, run, men, now, and standby to square in the yards."
"Avast," cried Ahab--"touch not a rope-yarn"; then in a voice thatprolongingly moulded every word--"Captain Gardiner, I will not do it.Even now I lose time, Good-bye, good-bye. God bless ye, man, and may Iforgive myself, but I must go. Mr. Starbuck, look at the binnacle watch,and in three minutes from this present instant warn off all strangers;then brace forward again, and let the ship sail as before."
Hurriedly turning, with averted face, he descended intohis cabin, leaving the strange captain transfixed at thisunconditional and utter rejection of his so earnest suit.But starting from his enchantment, Gardiner silently hurriedto the side; more fell than stepped into his boat, and returnedto his ship.
Soon the two ships diverged their wakes; and long as the strangevessel was in view, she was seen to yaw hither and thither at everydark spot, however small, on the sea. This way and that her yardswere swung around; starboard and larboard, she continued to tack;now she beat against a head sea; and again it pushed her before it;while all the while, her masts and yards were thickly clusteredwith men, as three tall cherry trees, when the boys are cherryingamong the boughs.
But by her still halting course and winding, woeful way, you plainly sawthat this ship that so wept with spray, still remained without comfort.She was Rachel, weeping for her children, because they were not.