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1As the boats now more closely surrounded him, the whole upper part of his form, with much of it that is ordinarily
2submerged, was plainly revealed. His eyes, or rather the places where his eyes had been, were beheld. As strange
3misgrown masses gather in the knot-holes of the noblest oaks when prostrate, so from the points which the whale's eyes
4had once occupied, now protruded blind bulbs, horribly pitiable to see. But pity there was none. For all his old age,
5and his one arm, and his blind eyes, he must die the death and be murdered, in order to light the gay bridals and other
6merry-makings of men, and also to illuminate the solemn churches that preach unconditional inoffensiveness by all to
7all. Still rolling in his blood, at last he partially disclosed a strangely discoloured bunch or protuberance, the size
8of a bushel, low down on the flank. "A nice spot," cried Flask; "just let me prick him there once." "Avast!" cried
9Starbuck, "there's no need of that!" But humane Starbuck was too late. At the instant of the dart an ulcerous jet shot
10from this cruel wound, and goaded by it into more than sufferable anguish, the whale now spouting thick blood, with
11swift fury blindly darted at the craft, bespattering them and their glorying crews all over with showers of gore,
12capsizing Flask's boat and marring the bows. It was his death stroke. For, by this time, so spent was he by loss of
13blood, that he helplessly rolled away from the wreck he had made; lay panting on his side, impotently flapped with his
14stumped fin, then over and over slowly revolved like a waning world; turned up the white secrets of his belly; lay like
15a log, and died. It was most piteous, that last expiring spout. As when by unseen hands the water is gradually drawn off
16from some mighty fountain, and with half-stifled melancholy gurglings the spray-column lowers and lowers to the
17ground--so the last long dying spout of the whale. Soon, while the crews were awaiting the arrival of the ship, the body
18showed symptoms of sinking with all its treasures unrifled. Immediately, by Starbuck's orders, lines were secured to it
19at different points, so that ere long every boat was a buoy; the sunken whale being suspended a few inches beneath them
20by the cords. By very heedful management, when the ship drew nigh, the whale was transferred to her side, and was
21strongly secured there by the stiffest fluke-chains, for it was plain that unless artificially upheld, the body would at
22once sink to the bottom. It so chanced that almost upon first cutting into him with the spade, the entire length of a
23corroded harpoon was found imbedded in his flesh, on the lower part of the bunch before described. But as the stumps of
24harpoons are frequently found in the dead bodies of captured whales, with the flesh perfectly healed around them, and no
25prominence of any kind to denote their place; therefore, there must needs have been some other unknown reason in the
26present case fully to account for the ulceration alluded to. But still more curious was the fact of a lance-head of
27stone being found in him, not far from the buried iron, the flesh perfectly firm about it. Who had darted that stone
28lance? And when? It might have been darted by some Nor' West Indian long before America was discovered. What other
29marvels might have been rummaged out of this monstrous cabinet there is no telling. But a sudden stop was put to further
30discoveries, by the ship's being unprecedentedly dragged over sideways to the sea, owing to the body's immensely
31increasing tendency to sink. However, Starbuck, who had the ordering of affairs, hung on to it to the last; hung on to
32it so resolutely, indeed, that when at length the ship would have been capsized, if still persisting in locking arms
33with the body; then, when the command was given to break clear from it, such was the immovable strain upon the
34timber-heads to which the fluke-chains and cables were fastened, that it was impossible to cast them off. Meantime
35everything in the Pequod was aslant. To cross to the other side of the deck was like walking up the steep gabled roof of
36a house. The ship groaned and gasped. Many of the ivory inlayings of her bulwarks and cabins were started from their
37places, by the unnatural dislocation. In vain handspikes and crows were brought to bear upon the immovable fluke-chains,
38to pry them adrift from the timberheads; and so low had the whale now settled that the submerged ends could not be at
39all approached, while every moment whole tons of ponderosity seemed added to the sinking bulk, and the ship seemed on
40the point of going over. "Hold on, hold on, won't ye?" cried Stubb to the body, "don't be in such a devil of a hurry to
41sink! By thunder, men, we must do something or go for it. No use prying there; avast, I say with your handspikes, and
42run one of ye for a prayer book and a pen-knife, and cut the big chains." "Knife? Aye, aye," cried Queequeg, and seizing
43the carpenter's heavy hatchet, he leaned out of a porthole, and steel to iron, began slashing at the largest
44fluke-chains. But a few strokes, full of sparks, were given, when the exceeding strain effected the rest. With a
45terrific snap, every fastening went adrift; the ship righted, the carcase sank. Now, this occasional inevitable sinking
46of the recently killed Sperm Whale is a very curious thing; nor has any fisherman yet adequately accounted for it.
47Usually the dead Sperm Whale floats with great buoyancy, with its side or belly considerably elevated above the surface.
48If the only whales that thus sank were old, meagre, and broken-hearted creatures, their pads of lard diminished and all
49their bones heavy and rheumatic; then you might with some reason assert that this sinking is caused by an uncommon
50specific gravity in the fish so sinking, consequent upon this absence of buoyant matter in him. But it is not so. For
51young whales, in the highest health, and swelling with noble aspirations, prematurely cut off in the warm flush and May
52of life, with all their panting lard about them; even these brawny, buoyant heroes do sometimes sink. Be it said,
53however, that the Sperm Whale is far less liable to this accident than any other species. Where one of that sort go
54down, twenty Right Whales do. This difference in the species is no doubt imputable in no small degree to the greater
55quantity of bone in the Right Whale; his Venetian blinds alone sometimes weighing more than a ton; from this incumbrance
56the Sperm Whale is wholly free. But there are instances where, after the lapse of many hours or several days, the sunken
57whale again rises, more buoyant than in life. But the reason of this is obvious. Gases are generated in him; he swells
58to a prodigious magnitude; becomes a sort of animal balloon. A line-of-battle ship could hardly keep him under then. In
59the Shore Whaling, on soundings, among the Bays of New Zealand, when a Right Whale gives token of sinking, they fasten
60buoys to him, with plenty of rope; so that when the body has gone down, they know where to look for it when it shall
61have ascended again. It was not long after the sinking of the body that a cry was heard from the Pequod's mast-heads,
62announcing that the Jungfrau was again lowering her boats; though the only spout in sight was that of a Fin-Back,
63belonging to the species of uncapturable whales, because of its incredible power of swimming. Nevertheless, the
64Fin-Back's spout is so similar to the Sperm Whale's, that by unskilful fishermen it is often mistaken for it. And
65consequently Derick and all his host were now in valiant chase of this unnearable brute. The Virgin crowding all sail,
66made after her four young keels, and thus they all disappeared far to leeward, still in bold, hopeful chase. Oh! many
67are the Fin-Backs, and many are the Dericks, my friend.
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