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Moby-Dick; or, The Whale

Chapter 43: CHAPTER XXXIX.
By Herman Melville
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About This Book

A young seafarer signs onto a whaling vessel and provides a detailed account of shipboard life, ports of call, and the practical tasks of hunting whales. The narrative alternates between technical chapters about cetology and expansive philosophical digressions that probe obsession, fate, and the limits of human knowledge. As the voyage continues, the ship’s captain becomes increasingly fixated on pursuing a legendary white whale, steering the crew toward a fatal confrontation. The work combines adventure and natural history with sustained meditations on mortality, leadership, community, and humanity’s attempt to assert meaning against vast, indifferent forces.

CHAPTER XXXIX.

FIRST NIGHT-WATCH.
FORE-TOP.
(Stubb solus, and mending a brace.)

Ha! ha! ha! ha! hem! clear my throat!—I’ve been thinking over it ever since, and that ha, ha’s the final consequence. Why so? Because a laugh’s the wisest, easiest answer to all that’s queer; and come what will, one comfort’s always left—that unfailing comfort is, it’s all predestinated. I heard not all his talk with Starbuck; but to my poor eye Starbuck then looked something as I the other evening felt. Be sure the old Mogul has fixed him, too. I twigged it, knew it; had had the gift, might readily have prophesied it—for when I clapped my eye upon his skull I saw it. Well, Stubb, wise Stubb—that’s my title—well, Stubb, what of it, Stubb? Here’s a carcase. I know not all that may be coming, but be it what it will, I’ll go to it laughing. Such a waggish leering as lurks in all your horribles! I feel funny. Fa, la! lirra, skirra! What’s my juicy little pear at home doing now? Crying its eyes out?—Giving a party to the last arrived harpooneers, I dare say, gay as a frigate’s pennant, and so am I—fa, la! lirra, skirra! Oh—

We’ll drink to-night with hearts as light,
To love, as gay and fleeting
As bubbles that swim, on the beaker’s brim,
And break on the lips while meeting.

A brave stave that—who calls? Mr. Starbuck? Aye, aye, sir—(Aside) he’s my superior, he has his too, if I’m not mistaken.—Aye, aye, sir, just through with this job—coming.