Transcript #8: Moby Dick
Part 2 of 2
Continued from Part 1
And so we stripped our first whale, and boiled the blubber down to a fine, pure oil. It would keep the lamps burning in a thousand homes, the clocks ticking on their mantelpieces, and perhaps anoint the head of a king. And when at last we cast the whale’s bared bones into the sea, we were in no way sad at its funeral.
STARBUCK. Captain.
AHAB. Starbuck.
STARBUCK. Aye, captain. It’s late, thee should turn in.
AHAB. Sleep? That bed is a coffin, and those are winding sheets. I do not sleep, I die.
STARBUCK. The ... prize furnished 85 barrels of oil, sir. They’re all capped and stored.
AHAB. How’s the wind?
STARBUCK. Nor’ nor’ east and steady.
AHAB. Well, make the most of it. I do not wish to linger on this Cape Verde ground. We’re bound for the Pacific, Mr Starbuck, straight away. You will plot a course south by east to the Line, and so south east to pick up the Guinea current.
STARBUCK. Aye aye, sir.
STARBUCK. I only know that they appear at certain feeding grounds in a certain season.
AHAB. Look here. [HE OPENS A CHART] Log books from the time New Bedford men first went a’ whaling helped me draw this chart. It divides the oceans into areas of 5 degrees of latitude by 5 of longitude. Here the months of the years. The ships that passed. How long they lingered. The whales they saw. What size, what colour, how many, where heading.
STARBUCK. I never saw the like.
AHAB. This way the humpbacks go, the blue, the right, the spermaceti. Sea mile by sea mile, I know their hidden journeys as I know the veins in my arm.
STARBUCK. You mean to say that their journeys can be foretold?
AHAB. Aye, like the blood pumping in my veins, from heart to head.
STARBUCK. If this be so, we can follow along with the herds, killing as we go ... fill our hold in record time.
AHAB. So we shall, Mr Starbuck, so we shall, once we’ve attended to our bigger business.
STARBUCK. What is that business, captain?
AHAB. Him, Mr Starbuck, him. What’s true for the herds holds largely for the great solitaries and hermits. If these sources tell the truth, and my calculations are not faulty, he now swims the waters off Good Hope, and all the Indian Ocean lies before him. Next month he cruises the Bengal Bay; March, the Sulu Sea; running eastward, to the gateway of the Pacific. I shall be waiting for him here [HE POINTS TO BIKINI ATOLL] at new moon in April. [STARBUCK STARTS TO WALK OUT]. Mr Starbuck!
STARBUCK. I must give the helmsman our course.
AHAB. Come about, sir. [STARBUCK TURNS ROUND AND COMES BACK]. Why are you wearing that long face? Are you not game for Moby Dick?
STARBUCK. Captain Ahab, I am game for any kind of death if it comes in the way of the business we follow. That be known. But I came here to hunt whales, not my commander’s vengeance. How many barrels of sperm oil will thy vengeance yield? What will it fetch on the New Bedford market?
AHAB. Money’s not the measure of man. It will fetch me a great premium ... here.
STARBUCK. To be enraged with a dumb brute that acted out of blind instinct is blasphemous.
AHAB. Speak not to me of blasphemy, man, I’d strike the Sun if it insulted me. Look you, Starbuck. All visible objects are but as pasteboard masks. Some inscrutable yet reasoning thing puts forth the moulding of their features. The white whale tasks me, he heaps me, yet he is but a mask. It is the thing behind the mask I chiefly hate, the malignant thing that has plagued and frightened man since time began. The thing that mauls and mutilates our race, not killing us outright but letting us live on with half a heart and half a lung.
STARBUCK. God keep us, keep us all ...
AHAB. The crew stands with me, Mr Starbuck. You heard them swear. Now, what say ye? Surely the best lance out of all New Bedford will not hold back from the greatest hunt of all.
STARBUCK. I say calmly back to thee, sir, I am against thee. But thee needn’t fear Starbuck. Let Ahab beware Ahab. Beware thyself, my captain. [HE TURNS ROUND AND WALKS OUT]
SCENE - THE SHIP, SAILING
ISHMAEL. We left the winter seas behind, and sailed under the hot sun, south, south past the unseen sprawl of Africa, until we rounded the Cape of Storms and steered a bold course east and north-east for the Indian Ocean and beyond.
STUBB. You there, lad! Go aloft.
ISHMAEL. Aye, aye sir. [HE CLIMBS UP TO THE MASTHEAD LOOKOUT POINT, WHILE QUEEQUEG WATCHES ANXIOUSLY FROM THE DECK]
ISHMAEL. And so I served my first watch in the masthead, held in a great gliding rhythm, no life in me except that life imparted by a gently rolling ship, remote from all the cares of the people of the land.
SCENE - HE SEES WHALES IN THE DISTANCE
ISHMAEL. Thar she blows! Thar she blows!
STUBB. Where away? How many!
ISHMAEL. Starboard bow, Mr Stubb. Two ... there are four of them ... six ... seven of them ... there’s three dozen more of them ... look, look Mr Stubb, a hundred!
STUBB. Come down from there, the sun has baked your brains!
ISHMAEL. In the name of God, Mr Stubb, a hundred! Two hundred whales!
STUBB [LOOKING THROUGH A TELESCOPE] Blast them dead, Mr Flask. All hands! Prepare to launch.
SCENE - THE PEQUOD’S BOATS PURSUE THE WHALES. TASHTEGO HARPOONS ONE, THEN SO DO DAGGOO AND QUEEQUEG. STUBB LANCES ONE, DAGGOO HARPOONS ANOTHER. THE SLAUGHTER CONTINUES.
SCENE - BACK AT THE SHIP. SOME OF THE CREW ARE PROCESSING A WHALE FOR ITS OIL. ONE OF THE BOATS ARRIVES TOWING ANOTHER WHALE.
STARBUCK. Another forty barrels, sir.
SCENE - STANDING ON DECK, AHAB SEES A SAILING SHIP APPROACHING. HE LOOKS AT IT THROUGH HIS TELESCOPE. IT’S THE “SAMUEL ENDERBY”.
SCENE - THE CAPTAIN OF THE SAMUEL ENDERBY CLIMBS THE SIDE OF THE PEQUOD. HE HAS A FALSE ARM MADE OF WHITE IVORY, WITH A STEEL HOOK INSTEAD OF A HAND.
BOOMER. Ahoy there, Captain Boomer knocking at your door. May I come in, sir?
AHAB [AHAB. WATCHES HIM BUT DOES NOT STAND UP] Come aboard.
BOOMER. The Samuel Enderby of London, eighteen months at sea.
AHAB. Ahab.
BOOMER. Captain Ahab, will you look out there, what a circus, did ever you see such a run? [HE SHOUTS TO HIS MEN AND BEATS HIS HOOK AGAINST THE SHIP’S RAIL]. Go it, boys, go it, with three for Captain Ahab and three for me! Never fear, I’ll not scuttle your ship. [HE SHOWS HIS HOOK TO AHAB] She’s a beauty, eh, captain. Better than flesh and blood, like it so much I’ve a mind to have my other arm cut off. The very thing for driving marline spikes, knocking sense into green seamen’s heads, and particularly good for tapping kegs of rum, if you get my meaning, captain.
AHAB. Pip, fetch rum.
BOOMER [LOOKING AT AHAB’S BONE LEG] I see you’re wearing a bit of ivory yourself, sir. Lubbers with four limbs don’t know what they’re missing, eh captain. When I got this ivory jib, all spanking new and scientific, why I could have thanked that whale. [PIP ARRIVES WITH THE RUM] Aye, a whale took my arm for his breakfast. Devilish big, he was, pushed a tidal wave ahead with his nose, and typhoons jumped off his flukes when they banged the water. Old, he was and scarred like Jerusalem’s hills.
AHAB [SUDDENLY INTERESTED] Captain Boomer, what was his colour?
BOOMER. He was white, sir. Think me crazy? It’s a fact. He was snowy white. Had another chance at him a month ago.
AHAB. You didn’t ... kill him?
BOOMER. Oh, bless you, no, went his merry way, “Good riddance”, said I, and meant it.
AHAB. Where did you last see the white whale?
BOOMER. Off the Cape of Good Hope. He was heading north-east towards Madagascar.
AHAB [SMILING AND EXCITED] Starbuck! Starbuck! [STARBUCK APPEARS FROM BEHIND A LARGE SECTION OF WHALE BLUBBER WHICH HANGS OVER THE TRY CAULDRON] A white whale, last month off Good Hope! My chart is right and true! He’ll be off Bikini when the April moon is new. Stop the hunt! Pick up our boats, we’re setting sail.
BOOMER. But captain! Those fine big whales!
AHAB. You men up there, get aloft!
BOOMER. I’ll not sail with you, sir! Bring my boat alongside.
AHAB. Mr Starbuck, cut loose that carcase. Pip, signal the men “return to ship”.
BOOMER. What ails ye, sir, are you stove and drunk?
STARBUCK. Captain Ahab, think what you’re doing, I beg thee, think!
AHAB. Set the mainsail!
STARBUCK. No, sir, no!
AHAB. Mr Starbuck, are you opposing me? If so, I’ll have you know that there’s one God that is lord over the Earth and one captain over the Pequod. Away now! Cut loose!
SCENE - FLASK AND STUBB ARE IN THEIR BOATS, ATTACHED TO A DYING WHALE
STUBB. Flask! What do you make of that? [HE GESTURES TO A FLAG RUNNING UP THE PEQUOD’S MAIN MAST]
FLASK. “Return to ship”! They’re crazy, or I’m going blind.
STUBB. You’re not blind. Something’s up.
FLASK. Jesus, that’s my whale you’re cutting loose! Hey!
AHAB. Come aboard! We’re setting sail. Mr Stubb, Mr Flask, did you not see the pennant or hear my command?
STUBB. Yes, sir, we did.
AHAB. Then why don’t you obey.
STUBB. We will, sir, we will as soon as it sinks in. Sort of bowled us over, captain. Weather‘s good, ship ain’t sinking, no-one’s lost overboard, and a fine harvest here. Don’t see no reason to leave.
AHAB. I do not give reasons, Mr Stubb. I give orders.
STUBB. Oh, captain, we’re good men. Our blood’s up, that’s all. We’ve been killing! A hard thing to stop killing, when you’ve been killing steady, sir. Why, we’ve been killing so fast, our blood’s so high, we wouldn’t have heard the Last Trump!
AHAB. Then hear me now. Come aboard.
STUBB. Alright, boys, wake up, bestir yourselves.
SCENE - THE SHIP IS SAILING FAST. THE THREE MATES ARE TALKING, AND LISTENING TO THE SOUND OF AHAB WALKING ON THE DECK ABOVE THEM.
STARBUCK. This is an evil voyage, I tell you. If Ahab has his way, thee, nor me, nor any member of his ship’s company will ever see home again.
STUBB. Ah, come now, Mr Starbuck, you’re just plain gloomy. Moby Dick may be big, but he ain’t that big.
STARBUCK. I do not fear Moby Dick. I fear the wrath of God.
STUBB. The wrath of God?
STARBUCK. It is our task in life to kill whales, and furnish up their oil for the lamps of the world. If we perform that task well and faithfully, we do a service to mankind that pleases almighty God.
STUBB. Aye.
STARBUCK. Ahab would deny all that. He has taken us from the rich harvest we were reaping, to satisfy his lust for vengeance. He is twisting that which is holy, into something dark and purposeless. He is a champion of darkness. Ahab’s red flag challenges the heavens.
STUBB. I don’t wonder at you, a religious man, being a mite downcast. On t’other hand, I don’t much see what you can do about it.
STARBUCK. Listen to this. [HE GETS A BOOK FROM A CUPBOARD AND READS]. “A captain who from private motives employs his vessel to another purpose to that intended by the owners is answerable to the charge of usurpation, and his crew is morally and legally entitled to use forceful means in wresting his command from him”.
STUBB. Well, that’s a mouthful, I swear ...
FLASK. Wrest his command from him? Does that mean ... take over?
STARBUCK. It does, Mr Flask.
STUBB. Well, you ain’t proposing we do any such thing? [STARBUCK JUST LOOKS AT HIM]. You’re in dangerous waters, Mr Starbuck. Helm hard over, come about!
STARBUCK. Do thee not see that by serving Ahab we share in his blasphemy? Will thee risk that? Or stand with me an invoke the law?
FLASK [STANDING UP, TAKING HIS HAT AND WALKING OUT] Pardon me, sir, this is my watch. Captains can’t break the law. They IS the law as far as I’m concerned.
STUBB. Aye, and Ahab’s a rare fine captain, too. Why, there ain’t a man aboard, except you maybe, wouldn’t rather be kicked by him than be knighted by the Queen of England.
STARBUCK. I’m done, then. I’ll write my last will and testament.
STUBB. Aye, and do it laughing, sir! A laugh’s the best answer to all the strains in life.
SCENE - THE SHIP IS SAILING.
ISHMAEL. As we stood out towards Bikini, Ahab kept to his cabin and was rarely seen. The mastheads were empty against the sky. No cry of “Thar she blows!” was to entice us from his single purpose. So, in April with the new moon, we entered those waters where Ahab hoped to find the white whale.
SCENE - AHAB CLIMBS UP TO THE QUARTERDECK WHILE THE CREW WATCH HIM
AHAB. Lookouts! Bestir yourselves! Lookouts up! [MEN RUN TO CLIMB THE RIGGING, AND WE SEE THE SPANISH GOLD COIN THAT AHAB NAILED TO THE MAST]
SAILOR #1. Look alive, lads. That gold belongs to him with the sharpest eye.
SAILOR #2. That coin’s worth sixteen dollars. I’ll be first to sight the white whale!
SAILOR #3. Rum, for me, if I win the coin. Enough to dive into and never reach bottom. [AS HE REACHES THE MASTHEAD, HE LOSES HIS GRIP AND FALLS 30 METRES INTO THE SEA]
STARBUCK. Man overboard! [SOMEBODY THROWS AN EMPTY BARREL INTO THE SEA AS A MARKER] Clew up the main yard. Sea boat’s crew away! [THEY LOWER A BOAT AND GO TO THE BARREL, BUT THERE IS NO SIGN OF THE SAILOR]
FLASK. Not a sign of him.
STUBB. The sea just swallowed him up. Queer.
SCENE - THE SHIP DRIFTS UNDER A HOT SUN, WITH NO WIND IN HER SAILS. THE SEA IS FLAT CALM. AHAB STANDS ON THE QUARTERDECK. THE CREW LIE ON DECK, EXHAUSTED BY THE HEAT. FLASK COMES UP ON DECK.
STUBB. April 19 1842. Ahab’s chart shows Moby Dick and the new moon rising together, but the moon’s lost his horns, and there ain’t no sign of the white whale yet.
FLASK (HE GESTURES AT AHAB). Seven days and seven nights on watch. He ain’t gone below, eats on deck, sleeps standing up. How much longer can he hold?
MANXMAN. Nothing moves. Nothing, since the lookout fell into the sea. The wind don’t move, the tide don’t move ... nothing. Even the sun’s nailed to the sky, like the gold doubloon’s nailed the mast. [TO ISHMAEL] You, lad. Pull that gold coin off the mast, throw it over the side. Pay the sea a ransom. Maybe it’ll come back to life and bring us a wind.
TASHTEGO Manxman, stop!
MANXMAN. A cool wind.
TASHTEGO You, Manxman, stop! [HE STANDS OVER THE MANXMAN, WHO IS AFRAID. THEY LOOK AT EACH OTHER, AND TASHTEGO SITS DOWN AGAIN]
ISHMAEL. Queequeg, what are you doing?
QUEEQUEG [THROWING THE BONES]. See tomorrow here. Bones tell everything. [SUDDENLY HE GASPS AND SITS BACK]
ISHMAEL. Queequeg, what’s the matter? What do you see?
QUEEQUEG. Get carpenter.
ISHMAEL. What do you want the carpenter for? Carpenter ... carpenter! Here!
CARPENTER. What can I do for you?
QUEEQUEG. How much you build coffin for?
CARPENTER. Coffin? Two dollars’d do nicely.
ISHMAEL. Hold on ...
QUEEQUEG. Build coffin. Six feet seven inch. Clean wood. Make like best boat. Caulk and tar seams. No water come in. Carve chief’s feather on lid.
CARPENTER. Six feet seven it’ll be.
ISHMAEL. Queequeg, what’s all this about?
QUEEQUEG (GIVING ISHMAEL HIS MONEY BAG). Money yours, sea-chest yours. My harpoon, yours. Goodbye. [QUEEQUEG TURNS AWAY AND STARES STRAIGHT AHEAD]
ISHMAEL. What? Queequeg, what are you talking about? Queequeg? Queequeg! Queequeg! Queequeg, listen to me! [HE SHAKES QUEEQUEG] Oh, say something! What are we going to do?
CARPENTER. There’s only one thing to do. Build him his coffin.
LATER THAT EVENING. THERE IS STILL NO WIND. THE CARPENTER IS SAWING AND HAMMERING. ON THE QUARTERDECK, AHAB LOOKS AGAIN AT HIS CHART. BELOW HIM IN THE SHIP’S WAIST ISHMAEL IS HOLDING A SHIP’S BISCUIT UP TO QUEEQUEG, WHO IS STILL LOOKING STRAIGHT AHEAD.
ISHMAEL. Queequeg, you’ve gotta eat. A drink of water, then. Queequeg, if you go on like this I shall be very angry. Queequeg, I absolutely forbid you to die! Queequeg ... such behaviour simply isn’t Christian. In fact, it’s downright pagan and heathenish. Queequeg, you remember our oath? You promised to go where I go, eat what I eat, ship on my ship. I hold you to your promise, Queequeg.
STARBUCK. I’ve seen this before, lad. One day, for no reason, they know that death is near. They give away all their belongings, and say goodbye, then they sit down to wait. And they just die.
PIP. Mr Starbuck, sir, cap’n wants you. [HE STARTS TO SHAKE HIS TAMBOURINE NEAR QUEEQUEG]
STARBUCK GOES UP THE QUARTERDECK
STARBUCK. Sir?
AHAB. Mr Starbuck, new orders. Remain here until 8 bells, tonight, at which time we’ll lower whaleboats, head the ship north, and row out of these waters.
STARBUCK. Aye, aye sir. At 8 bells.
PIP IS STILL DANCING AND SINGING AROUND QUEEQUEG. THE CARPENTER FINISHES CARVING THREE FEATHERS INTO THE LID OF THE NEW COFFIN. ANOTHER CREWMAN COMES OVER WITH A CANDLE TO LOOK AT QUEEQUEG.
PIP. Get along quiet now, Queequeg, you follow the tide, it knows where to go. You get along with it, it’ll take you, Queequeg, get along!
TWO OTHER CREWMEN COME OVER. THE FIRST ONE GIVES THE CANDLE TO A FRIEND AND TAKES OUT A KNIFE. HE CUTS QUEEQUEG’S CHEST
PIP. Way, way off to Kokoboko.
THE CREWMAN CUTS QUEEQUEG AGAIN. QUEEQUEG DOESN’T REACT.
PIP. Back to Kokoboko, where he came from.
PIP SEES WHAT THEY ARE DOING AND STOPS SINGING. ISHMAEL TURNS ROUND TO SEE WHY, AND WALKS OVER TO SEE WHAT THE MEN ARE DOING. WHEN HE SEES, HE PULLS AWAY THE KNIFE AND PUNCHES THE MAN ON THE JAW. THE MAN COMES TOWARDS ISHMAEL WITH THE KNIFE. THEY STRUGGLE IN SILENCE AS THE OTHER MEN WATCH. ISHMAEL IS IN SERIOUS TROUBLE WHEN QUEEQUEG GRABS THE MAN FROM BEHIND, THROWS HIM BACK ONTO A BARREL AND STARTS TO CRUSH HIS THROAT.
ISHMAEL. Queequeg, don’t! Queequeg, listen to me, don’t!
LOOKOUT. Thar she blows! Thar she blows! Thar she blows! Off the starboard beam. There she blows!
AHAB. It’s him. Oh, it’s him.
ALL THE MEN GO TO THE RAIL TO LOOK AT THE WHITE WHALE
ISHMAEL. Is it real? Do you see it too?
MANXMAN. Aye, we all see it. but that don’t mean it’s real, necessarily.
AHAB. Clear away the boats.
STARBUCK. Lower for him now, sir? At night?
AHAB. Lower away.
STARBUCK. Away boats’ crews!
THE BOATS ARE IN THE WATER , ROWING TOWARDS THE WHALE.. PIP IS ABOARD AHAB’S BOAT, PLAYING HIS TAMBOURINE. THE WHITE WHALE IS VERY ACTIVE, CHURNING UP THE SEA INTO WHITE FOAM. THE WHALE DIVES
AHAB. He’s sounding. Ship oars.
HUNDREDS OF SEABIRDS FLY AROUND THEM,. MAKING A LOUD NOISE OF WINGS. THE MEN LOOK AROUND FOR SIGNS OF THE WHITE WHALE COMING BACK UP TO THE SURFACE.
AHAB. He’s near. He’s very near. Be ready for him. He breaches! [THE WHALE LEAPS RIGHT OUT OF THE WATER, THEN DIVES AGAIN] The birds, they go ... God, I lose him! Without a wind, we lose him!
PIP. That ain’t no whale. That a great white god.
AHAB. About! Back to the ship. We’ll tie on and row for a wind.
NEXT DAY. THE CREW IN FOUR WHALEBOATS ARE TOWING THE SHIP.
ISHMAEL. Long days and nights we strained at the oars, while the white whale swam freely on, widening the waters between himself and Ahab’s vengeance.
AHAB. The cloud, on the starboard beam. Steer for the cloud, men. Bring her round, for the cloud, starboard. Pull, quick, pull us into it, boys. [A SEAMAN COLLAPSES AND DROPS HIS OAR AND STARTS TO ROW]. Pull! That’s it.
THE WIND COMES TO THE PEQUOD. WE SEE THE SHIP A LITTLE LATER, SAILING ALONG. AHAB TAKES THE GOLD COIN OFF THE MAST AND HOLDS IT OUT TO A CREWMAN, WHO DOES NOT LOOK HAPPY TO TAKE IT.
AHAB. You raised the white whale first. The gold doubloon is yours.
FLASK. Go on, take it, sailor.
AHAB. This man has his Spanish gold ounce. You shall have yours. When Moby Dick is struck and killed, on that day you shall have my share! My ten per cent of the profits of this entire voyage! Aye! Gold will pour out of Moby Dick’s wounds into your hands! Every drop of his blood another Spanish doubloon! What say you to that, men? Sing out!
STUBB. They’re all dumbfounded, sir! And so am I!
MANXMAN. Hooray for Captain Ahab! [THEY ALL CHEER]
AHAB. Yes, gold all around ...
STARBUCK. A sail’s there to starboard.
FLASK. It’s the Rachel, out of New Bedford, Captain Gardner’s ship. She’s coming around.
GARDNER. Captain Ahab! Have you seen a whaleboat adrift?
AHAB. I’ve seen nothing! Have you seen the white whale?
GARDNER. We harpooned him, not ten miles from this spot.
AHAB. Not dead ... you didn’t ... kill him?
GARDNER. No, we lost a boat towed out of sight by him to leeward. Three days and nights we’ve searched. My boy was in it, my own son, twelve years old. Captain Ahab, will you help me search?
STARBUCK. As we’re Christians we cannot refuse this man.
AHAB. You will, I know you will help. You must. Oh, you must and you shall do this thing for me.
STARBUCK. If thee say “no” we’ll be in black disgrace. At home they’ll spit at the mention of the Pequod’s name.
GARDNER. Captain Ahab, answer me!
AHAB. Captain Gardner, I seek the white whale. Your own son’s murderer. I am losing time.
GARDNER. Time? I’ve lost my whole world. I will not go. I will follow until you say “aye” to me. Run, men, stand by to lower. I’m coming over, captain.
AHAB. Avast! Touch not a rope! I must go. Goodbye, I say, and fare thee well. God help you, Captain Gardner.
GARDNER. God forgive you, Captain Ahab.
AHAB [HE TURNS AWAY AND SPEAKS TO THE MATES] Stoke up the try-works. Ye shall run forward laden with fire, to render the white whale’s flesh into unholy oil. Blacksmith! I set ye a task. Take these harpoons and lances. Melt them down. Forge me new weapons that will strike deep and hold fast, but do not dowse them in water. They must have a proper baptism. What say ye, all ye men, will you give as much blood as shall be needed to temper the steel?
CREWMEN. Aye.
AHAB. To my anger, now add your own. You be the cogs that fit my wheel, the gunpowder that takes my torch. Pledge yourselves, heart, soul, body, life and lung, as I pledge myself - death to Moby Dick. [HE DRINKS FROM THE RUM JUG, THERE IS A RUMBLE OF THUNDER AND CLOUDS COVER THE SUN]
SCENE - IT IS NEARLY DARK, WITH VERY STRONG WINDS AND A LOT OF SPRAY, BUT THE PEQUOD IS STILL CARRYING ALL SAIL. LITTLE PIP IS HOLDING ON TO THE SHROUDS, SO AS NOT TO BE BLOWN OVERBOARD. AHAB WATCHES THE SAILS, STARBUCK WATCHES AHAB
AHAB. Up helm! Bring the wind aft!
STARBUCK. Sir, shall I shorten sail?
AHAB. No, she runs well enough. Weather mainbrace! Square the yards!
STUBB. Square the yards! Square the yards!
AHAB. Up braces, men. Haul away! Haul away, bend your backs and haul! Earn your salt!
STARBUCK. By all that’s holy, captain, we’ll lose every inch of canvas if ye don’t ease the ship.
AHAB. Mr Starbuck, we are three days behind Moby Dick. This wind is heaven-sent.
STARBUCK. Heaven-sent to destroy us. [THE MAINSAIL BLOWS OUT AND TEARS TO SHREDS]
AHAB. Cut away those rags, get new canvas aloft. All hands, bend sail.
STUBB. Aye aye, sir. [TO CREWMEN] Get aloft! Get aloft!
STARBUCK. He’ll drive her under.
AHAB. Get aloft with ye, aloft!
STUBB. Get up there! Get aloft! [THE CREW GO UP TO THE MAINYARD AND CUT AWAY THE REMAINS OF THE SAIL. WHILE THEY DO SO, BIG WAVES SWEEP THE DECK]
STARBUCK. Captain, we cannot get more canvas up in this wind.
AHAB. We must.
STARBUCK. She won’t come up. [THE MEN ARE DOWN ON DECK AGAIN, BUT NOW THE FORESAIL BLOWS OUT]
MANXMAN. The masts, cut them away! Cut!
STARBUCK. It’s away with the masts, sir, or we capsize.
CREWMEN. The masts, cut the masts!
STARBUCK IS HELPING THE TWO HELMSMEN AS THEY TRY TO TURN THE PEQUOD’S HEAD INTO THE WIND. THEY ARE UNABLE TO DO SO. STARBUCK TAKES AN AXE, GOES FORWARD AND STARTS TO CUT AT THE WEATHER SHROUDS. AHAB SEES HIM
AHAB. Starbuck! [HE TAKES A LANCE AND THREATENS STARBUCK] Let fall! Let fall, I say! I’ll run you through! [WHILE STARBUCK LOOKS AT HIM, THEY ALL SEE GREEN FIRE COVER THE MASTS OF THE PEQUOD, FROM WHICH ALL THE SAILS HAVE BEEN RIPPED BY THE WIND. THE WIND DROPS]
CREWMAN. St Elmo’s fires! Have mercy on us!
AHAB. Aye, men! Mark it well! It lights our way to the white whale! [HE HOLDS UP THE LANCE, AND ITS TIP GLOWS WITH A GREEN LIGHT. AHAB LOWERS IT AS THE WHOLE LANCE GLOWS GREEN.] Thus I put out the last fear! [HE GRASPS THE TIP AND PUTS OUT THE LIGHT, THEN STICKS THE LANCE INTO THE DECK]. Clear away! Raise new sail, we’re running on. Jump, my hearties, jump now!
STARBUCK [TO STUBB, WHO IS GRINNING LIKE A MONKEY]. Where are the crew of the Pequod? There is not one face I know among thirty. He has snatched their souls. Look at them. They are gloves, Ahab fills them, Ahab moves them.
STUBB. You must admit, Mr Starbuck, he called that typhoon’s bluff. He stood toe to toe with the bully, traded blows with it ‘til it hollered “help”!
FLASK. Aye, man, and did you see how he grabbed St Elmo’s fire by the tail! Only Ahab would do that!
STARBUCK. I see a madman beget more madmen. Yet could I cure their madness now. Great God, where art thou? Shall I? Shall I?
CREWMAN. Heave up! Avast!
STARBUCK GOES TO THE DOOR OF THE CAPTAIN’S CABIN. HE ENTERS, CLOSING THE DOOR BEHIND HIM. HE TAKES A PISTOL FROM A RACK ON THE WALL, AND COCKS IT TO CHECK WHETHER IT IS PRIMED. THEN HE UNCOCKS IT AND HIDES IT IN THE BELT OF HIS TROUSERS
SCENE - IT IS DAY NOW, SUNNY AND WITH A GENTLE WIND. AHAB STANDS IN THE BOWS, LOOKING FORWARD. STARBUCK IS STANDING JUST BEHIND HIM.
AHAB. It’s a mild, mild day, Starbuck. A mild-looking sky. On such a day I struck my first whale, a boy harpooneer. Forty, forty, aye, forty years and a thousand lowerings ago. Why this madness of the chase ... this boiling blood and smoking brow. Why palsy the arm at the oar, the iron, and the lance. I feel old, Starbuck, and bowed, as though I were Adam, staggering under the piled centuries since Paradise. Stand close, Starbuck, close to me. Let me look into a human eye. It is better than to gaze into sea or sky.
STARBUCK. Captain, now for the last time I ask thee, I implore thee, let us fly these deadly waters, let us home. Have they not such mild blue days even as this in old New Bedford?
AHAB. What is it ... what nameless, inscrutable, unearthly thing commands me, against all human lovings and longings, to keep pushing and crowding and jamming myself on all the time, making me do what in my own natural heart I dare not dream of doing. Is Ahab Ahab? Is it I, God, or who that lifts this arm? But if the great sun cannot move except by God’s invisible power, how can my small heartbeat, my brain, think thoughts unless God does that beating, does that thinking, does that living ... and not I. By Heavens, man, we are turned round and round in this world, like yonder windlass, and fate is the handspring. And all the time, that smiling sky and this unsounded sea. Look ye into its deeps, and see the everlasting slaughter that goes on. [STARBUCK, WHO LOOKS HORRIFIED, BRINGS UP THE PISTOL BEHIND AHAB’S BACK AND COCKS IT]. Who put it into its creatures to chase and fang one another? Where do murderers go, man? Who’s to doom when the Judge himself is dragged before the bar? [STARBUCK SLOWLY LOWERS THE GUN] But it is a mild, mild day, and a mild-looking sky. [AHAB TURNS ROUND] What ails you, Starbuck? Why do you tremble so?
STARBUCK [SHOWING HIM THE PISTOL]. Because I do not have the bowels to slaughter thee, and save a whole ship’s company from being dragged to doom. Oh, I play [INAUDIBLE], worse still to help thee to thine impious end.
AHAB. Starbuck, ye are tied to me. This act is immutably decreed. It was rehearsed by ye and me a billion years before this ocean rolled. [SUDDENLY HE TURNS AWAY FROM STARBUCK AND LOOKS FORWARD] There ... there ... do you smell it lads, what the wind carries?
ISHMAEL. It smells like land, like an island!
AHAB. Aye, a coral reef, growing moss, shells, bits and pieces from all the oceans he ever swam through. An island to himself, is the white whale.
ISHMAEL. Elijah ...
AHAB. What say you, lad?
ISHMAEL. The day we sailed, a man ... Elijah, his name was ...
AHAB. Well?
ISHMAEL. He said ... he said “a day will come at sea when you smell land where there be no land, and on that day, Ahab will go to his grave. But he will rise again and beckon, and then all ... all ... all save one shall follow”.
LOOKOUT. There she blows! There she blows! [LITTLE PIP BRINGS THE CAPTAIN HIS TELESCOPE, THROUGH WHICH HE SEES MOBY DICK]
AHAB. Mastheaders! The birds mark the place! Watch the birds! Helm there, luff a point! Stand by the boats! Down to’gallants!
FLASK [TO STUBB]. Same old bet, Stubb?
STUBB. Aye.
AHAB. No, Pip, stay on board. You’ll be captain there in my absence. Stand ye there on the deck in my place. Lower away!
SCENE - THE WHALEBOATS ARE AFLOAT AND ROWING AFTER MOBY DICK. AS BEFORE, AHAB, STARBUCK, STUBB AND FLASK ARE EACH IN COMMAND OF ONE OF THE FOUR WHALEBOATS
AHAB. Oh, did you see him, men, did you see his hump, like a great snow hill. Do you see the way he slides along? Oh, there’s majesty for you. Don’t look. I’ll look for you. Did you see the lances in his back? My lances! Mine, struck in him years ago.
FLASK. Heads, my lads! Rack the oars off! Lay into it! Pull, there, boys! Pull, you green-faced bowsies!
STUBB. Long and strong, men. Shake your bones, men. Break your toes. Ah, Moby Dick, show your trump! Blister your lungs! We’ll dam off your blood for ye.
AHAB. Pull soft, now. He’s sounding. [THE WHITE WHALE DIVES]. Ship oars. [ISHMAEL AND THE OTHER CREWMEN OF AHAB’S BOAT RAISE THEIR OARS FROM THE WATER AND SIT READY]
SCENE - THE FOUR WHALEBOATS SIT ON AN EMPTY OCEAN, BUT THERE IS A GREAT NOISE OF BIRDS’ WINGS. AHAB WALKS FORWARD TO THE BOWS OF HIS WHALEBOAT AND PICKS UP THE HARPOON, READY. IN THE OTHER BOATS, THE THREE HARPOONEERS DO THE SAME. THEY WAIT, LOOKING AROUND NERVOUSLY.
AHAB. Rise now, ye white whale. Show us your crooked jaw, show us your wrinkled brow. Rise! [THE BIRDS GET WILDER] The birds! The birds! He rises! In! In after him! Strike!
EACH BOAT HARPOONS THE WHALE, WHICH RACES AWAY. THE ROPES ATTACHED TO THE HARPOONS RUN OUT QUICKLY. THE WHITE WHALE DIVES BRIEFLY BUT STAYS ON THE SURFACE TOWING THE BOATS BEHIND HIM
AHAB. Pull in! Pull in!
MOBY DICK DIVES SUDDENLY, PULLING ONE OF THE WHALEBOATS UNDER WATER
AHAB. Let the men go! Pull in closer, he’ll not escape! Thundering hell, what’s wrong with ye! [MOBY DICK PLUNGES, BREAKING THE ROPES AND DISLODGING THE HARPOONS. THEN HE TURNS AND SWIMS TOWARDS THE BOATS] Oh ye whale, ye damned whale!
WHEN THE WHITE WHALE REACHES AHAB’S BOAT, IT PICKS IT UP IN ITS JAWS AND CRUSHES IT.
THEN IT COMES BACK ON THE ATTACK.
AS THE WHALE PASSES HIM, AHAB GRABS HOLD OF THE HARPOON LINES TRAILING DOWN ITS SIDE. HE CLIMBS THE SIDE OF THE WHALE AND STABS IT REPEATEDLY WITH A LANCE
AHAB. From Hell’s heart I stab at thee! For hate’s sake! I spit my last breath at thee! Thou damned whale!
THE WHALE DIVES, TAKING AHAB WITH IT. ALL IS QUIET
STUBB. Ahoy, no more of this. Back to the Pequod. No more of this, no more of this.
THE WHITE WHALE SURFACES AGAIN, AND THEY SEE AHAB’S DEAD BODY TRAPPED IN THE HARPOON LINES, PINNED AGAINST MOBY DICK’S SIDE. WITH THE MOVEMENTS OF THE WHALE’S BODY, AHAB’S RIGHT ARM MOVES AS IF CALLING THEM TO FOLLOW
STUBB. Do you see? Do you see? Ahab beckons! He’s dead, but he beckons.
STARBUCK. In after him! [STUBB, UNBELIEVING, TURNS TO LOOK AT HIM] After him!
STUBB. After that devil?
STARBUCK. Moby Dick’s no devil, he’s a whale. A monstrous big whale, aye, but a whale, no more. And we’re whaling men, no less. We do not turn from whales, we kill them. We’ll kill Moby Dick. Pull!
STUBB. Well, ye heard Mr Starbuck, didn’t ye? Didn’t ye? Are ye whaling men or no? Pull, ye sheep-heads, pull! Ye should not have come back, you clinging whale, we’ll cut new mouths in ye to grin with.
STARBUCK HARPOONS MOBY DICK AGAIN, BUT MOBY DICK TURNS. HE LIFTS AND SMASHES STUBB’S BOAT. THE WHALE THEN CRASHES DOWN ON STARBUCK’S BOAT, KILLING THE MEN IN THE WATER WITH HIS TEETH AND TAIL. THEN HE RAMS THE PEQUOD, BRINGING THE MASTS CRASHING DOWN, CRUSHING LITTLE PIP. MOBY DICK THEN ATTACKS AGAIN, MAKING A HOLE IN THE SHIP’S SIDE SO THAT SHE STARTS TO SINK. THE PEQUOD DISAPPEARS INTO A HUGE WHIRLPOOL. ISHMAEL IS LEFT SWIMMING ALONE, WHEN SUDDENLY A COFFIN FLOATS UP THE SURFACE NEAR HIM
ISHMAEL. The coffin, drowned Queequeg’s coffin, was my lifebuoy. For one whole day and night it sustained me on that soft and dirge-like main.
Then a sail appeared. It was the Rachel, the Rachel who in her long, long, melancholy search for her missing children found ... another orphan. The drama’s done.
All are departed away. The great shroud of the sea rolls over the Pequod, and her crew, and Moby Dick. I only am escaped, alone, to tell THEE.