"Aye, aye," said Stubb, the second mate, "Starbuck, there,
is as careful a man as you'll find anywhere in this fishery."
But we shall ere long see what that word "careful" precisely means
when used by a man like Stubb, or almost any other whale hunter.
Starbuck was no crusader after perils; in him courage was not a sentiment;
but a thing simply useful to him, and always at hand upon all mortally
practical occasions. Besides, he thought, perhaps, that in this business
of whaling, courage was one of the great staple outfits of the ship,
like her beef and her bread, and not to be foolishly wasted.
Wherefore he had no fancy for lowering for whales after sun-down;
nor for persisting in fighting a fish that too much persisted in
fighting him. For, thought Starbuck, I am here in this critical ocean
to kill whales for my living, and not to be killed by them for theirs;
and that hundreds of men had been so killed Starbuck well knew.
What doom was his own father's? Where, in the bottomless deeps,
could he find the torn limbs of his brother?
With memories like these in him, and, moreover, given to a certain
superstitiousness, as has been said; the courage of this Starbuck,
which could, nevertheless, still flourish, must indeed have been extreme.
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