His lantern swung from his tightly clenched hand.
Though the body was erect, the head was thrown back so that
the closed eyes were pointed towards the needle of the tell-tale
that swung from a beam in the ceiling.*
*The cabin-compass is called the tell-tale, because without
going to the compass at the helm, the Captain, while below,
can inform himself of the course of the ship.
Terrible old man! thought Starbuck with a shudder, sleeping in this gale,
still thou steadfastly eyest thy purpose.
CHAPTER 52
The Albatross
South-eastward from the Cape, off the distant Crozetts,
a good cruising ground for Right Whalemen, a sail loomed ahead,
the Goney (Albatross) by name. As she slowly drew nigh,
from my lofty perch at the fore-mast-head, I had a good view
of that sight so remarkable to a tyro in the far ocean fisheries--
a whaler at sea, and long absent from home.
As if the waves had been fullers, this craft was bleached
like the skeleton of a stranded walrus. All down her sides,
this spectral appearance was traced with long channels of reddened rust,
while all her spars and her rigging were like the thick branches
of trees furred over with hoar-frost. Only her lower sails were set.
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