His necessities supplied, Derick departed; but he had not gained
his ship's side, when whales were almost simultaneously raised from
the mast-heads of both vessels; and so eager for the chase was Derick,
that without pausing to put his oil-can and lamp-feeder aboard,
he slewed round his boat and made after the leviathan lamp-feeders.
Now, the game having risen to leeward, he and the other three German boats
that soon followed him, had considerably the start of the Pequod's keels.
There were eight whales, an average pod. Aware of their danger,
they were going all abreast with great speed straight before the wind,
rubbing their flanks as closely as so many spans of horses in harness.
They left a great, wide wake, as though continually unrolling a great
wide parchment upon the sea.
Full in this rapid wake, and many fathoms in the rear, swam a huge,
humped old bull, which by his comparatively slow progress,
as well as by the unusual yellowish incrustations over-growing him,
seemed afflicted with the jaundice, or some other infirmity.
Whether this whale belonged to the pod in advance, seemed questionable;
for it is not customary for such venerable leviathans to be at
all social. Nevertheless, he stuck to their wake, though indeed their
back water must have retarded him, because the white-bone or swell
at his broad muzzle was a dashed one, like the swell formed when two
hostile currents meet.
Pages:
551
552
553
554
555
556
557
558
559
560
561
562
563
564
565
566
567
568
569
570
571
572
573
574
575