And as for the other whale, why, I'll agree to get more oil by
chopping up and trying out these three masts of ours, than he'll
get from that bundle of bones; though, now that I think of it,
it may contain something worth a good deal more than oil;
yes, ambergris. I wonder now if our old man has thought of that.
It's worth trying. Yes, I'm for it;" and so saying he started
for the quarter-deck.
By this time the faint air had become a complete calm; so that
whether or no, the Pequod was now fairly entrapped in the smell,
with no hope of escaping except by its breezing up again.
Issuing from the cabin, Stubb now called his boat's crew,
and pulled off for the stranger. Drawing across her bow,
he perceived that in accordance with the fanciful French taste,
the upper part of her stem-piece was carved in the likeness
of a huge drooping stalk, was painted green, and for thorns
had copper spikes projecting from it here and there; the whole
terminating in a symmetrical folded bulb of a bright red color.
Upon her head boards, in large gilt letters, he read "Bouton
de Rose,"--Rose-button, or Rose-bud; and this was the romantic
name of this aromatic ship.
Though Stubb did not understand the Bouton part of the inscription,
yet the word rose, and the bulbous figure-head put together,
sufficiently explained the whole to him.
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