When darkness came on, sky and sea roared
and split with the thunder, and blazed with the lightning,
that showed the disabled mast fluttering here and there
with the rags which the first fury of the tempest had left
for its after sport.
Holding by a shroud, Starbuck was standing on the quarter-deck;
at every flash of the lightning glancing aloft, to see
what additional disaster might have befallen the intricate
hamper there; while Stubb and Flask were directing the men
in the higher hoisting and firmer lashing of the boats.
But all their pains seemed naught. Though lifted to the very top
of the cranes, the windward quarter boat (Ahab's) did not escape.
A great rolling sea, dashing high up against the reeling ship's
high teetering side, stove in the boat's bottom at the stern,
and left it again, all dripping through like a sieve.
"Bad work, bad work! Mr. Starbuck," said Stubb, regarding the wreck,
"but the sea will have its way. Stubb, for one, can't fight it.
You see, Mr. Starbuck, a wave has such a great long start before it leaps,
all round the world it runs, and then comes the spring! But as for me,
all the start I have to meet it, is just across the deck here.
But never mind; it's all in fun: so the old song says;"--(sings.
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