238 
MOBY DICK; OR 
The mutineer was the bowsman of the mate, and when fast to a fish, 
it was his duty to sit next him, while Eadney stood up with his lance 
in the prow, and haul in or slacken the line, at the word of command. 
Moreover, when the four boats were lowered, the mate’s got the start ; 
and none howled more fiercely with delight than did Steelkilt, as he 
strained at his oar. After a stiff pull, their harpooneer got fast, and, 
spear in hand, Eadney sprang to the bow. He was always a furious 
man, it seems, in a boat. And now his bandaged cry was, to beach 
him on the whale’s topmost back. Nothing loath, his bowsman 
hauled him up and up ; through a blinding foam that blent two white- 
nesses together; till of a sudden the boat struck as against a sunken 
ledge, and keeling over, spilled out the standing mate. That instant, 
as he fell on the whale’s slippery back, the boat righted, and was 
dashed aside by the swell, while Eadney was tossed over into the sea, 
on the other flank of the whale. He struck out through the spray, and, 
for an instant, was dimly seen through that veil wildly seeking to 
remove himself from the eye of Moby Dick. But the whale rushed 
round in a sudden maelstrom; seized the swimmer between the jaws; 
and rearing high up with him, plunged headlong again, and went 
down. 
“Meantime, at the first tap of the boat’s bottom, the Lakeman had 
slackened the line, so as to drop astern from the whirlpool; calmly 
looking on, he thought his own thoughts. But a sudden, terrific, 
downward jerking of the boat, quickly brought his knife to the line. 
He cut it; and the whale was free. But, at some distance, Moby 
Dick rose again, with some tatters of Eadney’s red woollen shirt, 
caught in the teeth that had destroyed him. All four boats gave 
chase again; but the whale eluded them, and finally wholly disap- 
peared. 
“In good time, the Town-Ho reached her port — a savage, solitary 
place — where no civilised creature resided. There, headed by the 
Lakeman, all but five or six of the foremastmen deliberately deserted 
among the palms; eventually, as it turned out, seizing a large double 
war-canoe of the savages, and setting sail for some other harbour. 
“The ship’s company being reduced to but a handful, the Captain 
called upon the islanders to assist him in the laborious business of 
