داستان کاپیتان اهب

CHAPTER 3 Captain Ahab’s Story

For three weeks Captain Ahab stayed below. Then one day, suddenly, he was there in front of us. He was a thin man, but he was strong. He had a hard face with lines on it from years of sun and wind. His hair was gray and wild. His clothes were black. Then I saw it—his white whalebone leg. And an ugly white line ran down from the top of his head. Did it go down to his feet? Who—or what—did that to him? What fight did he lose so badly?

He stood and looked at us with angry eyes. “What do you do when you see a whale?” he suddenly shouted.

“Shout, sir,” answered the men.

“Good! Look at this!” He showed us some gold. “I want one whale—a white whale. One of you will see this whale first! That man will get this gold!” We stood quietly. Whalers don’t make much money. We thought about the gold. We could buy a lot of nice things with it.

“You’ll know him when you see him” said Captain Ahab. “He’s the biggest whale in the oceans.” “I saw this whale,” said Queequeg to me. “He is a mountain! Very big. Very strong. I put my harpoon in him. I le got away!” “I have to find this whale! I WILL find him!” shouted Captain Ahab.

“Are you talking about Moby Dick?” asked Tashtego.

“Yes!” answered Captain Ahab.

“Moby Dick took your leg?” said Starbuck quietly.

Captain Ahab shouted angrily at Starbuck. “Yes! He took my leg. He took half of me. Now I’m half a man. And Moby Dick will pay for this! I’ll follow him to South America, to Africa. I’ll follow him to the end of this world. I’ll see him dead!” I le turned to the other whalers. “Are you with me, men?” “Yes!” they shouted. They were excited. They saw the gold! They shouted and laughed.

Only Starbuck stood quietly. His face was as dark as the sky before it rains.

“What’s your problem?” Captain Ahab asked him angrily. Then he smiled. “It’s too dangerous. Is that the problem?” “I’m not afraid of dangerous work,” answered Starbuck. “But I work for whale oil. I fight whales for their oil—for money. You hate this whale. How much oil will that bring you? I low much money?” “When I kill Moby Dick, I’ll be rich in here!” shouted Captain Ahab and he hit his body with his hand. I le turned and started to walk away.

“Are you going to follow this animal because it won a fight with you? It’s wrong. It’s crazy!” shouted Starbuck.

When he heard this, Captain Ahab turned on his whalebone leg. He was very angry now and he shouted in Starbuck’s face.

“This whale is evil. Do you understand? White is the color of ice and ice takes strong ships down under the water. White is the color of a man’s eyes when he can’t see. White is the color of dead men. White is evil and this whale is evil, He’s laughing at me. I’ll only be free when this evil is dead! Dead!” The color left Starbuck’s face. He was the loser of this fight and Captain Ahab knew it. He turned to the men again.

“Drink! Death to Moby Dick!” he shouted.

The men put their harpoons up high and shouted too. Then they drank and danced.

♦

Later that same night the men were asleep and the ship was quiet.

I was outside with Pip, the little cook boy. We had to put water out for the next day’s whaling.

“Listen,” said Pip. “Can you hear that? I hear men.”

The whalers were at the other end of the ship. There was nobody there.

“I don’t hear anything,” I said.

“No, listen!” said Pip. “There are men below us—five or six of them. Can’t you hear them?” “It’s the ocean, Pip. It’s playing games with you,” I answered.

“I have good ears,” said Pip. He was angry with me and walked away.

I watched him go. Then I sat and looked up at the stars. I dreamed of the white whale. I dreamed of gold.