Table of Contents CHAPTER 1 The Spouter Inn 4 CHAPTER 2 Breakfast 11 CHAPTER 3 Queequeg’s Story 15 CHAPTER 4 Nantucket 19 CHAPTER 5 The Ship 23 CHAPTER 6 Ahab 27 CHAPTER 7 A Mystery 32 CHAPTER 8 The First Lowering 37 CHAPTER 9 The Spirit Spout 42 CHAPTER 10 Squid 46 CHAPTER 11 Stubb’s Supper 51 CHAPTER 12 The Jerobeam’s Story 59 CHAPTER 13 The Tap 64 CHAPTER 14 The Jungfrau 70 CHAPTER 15 A Purse 74 CHAPTER 16 Leg and Arm 82 CHAPTER 17 The Whale Watch 86 CHAPTER 18 The Doubloon 93 CHAPTER 19 The Rachel 98 CHAPTER 20 The Chase 102 CHAPTER 21 The Third Day 108
chapter 1 The Spouter Inn Call me Ishmael By training I am a country schoolmaster but my heart often longs for waves and water Whenever I find myself growing gloomy and short-tempered I must take to the sea I ship as a sailor Being ordered about takes some getting used to but I do it They pay me and I very much like to be paid Though I had always sailed on merchant ships I decided to sign on a whaler for a new adventure So I stuffed a shirt or two into my carpet bag and headed for Massachusetts I arrived in New Bedford on a Saturday night too late to catch the ferry to Nantucket I wanted a cheap place to stay and I knew the 4
cheapest lodging would lie in the deepest gloom Blocks of blackness lined the streets Once or twice I saw a candle move through the night like a ghost in a tomb Finally I came to a crooked building where a sign swung on rusty chains It read The Spouter Inn Peter Coffin Lodging with a man named Coffin must surely be cheap I thought I entered the public room and looked around Whaling lances and harpoons hung on the smoke-stained walls On the far side the bar was made from the arched bone of a whale’s jaw I told the landlord I wanted a room He said they were full But he added if you don’t mind sharing there’s room to bunk in with a harpooner staying here Since I had no desire to wander in the cold night I agreed I ate my meal with other shivering boarders in a room with no fire We lingered over our scalding tea warming our frozen fingers on the mugs 5
