A PHANTOM AT THE SEA
This story is taken from ‘Moby Dick’, an adventure story written by Herman Melville, a sailor
born in New York. In this story Captain Ahab sets out to capture a fierce and cunning white whale, Moby Dick. Previously, Moby Dick had torn away the leg of Ahab and now Ahab wants to have his revenge.. The writer describes the meeting of Ahab’s ship with a white apparition which, at first, is thought to be Moby Dick.
One blue morning, Dagoo, who was posted on the top of the principal mast of the ship, suddenly saw a strange creature from a distance. It looked like a great mass which rose lazily out of the sea and shone like a slice of snow which had recently detached itself from the hills. The creature remained bright for a moment and then slowly sank into the sea. It arose once more, still shining as it did before. It did not look like a whale to Dagoo and yet he said to himself, ‘Can this be Moby Dick?’ As he was trying to decide for himself if he had just seen Moby Dick, the phantom went down only to reappear again. This time it made a sharp noise which woke every man on the ship up from his nap. Without any more hesitation the black man shouted, “There! There she is again! There she comes out of water! Right ahead of us! The white whale! The white whale!”
As soon as they heard Dagoo, the seamen got up on their feet and rushed to the front deck. Ahab was already standing there, bare headed under the hot sun. While he looked carefully in the direction in which Dagoo was pointing something out with his motionless arm, Ahab got himself ready to give orders to the helmsman. When he noticed the white mass which Dagoo was pointing at, he immediately ordered the seamen to put the boats to sea.
Soon the four boats were on the water with Ahab’s boat leading the way and moving towards their prey. The monster went down and disappeared; while we had our oars out of water, waiting for it to reappear, it once more rose slowly at the same place where it had sunk. For a moment, we forgot about Moby Dick as we looked fixedly at the most amazing creature which the secret seas have ever exposed to man. We saw a huge mass of great length and breadth, of creamy colour floating on the water. It had countless long arms coming from its centre and they twisted like a number of snakes, ready to seize any object which lay within their reach. We were unable to distinguish the face of the monster as it kept floating almost like a dead object on the waves. It had no definite shape and appeared to belong to another world.
Making a soft sound, the creature slowly disappeared in the water again. Still gazing at the spot where it had sunk, Starbuck, with great amazement, shouted, “I would rather have met Moby Dick himself and fought him than cast my eyes on you, you white ghost!”
“What was it, Sir?” asked Flask.
“That was the great squid which they say very few seamen have ever seen.”
Ahab said nothing else. He turned his boat and sailed back to the ship while the others followed in silence.