Chapter 27 - Knights and Squires (pt.2)
Stubb - Second Mate. Cool under pressure, good humour, happy-go-lucky, careless, Cape Cod native. He is also a big smoker with a row of pipers ready and that is his defining trait. (Also the one that said Starbuck is careful)
Flask - Third Mate. Short stocky guy with a confrontational personality. No reverence for Whales, acts like they personally offended him and doesnt fear them. He comes from Tisbury in Martha's vineyard (no not that Martha, that would be wild) Nicknamed King Post due to his likness to the wood they use in Artic whaling.
Each mate commands a harpoon boat and a harpooner (like knight and squire)
Queeque - harpooner for Starbucks. We already know this guy he is the best. We love him, nothing more to say.
Tashtego - Stubb's harpooner. Described as “an unmixed Indian from Gay Head" amd "red man" So a full native american. He has long, thin, black hair, high cheekbones and round black eyes.
Ishmael claims you can see the antartic in them, so i think he means inuit. He goes on to talk about being a hunter being in is blood due to that, hunting moose and such. Also Gay head is part of Martha’s Vinyard, I wonder if that is why him and Stubb are paired up?
Daggoo - Flask's harpooner. He is “a gigantic, coal-black negro-savage with a lion-like tread—an Ahasuerus to behold.” (Ahasuerus of course being a king feom the bible and husband to Ester. So he has a regal bearing???). He is 6'5" and has larg hoop earrings. Being from Africa and just chiling on whale boats and ports, has retained a more native vibe, more so then Queequeg.
The funny sight of him standing next to the tiny Flask must be a sight and I'm sad that I can't see it.
Ishmael brings up the fact that the officers are all American even though the rest of the crew is diverse and brings up how this is true throughout America, in politics, military, construction of railroads, ect. The ones in charge are American born (i.e. White) and the ones under their charge are the mixing pot that makes up everyone else.
He says that the "native americans" (not including the actual native american on the ship) provide the brains and the rest of the world with the brawn. .....like, my dude. You were so close.
He does go on to say that most of the Pequod was made up of islanders (isolatoes) but here they all work together and become a new federation and the past doesn't matter.
Ishmael ends the chapter by talking about all the grievances of the world being laid at the feet of ships like this, but he brings up Ahab's name like it is foreshadowing.
He also mentions a Lilttle Pip, a black boy from Alabama who bangs a tambourine. But it is unclear if this kid is died and an illusion to the dreedom of the sea or if he just is not coming back from become he is called a coward/hero (coward here, hero there. But where are these places).
Coward or hero. An intresing duality.
