Lord and master over all this scene, the captain stood erect on the ship’s elevated quarterdeck, so that the whole rejoicing drama was full before him, and seemed merely contrived for his own individual diversion.

And Ahab, he too was standing on his quarterdeck, shaggy and black, with a stubborn gloom; and as the two ships crossed each other’s wakes⁠—one all jubilations for things passed, the other all forebodings as to things to come⁠—their two captains in themselves impersonated the whole striking contrast of the scene.

“Come aboard, come aboard!” cried the gay Bachelor ’s commander, lifting a glass and a bottle in the air.

“Hast seen the White Whale?” gritted Ahab in reply.

“No; only heard of him; but don’t believe in him at all,” said the other good-humoredly. “Come aboard!”

“Thou art too damned jolly. Sail on. Hast lost any men?”