His necessities supplied, Derick departed; but he had not gained his ship’s side, when whales were almost simultaneously raised from the mastheads of both vessels; and so eager for the chase was Derick, that without pausing to put his oilcan and lamp-feeder aboard, he slewed round his boat and made after the leviathan lamp-feeders.

Now, the game having risen to leeward, he and the other three German boats that soon followed him, had considerably the start of the Pequod ’s keels. There were eight whales, an average pod. Aware of their danger, they were going all abreast with great speed straight before the wind, rubbing their flanks as closely as so many spans of horses in harness. They left a great, wide wake, as though continually unrolling a great wide parchment upon the sea.