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After that night , I decided to write my will . Queequeg helped me with it . When I finished it , I felt calm , almost happy . I was ready for anything now . Some weeks later , we killed our first whale . It was Stubb’s boat that got it . Tashtego threw his harpoon , and the long rope ran out so fast that it smoked . Stubb told his men to pour water on it to keep it cool . For a long time the whale pulled the boat across the sea . Then it grew tired , and Stubb finished it with his long lance . At last the huge animal rolled over slowly and lay still . Stubb calmly lit his pipe again . The boats towed the whale back to the ship and tied it to her side . Now came the hard work of cutting in . The men cut a long , wide strip from the whale’s thick fat , which whalers call blubber . They lifted it on board with big ropes and hooks . As the strip came up , the whale turned over and over in the water , like an orange when you peel it . Then the blubber was cut into pieces and boiled in two huge iron pots on the deck . The pots turned the blubber into oil . People used this oil to light their lamps in towns all over the world . The fires burned day and night . Queequeg’s job during the cutting in was very dangerous . He had to stand on the slippery back of the dead whale in the water . Around him , dozens of sharks were swimming . I stood on the deck and held a rope that was tied to his belt and to mine . We were joined together . If he fell and sank , I would go down with him . I understood then that his life was in my hands , and my life was in his . Every friendship is a little like that . X . The Captain with the Ivory Arm Weeks became months . We sailed round the south of Africa and into the Indian Ocean . Sometimes we met other whaling ships . When two whaling ships meet at sea , they usually stop , and the captains visit each other . But Ahab never wanted to visit anybody . He had only one question for every ship . “ Have you seen the white whale ? ” Most captains shook their heads . But one day we met an English ship called the Samuel Enderby . Her captain was a big , cheerful man . As he stood on his deck , we saw that one of his arms was not a real arm . It was made of white whale bone . “ Have you seen the white whale ? ” called Ahab . The English captain lifted his white arm . “ Do you see this ? ” he shouted back . “ Lower my boat ! ” cried Ahab . He went over to the English ship at once . The two captains stood together on the deck . One had a leg of whale bone , and the other had an arm of whale bone . They crossed them , bone against bone , like a greeting .
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