Moby-Dick · Chapter
Knights and Squires explained
This chapter introduces the second and third mates, Stubb and Flask, detailing their contrasting personalities and attitudes toward whaling.
What happens
This chapter introduces the second and third mates, Stubb and Flask, detailing their contrasting personalities and attitudes toward whaling. It then describes the three harpooneers—Queequeg, Tashtego, and Daggoo—and establishes the 'knight and squire' relationship each has with their respective mate. The chapter concludes by reflecting on the international, 'Isolato' nature of the Pequod's crew, federated under Ahab for a singular, grim purpose.
Themes in this chapter
Friendship and Human Bonding
Highlights the 'close intimacy and friendliness' between each mate and his harpooneer, framing them as medieval knights and squires bound in a deadly partnership.
Isolation and Community
Explicitly describes the crew as 'Isolatoes,' each living on a separate continent, yet now 'federated along one keel' into a singular, doomed community under Ahab's quest.
Race and Cultural Difference
The harpooneers—Queequeg (Polynesian), Tashtego (Native American), Daggoo (African)—represent a global 'Anacharsis Clootz deputation.' Their descriptions are marked by exoticism and 'barbaric virtues,' highlighting cultural difference within the crew's hierarchy.
Characters to notice
- Stubb
Described as a happy-go-lucky, indifferent second mate from Cape Cod. His pipe-smoking is portrayed as a defense against life's miseries, and he faces danger with calm, offhanded coolness.
- Flask
The pugnacious third mate from Martha's Vineyard, who views whales as personally affronting him. He is fearless to the point of seeing them as oversized rodents, making whaling a 'jolly joke.'
- Queequeg
Confirmed as Starbuck's selected harpooneer and 'squire,' though his character is already known from previous chapters.
- Tashtego
An unmixed Indian from Gay Head, described as an inheritor of proud warrior hunters. He is Stubb's harpooneer, with a lithe, powerful build and 'Antarctic' glittering eyes.
- Daggoo
A gigantic, coal-black harpooneer from Africa, moving with lion-like tread. He is the 'Squire' to little Flask, his imposing stature creating a 'corporeal humility' in those who look up at him.
- Starbuck
Mentioned as the chief mate who selected Queequeg, completing the trio of 'momentous' mates who command the whaleboats.
- Captain Ahab
Referenced as the leader who would 'marshal his forces,' with the crew being a 'deputation' accompanying 'Old Ahab' to lay the world's grievances before a fatal bar.
- Pip
Mentioned as the 'Poor Alabama boy' who 'went before,' foreshadowing his tragic fate on the forecastle and his eventual glorification.
Key passages
“He was as particular about the comfortable arrangement of his part of the boat, as an old stage-driver is about the snugness of his box.”
Stubb was fastidious about making his section of the whaleboat comfortable, comparing his care to that of a seasoned stagecoach driver arranging his seat.
Illustrates Stubb's casual, domestic approach to the tools of violent pursuit.
“So utterly lost was he to all sense of reverence for the many marvels of their majestic bulk and mystic ways...”
Flask had no awe for the whale's majesty or mystery; he saw the wondrous creature as merely a large mouse or water-rat.
Emphasizes Flask's reductive, fearless, and almost comical view of the whale.
“Isolatoes too, I call such, not acknowledging the common continent of men, but each Isolato living on a separate continent of his own. Yet now, federated along one keel...”
I call them Isolatoes—men who do not acknowledge a shared humanity, each living in his own isolated world. But now, united on the same ship...
Key passage defining the crew's paradoxical state of isolated individuals forged into a single, fate-bound community.
