midday
Seeing how matters stood , and what a noble great whale it was -- the noblest and biggest I ever saw , sir , in my life -- I resolved to capture him , spite of the boiling rage he seemed to be in . And thinking the hap-hazard line would get loose , or the tooth it was tangled to might draw -LRB- for I have a devil of a boat 's crew for a pull on a whale-line -RRB- ; seeing all this , I say , I jumped into my first mate 's boat -- Mr. Mounttop 's here -LRB- by the way , Captain -- Mounttop ; Mounttop -- the captain -RRB- ; -- as I was saying , I jumped into Mounttop 's boat , which , d'ye see , was gunwale and gunwale with mine , then ; and snatching the first harpoon , let this old great-grandfather have it . But , Lord , look you , sir -- hearts and souls alive , man -- the next instant , in a jiff , I was blind as a bat -- both eyes out -- all befogged and bedeadened with black foam -- the whale 's tail looming straight up out of it , perpendicular in the air , like a marble steeple . No use sterning all , then ; but as I was groping at midday , with a blinding sun , all crown-jewels ; as I was groping , I say , after the second iron , to toss it overboard -- down comes the tail like a Lima tower , cutting my boat in two , leaving each half in splinters ; and , flukes first , the white hump backed through the wreck , as though it was all chips . We all struck out . To escape his terrible flailings , I seized hold of my harpoon-pole sticking in him , and for a moment clung to that like a sucking fish . But a combing sea dashed me off , and at the same instant , the fish , taking one good dart forwards , went down like a flash ; and the barb of that cursed second iron towing along near me caught me here '' -LRB- clapping his hand just below his shoulder -RRB- ; `` yes , caught me just here , I say , and bore me down to Hell 's flames , I was thinking ; when , when , all of a sudden , thank the good God , the barb ript its way along the flesh -- clear along the whole length of my arm -- came out nigh my wrist , and up I floated ; -- and that gentleman there will tell you the rest -LRB- by the way , captain -- Dr. Bunger , ship 's surgeon : Bunger , my lad , -- the captain -RRB- .