e ship is thine--keep
away from the boats, but keep near them. Lower, all!"

As if to strike a quick terror into them, by this time being the first
assailant himself, Moby Dick had turned, and was now coming for the
three crews. Ahab's boat was central; and cheering his men, he told them
he would take the whale head-and-head,--that is, pull straight up to his
forehead,--a not uncommon thing; for when within a certain limit, such
a course excludes the coming onset from the whale's sidelong vision.
But ere that close limit was gained, and while yet all three boats were
plain as the ship's three masts to his eye; the White Whale churning
himself into furious speed, almost in an instant as it were, rushing
among the boats with open jaws, and a lashing tail, offered appalling
battle on every side; and heedless of the irons darted at him from every
boat, seemed only intent on annihilating each separate plank of which
those boats were made. But skilfully manoeuvred, incessantly wheeling
like trained chargers in the field; the boats for a while eluded him;
though, at times, but by a plank's breadth; while all the time, Ahab's
unearthly slogan tore every other cry but his to shreds.

But at last in his untraceable evolutions, the White Whale so crossed
and recrossed, and in a thousand ways entangled the slack of the three
lines now fast to him, that they foreshortened, and, of themselves,
warped the devoted boats towards the planted irons in him; though now
for a moment the whale drew aside a little, as if to rally for a more
tremendous charge. Seizing that opportunity, Ahab first paid out more
line: and then was rapidly hauling and jerking in upon it again--hoping
that way to disencumber it of some snarls--when lo!--a sight more savage
than the embattled teeth of sharks!

Caught and twisted--corkscrewed in the mazes of the line, loose harpoons
and lances, with all their bristling barbs and points, came flashing
and dripping up to the chocks in the bows of Ahab's boat. Only one
thing could be done. Seizing the boat-knife, he critically reached
within--through--and then, without--the rays of steel; dragged in
the line beyond, passed it, inboard, to the bowsman, and then, twice
sundering the rope near the chocks--dropped the intercepted fagot of
steel into the sea; and was all fast again. That instant, the White
Whale made a sudden rush among the remaining tangles of the other lines;
by so doing, irresistibly dragged the more in