Second
mate volunteered to steer and watch, and let men snatch a few hours sleep.
His two young officers were too young and flighty, the
mate too stupid.
He was certainly not more than thirty, and the elderly
mate, with a murmur to me of "That's my old man," proceeded to give instances of the natural unhandiness of the ship in a sort of deprecatory tone, as if to say, "You mustn't think I bear a grudge against her for that."
Sometimes, even now, in my old age, I have bad dreams in which I hear that
mate yell, Yah!
Meantime the chief
mate, with an almost visible effect of collaboration on the part of his round eyes and frightful whiskers, was trying to evolve a theory of the anchored ship.
Now these three
mates --Starbuck, Stubb, and Flask, were momentous men.
At his side raced his shaggy
mate, only a trifle smaller than he and no whit less savage.
Franklin, the chief
mate, with his head sunk between his shoulders, and melancholy eyes.
The
mate, or commander, brought six men with him in his boat; but these poor wretches looked like skeletons, and were so weak that they could hardly sit to their oars.
He did not know what to do, and then Jane Clayton, who had heard Schneider's story, added her pleas to those of the
mate.
For ever after, "speak" would mean to him "speak," and "sit down" would mean "sit down" and would not mean "lie down." The third addition to his vocabulary was "Skipper." That was the name he had heard the
mate repeatedly call Captain Van Horn.
One careless sniff had satisfied his
mate, and she trotted on to reassure him.
