DRAMA: The Classics
Moby Dick - The Chase - Third Day
It is highly recommended that you read each synopsis before listening to each day of The Chase individually so that you can keep the story straight.
forget the synopsis and go directly to the script and audio
Synopsis:
Hmmm, indeed. Before moving on, let's recap the second day:
• Ahab again spots Moby and proceeds with three harpoon boats to catch him.
• Everyone throws their harpoons at once leading to a big tangle of ropes, boats and Moby.
• Then Moby starts towing Ahab’s harpoon boat while the other two harpoon boats are smashed together.
• Ahab cuts his harpoon lines just in time to escape as Moby flips his harpoon boat and snaps his wooden leg off.
• Moby swims away.
• Ahab and the harpooners swim back to the Pequod.
• Starbuck complains about the mess.
• Everyone thinks Fedallah is dead.
And now we move on to the dramatic conclusion with Moby Dick - The Chase - Third Day.
Announcer
Ahab
Everyone
Starbuck
Moby
Stubb
Flask
Tashtego
Ishmael
ANNOUNCER
And now, the Kranky Kids present the last chapter of Moby Dick, Chapter 135, The Chase, Third Day.
AHAB
What a lovely day again. D'ye see him?
EVERYONE
No.
AHAB
Follow his wake.
STARBUCK
His wake, sir?
AHAB
His turbulence path in the water, Mr. Starbuck. Am I the only one who's ever been on a ship before? Now go away, I have to have a talk with myself that will take over a page in the book.
SFX: muttering sounds
STARBUCK
Are you done, Captain Ahab?
AHAB
Almost. To it! Aloft there! What d'ye see?
EVERYONE
Nothing.
AHAB
What? It's almost noon. Sway me up to the top of the main mast-head.
SFX: creaking sounds
AHAB
Darn, we've oversailed him. Moby Dick's chasing me now. About! About! Man the braces!
EVERYONE
What?
AHAB
Turn the ship around.
EVERYONE
Oh.
STARBUCK
Well, this seems like a brilliant idea. Turn the ship around and head for a giant whale's mouth. Hello God, I'm saying my prayers now.
AHAB
There she blows! Forehead to forehead I meet thee, this third time, Moby Dick! On deck there! Brace sharper up! Crowd her into the wind's eye! Stand over the helmsman with the top-maul!
EVERYONE
Huh?
AHAB
Point the ship at the whale and go faster, okay?
EVERYONE
Okay.
AHAB
And while you're doing that I think I'll sit up here and reminisce about the sea, Nantucket and my youth. Hey, there's moss growing in this mast-head! Here we are, myself and this mast, growing old together. And what did Fedallah, the Oriental Parsee, say? That I'd see him before I died and that hemp was the only thing that could kill me? But he's at the bottom of the ocean and we've been sailing from the spot where he sank since last night. Oh well, good-bye mast-head. We'll talk again tomorrow when I have Moby Dick dead on the deck of the Pequod.
STARBUCK
Sir, are you done talking to an inanimate object?
AHAB
Sure. Lower me down and lower the boats while you're at it. Oh, and Starbuck?
STARBUCK
Yes, Captain Ahab?
AHAB
Shake my hand. There's only eight more pages in this book and I think I might die.
STARBUCK
Oh, my captain, my captain! Please don't go!
AHAB
You stay on board, Mr. Starbuck.
STARBUCK
Aw shucks, I never get to have any fun and all this tension is making me cry!
EVERYONE
The sharks! The sharks!
STARBUCK
Gee, a whole bunch of sharks are biting the oars of Captain Ahab's boat and they're not bothering the other two boats at all. That man just cannot take a hint! And now I'm having doomsday visions, I'm shuddering, I feel faint, and a sea-hawk just ripped the red flag off our main-mast and is flying off with it!
AHAB
Golly, from here it looks like Mr. Starbuck is a bit upset. Anyway, Moby Dick has just sounded. I'll just sit here and wait for him to surface again and will someone please shut these snapping sharks up?
MOBY
Well, well, well, it seems that these people simply can't get enough of me, Moby Dick. I guess I'll have to surface and teach them another lesson. Take that!
SFX: muffled crash
MOBY
And that!
SFX: muffled crash
MOBY
And that!
SFX: muffled crash
AHAB
Hey! The White Whale has bashed in the front end of the other two boats but left mine alone. And yuck! Fedallah's half-torn body is lashed to Moby Dick's side. I guess Fedallah was right. I am seeing him again. You guys take your boats and head back to the ship.
STUBB
We'll repair them if we can and then return.
AHAB
That's nice to hear, Stubb. But if you can't, I don't mind dying alone.
EVERYONE
Alone?
AHAB
Quiet, crew of my boat. Keep rowing.
EVERYONE
The sharks!
AHAB
Oh, whack ‘em with what's left of the oars.
MOBY
This party's getting boring. It's time to bag these clowns.
STARBUCK
Look, Captain Ahab! Moby Dick is swimming away! You see! He doesn't seek you! It's you who seeks him! It's not too late to stop this madness!
AHAB
Can it, Starbuck. I'm gonna get that whale. You follow me with the Pequod, but don't follow too closely. And tell Tashtego, the harpooner, to hammer up another flag on the main-mast-head; it looks naked without one.
MOBY
Gosh, I'm tired. Why don't they just leave me alone? Maybe if I pretend to ignore them -
AHAB
This is it! I'm going to sink my lucky harpoon into this whale and curse him at the same time!
MOBY
Oh, how original. Take that!
AHAB
Oh sure. Knock three of my boat crew into the water, why don't you, and one of them is now floating away. Oh well, put the other two back on board and hang-on to that rope tied to my harpoon.
EVERYONE
It snapped!
MOBY
That's it! I've tried to be nice and swim away, but no - you have to keep pushing the issue. Okay, step back, Jack, I'm gunnin' for the Pequod now!
EVERYONE
The whale! The ship!
AHAB
Oars! Oars!
STARBUCK
Really, sir. There's no need to be crude.
AHAB
Darn! Now my boat has also caved-in from Moby Dick's thrashings and we are only able to sit here in the water and watch while the White Whale swims onward to sink my ship.
STARBUCK
Oh, what a mess this is! And to think that all my life I've been faithful and prayed on a daily basis. This is unfair! I mean really, to be smited by a whale that I'm not even in favor of chasing.
STUBB
You? I say, Mr. Starbuck, I, Stubb, am a bit dismayed that I will die without the taste of some fresh fruit in my mouth. A cherry, perhaps?
FLASK
A cherry? How selfish! I, Flask, only wish that my poor mother has gotten my part- pay by now. Otherwise she's gonna be poor, poor, poor.
MOBY
Oh, boo-hoo, you idiots should have thought about this before. I'm gonna smite the Pequod's starboard bow!
SFX: crash and bubbling sound
EVERYONE
Oh, no! We're sinking!
AHAB
Darn this whale! I'm going to harpoon him again! Rats! The line is stuck. I'll fix it. Oops, the line's caught me about the neck and I'm a dead man!
STUBB
Ahab's boat is sinking.
EVERYONE
What more can happen?
TASHTEGO
It is I, Tashtego, who says that all three of us harpooners will each stay at the top of a mast as the Pequod sinks from sight. Not only that, but I will nail a passing sea-hawk -
SFX: squawk
TASHTEGO
- who's being a real pest, I must say - to the main-mast. And as we sink, I will keep my arm and hammer raised to the end.
EVERYONE
Talk about poetic justice and an enduring visual!
TASHTEGO
Yeah, and a great plug for a cooking and cleaning product. I could start a company, but I have to drown instead.
ISHMAEL
Well, at least I, Ishmael, get to survive and tell the tale even though a great deal of it is in third person. Go figure. I was the one who floated away the last time Moby Dick flipped Ahab's boat. And it was a piece of the debris from the Pequod that kept me afloat until another ship picked me up a day later. And, no matter what some PHD English professor in the Cliff Notes tries to tell you, the only reason why my character survives is because without me surviving - there would be no one to tell the story in first person. Full stop. Plain and simple. Nyah!
SFX: wind and boat sounds fade out
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