Study Questions
1. Where does the Pequod come upon the huge herd?

2. What is a “drugg”?

3. Where does the harpooned whale tow Ishmael’s boat?

4. What truth is there in “the more whales the less fish”?

5. What becomes of a schoolmaster in old age?

6. What is a Fast-Fish?

7. What happened to the whale captured by the Dover fishermen?

8. What is ironic about the name of the Rose-Bud?

9. How does the Guernsey-man trick his captain?

10. How does Stubb trick the Guernsey-man?

Answers
1. The Pequod encounters the herd near the Straits of Sunda.

2. A drugg is a block of wood attached to a harpoon by a long line and used to slow down gallied whales.

3. Ishmael’s boat is towed into a center of calm.

4. Of all the whales, the Pequod captured only one.

5. The schoolmaster, a full-grown male which accompanies a female school, lives in isolation when he grows old.

6. A Fast-Fish is somehow secured to a boat, either directly or by signs of ownership such as a waif pole.

7. The whale was claimed by the Lord Warden for the Duke.

8. The Rose-Bud is rank.

9. The Guernsey-man, translating for his captain, pretends that Stubb has witnessed death on ships to which blasted whales are secured.

10. Stubb helps him to convince the captain to cut loose the valuable dried-up whale.