Traducción capítulo 6 moby dick

Chapter 6
The Chase
We had been sailing on calm seas for quite a while when the action began. It was Tashtego´s turn to watch from high up on the masthead. Suddenly, we heard his excited voice.
“There they are, about two miles away. A whole school of them! ”
There was immediate activity on board while the crew got ready for what they were trained to do – to chase whales. But somethingsuddenly distracted us from our duties. Ahab was surrounded by five strangers. Five mysterious-looking men had seemed to appear from nowhere, like ghosts! We could not tell where they were from, but we had not seen them before.
From time to time, we all had heard stranger sounds coming from below deck. We now realized that Ahab must have kept these newcomers hidden below in one of the cabins. Thestrangers were silent and not one of them had anything that looked like a pleasant expression on his face. It was clear that they were loyal to the captain and they appeared to be his very own personal helpers. They were now busy preparing for the chase. One of these men, who seemed to be the leader, was named Fedallah. He was a fearsome type with thin lips and only a few teeth, his long hair falling inbraids from under a white turban.
The whaling boats were lowered from the ship. Ahab, whit his five ghosts, boarded one of them. The chief mates and other crew members, including myself, spread out over the water in the other smaller boats, ready for the whales. We got into position for the chase. The harpooners held tightly onto their spears. The oarsmen took the oars, ready to row with alltheir strength at a moment’s notice. Starbuck, Stubb and Flask were in their boars, ready to give orders. There was silent waiting – and waiting – until suddenly the water changed. Its color turned to a lighter greenish – blue. Then we saw misty puffs of vapor, as a whale shot out a spout of water!
All the lowered boats, four in number, raced in pursuit of that spout. It was amazing for all of us,especially for a first-time whaler like me. Those vast waves of sea, the hollow roar of the whales and the sudden cries and motions of the crew filled us with excitement. In the middle of all this excitement and activity, the Pequod stood quietly in the near distance like a hen watching out for her chicks.
“There’s his hump, there it is. Stand up, harpooner!”
Starbuck led the way and pushedQueequeg on. In an instant, the harpooner’s deadly iron spear raced over the water. A stream of vapor shot out at us close by. It then felt like an earthquake under us as something rolled and tumbled beneath our boat. Quite a few of the crew were tossed into the water by the violent movement! Then, even with our efforts and a harpoon in the whale’s side, the creature escaped! But we all managed to getback into our boats, cold, shivering and soaking wet. We returned to the Pequod with our spirits no less damp than our bodies after the useless chase.
Days and weeks passed while the Pequod sailed on. We passed the mouth of the Rio de la Plata where, during the night, we had some false whale spottings. Then we headed southeast. It was around here that we at last came across another ship, theGoney. Ahab was eager to find out whether the Goney’s captain knew anything about Moby Dick that could prove useful in his hunt. He wildly shouted questions across the decks, which were divided only by a thin strip of ocean.
On a whaling voyage, whaleman go through long periods away from family and friends. So it is a custom when two ships meet to exchange greetings and news, and this meeting at seais called a gam. A bit of socializing after being away from port for so long is good for the crew’s spirits, and we always look forward to it. But Ahab had only one goal and nothing was going to delay him from pursuing it. When Ahab did not allow us to stop for a gam we knew for sure that he cared only about his hunt for the white whale and nothing at all about us. He was merely using us as...