As I read chapter 133, I didn’t really think there was going to be much about Stubb, but more about Ahab and Moby Dick since we get to see them finally meet after Ahab’s crazy obsession with killing this whale. However, there is a continuation in Ahab and Stubb’s tension with each other ever since Stubb was threatened to be killed by Ahab’s musket. The fourth paragraph in page 600 is where Stubb is seen to have ownership of a boat as the Pequod sinks into the bottom of the ocean. Ahab takes shelter in Stubb’s boat, vulnerable and weak.

“Dragged into Stubb’s boat with blood-shot, blinded eyes, the white brine caking in his wrinkles; the long tension of Ahab’s bodily strength did crack, and helplessly he yielded to his body’s doom: for a time, lying all crushed in the bottom of Stubb’s boat, like one trodden under foot of herds of elephants. Far inland, nameless wails came from him, as desolate sounds from out of ravines.”(Melville 600)

I find this quote interesting to the inner working of Ahab’s behavior at this critical moment because it illustrates the helplessness as the Pequod is now gone, and then depends one of his men for help and support. By addressing one of the makeshift boats of the Pequod as “Stubb’s boat” not only personalizes or reclaims the crew member’s agency as his own during this adventure; but, more importantly, it talks about how the upper class take advantage and finally acknowledge the other people once they need benefit for themselves. Ahab’s “bloodshot eyes” rather suggests that he is not thinking of doubling down his motives anytime soon, despite when we get to see his humanity here: accepting he isn’t immortal but believing his spiritual battle with the whale is not yet over. It further demonstrates that his motives and goals are being supported by the working class, even though Stubb would have rather ended the mission here and now. Overall, I feel like there is something deeper when the passage now reveals Stubb’s boat as his own, and Ahab being depicted as helpless and vulnerable in the boat.