Stubb: the second mate or third?

[JinSoo]

Stubb is the second mate except in the Chapter 48, The First Lowering. If you do not have a copy right now, you can see at http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Moby-Di....
Search the word "third" and there it is. I think most browsers can do that.
Anyway, my thought is it is Ishmael's first lowering and his confusion is reflected. Or this is a mistake, which is hard to buy. What do you think?

[Pancho]

The text here says, "Meanwhile Stubb, the third mate..."

Carl F. Hovde notes here in the Barnes and Noble paperback edition: "That is, the third to be described in this scene."

[Pancho]

The editor was just saying that when it says, "Stubb, the third mate," it does not mean that he is THE third mate (as in, the position on the ship's crew), but rather that he was (of all the mates) the third one mentioned in this scene.

Of course, that is just Hovde's interpretation. It could have been that it was an error that was missed in editing. If it was intentional, then Hovde's explanation is the only one that makes sense.

[Ray]

I agree. I'm not sure there is a position of third mate. I think the captain has the discretion to choose his seconds and the first among them is his first-mate. All three mates captain their own launches when hunting and any could conceivably take charge of the ship or manage depending on the condition or desire of the captain or other mates.

I loved the book by the way. The style is elegant and poetic and it is as much philosophy as story telling. I also get a kick out of the voice of the story teller. This is a really beautiful book!

[Gary]

There is a position of third mate, and the men's ranks are referred to in Knights and Squires, Chapter 26 & Chapter 27, (The first sentence in Chapter 27 refers to Stubb as Second Mate), and then again in The Captain's Table, Chapter 34 where the hierarchy of the group and the protocol of this matter are explained. I think it's a continuity error by weary or bored copy editors of the day, having been lambasted by Melville as less than men because they'd never been a whaler, nor even felt the sting of spindrift on their faces.