“Who would have thought it, Flask!” cried Stubb; “if I had but one leg you would not catch me in a boat, unless maybe to stop the plug-hole with my timber toe. Oh! he’s a wonderful old man!”
“I don’t think it so strange, after all, on that account,” said Flask. “If his leg were off at the hip, now, it would be a different thing. That would disable him; but he has one knee, and good part of the other left, you know.”
“I don’t know that, my little man; I never yet saw him kneel.”
Musing: For all the folks who claim there is no humor in Moby Dick - there is. I love this exchange between Flask and Stubb. I also like how both men dismiss the idea that Ahab can't participate in whaling because of his leg. And the last line by Stubb is both funny and true and reveals a lot about how much the men know about Ahab.