- This chapter is Stubb’s soliloquy.
- Stubb is alone, mending a brace.
- He’s decided to react to this whole situation with a good hearty laugh.
- It’s all predestined anyway, he thinks, and so the wise thing to do is just to be merry as long as he can.
- He feels a little better because now Ahab has mastered Starbuck the way Stubb himself got mastered earlier.