for what he ate did not so much relieve his hunger, as keep it immortal in him. peace and satisfaction, thought flask, have for ever departed from my stomach. i am an officer; but, how i wish i could fish a bit of old-fashioned beef in the forecastle, as i used to when i was before the mast. there’s the fruits of promotion now; there’s the vanity of glory: there’s the insanity of life! besides, if it were so that any mere sailor of the pequod had a grudge against flask in flask’s official capacity, all that sailor had to do, in order to obtain ample vengeance, was to go aft at dinner-time, and get a peep at flask through the cabin sky-light, sitting silly and dumfoundered before awful ahab.