Moby Dick Chapters 121-Epilogue

Chapters 121-Epilogue

The Typhoon abates and the sails are unfurled, a fair wind begins and the Pequod can resume her course. Starbuck heads towards Ahab's cabin to report the passing of the typhoon and discovers Ahab asleep in his hammock. He discovers the loaded musket in the room, the same one that Ahab had pointed at him not long ago. Starbuck picks it up with shaking hands and considers firing it at Ahab for he feels that the captain leads them towards doom, and if he were to kill him he would be saving the crew and be able to return to his wife and child. Ahab stirs in his sleep and suddenly shouts about the death of Moby Dick. Starbuck retreats to the deck and sends Stubbs to wake the captain and report the condition of the ship.

Ahab comes on deck and observes the sun, he is content with the condition of the ship but soon discovers that the Pequod is heading in the opposite direction to the intended course. This is a result of the lighting, which has altered the compass needles of the ship to point in the wrong direction. The course is corrected and Ahab constructs another compass using a harpoon.

Ahab had resolved to use the log and line to plot his course when he had smashed the quadrant. He now goes to discover the log and with the help of the sailors casts the log, but the log becomes lost in the water. Ahab orders the sailors to have a new log and line constructed, Pip appears just then, and seeing the sailor working a reel to pull back the cast line, he begins to tell the sailor to shake off the line for Pip the coward is attempting to climb aboard the ship. Ahab feels for Pip and takes him by the arm, telling him that he is to live in Ahab's cabin from thence onwards. As Ahab leaves with Pip in tow, one of the sailors comments how odd the pair is for one of them is driven mad by strength while the other by weakness.

The crew hears shrill and pleading cries in the ocean, the oldest sailor believes the sound to be coming from men drowned in the seas. Ahab however believes the cries to belong to a seal that may have lost its cub since the Pequod had passed close by an isle that is known to be rife with Seals. Early one morning, the sailor assigned to the masthead falls from the great height right into the ocean, and when the life buoy is sent to him, it too sinks to the bottom just like the sailor. Starbuck is instructed to create a new lifebuoy and asks the carpenter to use the coffin made for Queequeg, and shape it into a lifebuoy.

The Pequod encounters a whaling ship from Nantucket by the name of Rachel, when the ships pass one another Ahab inquires from the other captain about Moby Dick and is told that the whaler had sighted her the day gone. Rachel's captain inquires if the crew of the Pequod has seen a whaling boat, and when he hears a negative response, he comes aboard the Pequod. He pleads with Ahab to aid him in finding the whaleboat that had lowered to hunt the Moby Dick and had been pulled away by the beast, he is desperate for help for his 12-year-old son had been aboard the boat. Ahab is unmoved by the entreaties and commands Starbuck to continue their course, the other captain moves back to his ship dejectedly.

Pip grabs hold of Ahab's arm as he attempts to go back to the deck, but Ahab commands Pip to remain in the cabin, and listen for the stomp of his ivory leg for that would be a clear indicator that Ahab still walks the deck alive and well.

The Pequod is now in the right spot for hunting the white whale, Ahab is eager to set eyes on Moby Dick and spends all hours on the deck of the ship. He refuses to go to his cabin and even dines in the open air of the ship, Fedallah keeps a similar watch, but never do these two talk to one another. After four to five days of sailing, Ahab becomes distrustful of the crew for not having sighted the white whale yet and so resolves to go to the masthead himself. He raises himself there with a basket and gives Starbuck the responsibility for securing the rope of the basket. On his first day there, his hat is stolen off by a black hawk.

Then the Pequod comes upon another Nantucketer whaling ship called the Delight. The captain informs Ahab that he had lowered for the white whale and in consequence lost a whaleboat and five sailors, only one of whose corpses they could recover, just as the Pequod is sailing away the Delight buries its sailor at sea.

The weather turns pleasant and Ahab finds himself staring at the water, Starbuck observes him so and approaches slowly. Ahab recounts to Starbuck how he had spent forty years whaling and in those years barely spent 3 years on land. He confesses that he has not treated his wife properly for he set sail the very next day of their wedding, and in Starbuck's eyes he sees his wife and child. Ahab tells Starbuck to remain aboard the Pequod when the time for the chase of Moby Dick arrives. Starbuck is moved by his captain's words and attempts to dissuade him from the chase of the wretched fish, and to turn back to Nantucket, alas to no avail.

Ahab smells the air and detects the distinct odor of the sperm whale, believing the white whale to be close by, he gives instructions to set the course right. None of the crew seem to be able to detect the whale, and so Ahab is raised to the masthead but before he has made it to the top, he discovers the white hump of the beast and raises the cry. All whaleboats aside from Starbuck's are lowered and the crew pushes their oars towards Moby Dick, when they are nearly close to the whale, it disappears into the depths of the ocean. Ahab looks down into the water and sees the whale coming vertically upwards towards his boat, he attempts to position himself to injure the whale but it grabs a hold of his boat and shatters the boat into two. It then begins to circle the crew of the wreck but is chased away by the advancing Pequod. Ahab and his crew is rescued by Stubbs and they return to the Pequod, which then continues the course to chasing the whale.

It is a testament to the skill of the Nantuckter whaling ships, how Ahab manages to maintain the chase of Moby Dick through the night and day. In the afternoon, just as a sailor raises the cry for sighting a blowing spout, Ahab rushes to the masthead to try and discern the location of Moby Dick. Almost like a challenge, the giant albino whale then breaches his whole body above the water and gives them all a look at his massive body. The boats are lowered and Moby Dick now rushes towards the lowered boats, they skilfully fight one another, as the whalemen load their irons into the beast, and he turns around them till all their whale lines are entangled. He then staves in the boats of Flask and Stubbs with his flukes, and smites the ocean with his tail until no splinter or plank touches him, and so the animal retreats. Once more the crew of the boats is rescued by the ship, Ahab's ivory leg has been broken, and although none of the men have been killed, all except Fedallah who is nowhere to be found, there are minor injuries among them. Starbuck attempts once more to dissuade Ahab from further chasing the beast but Ahab declares that he is but a lieutenant of the fates and he cannot give the whale up but must continue to hunt for it. The chase of the whale begins once again, and the carpenter replaces the broken ivory leg of Ahab with a wooden leg made from the wrecks of the boats.

On the third day of the chase, there is at first no sight of the whale, Ahab then realizes that the Pequod has overshot the whale and he now chases the ship instead of the other way round. The ship is turned around and by evening the whale is in sight again, as Ahab lowers his boats a third time, Starbuck shakes his hand with tears in his eyes and pleads with his captain to not go. Ahab is unmoved and lowers his boat, it alone is dogged by whales who bite at every strike of the oar in the ocean. The boats soon reach the whale and commence the deadly dance, as the whale passes by the boats, they all observe the dead and tied remains of the Parsee tied to the body of the whale by rope. That is the first hearse the Parsee had promised Ahab he would see before his death. The whale yet again destroys the boats, and Ahab orders them to retreat to the ship and fix the holes and return, while he attempts to chase the whale once again. Moby Dick turns around and perceives the Pequod and now aims his fury on that vessel, leaving Ahab to flounder in his wake. The whale staves in the Pequod and it begins to sink before the eyes of the crew and Ahab. The captain is distraught with the sinking of his ship and perceives it to be the second hearse that he was promised he would see before his time of death. The Moby Dick now recedes from his attack and Ahab strikes him with his iron and a curse, the whale pulls the line of the harpoon that catches Ahab around the neck and draws him into the ocean. Ishmael is saved from the vortex of the sinking ship by the lifebuoy made of Queequeg's coffin and is thereafter rescued by Rachel that is yet attempting to discover the lost son of the captain.

Analysis

Pip and Ahab's relationship is unique in that they complement each other in many ways, the most important of which is their mental state, while it is evident that Pip has crossed into the realm of the insane, Ahab yet retains some vestiges of a sane and reasonable mind. It is interesting to note how they both received their mental wounds, for Pip it was the realization of his insignificance in the wide and majestic ocean. Ahab's mental unbalance is a result of him feeling like he has been singled out of the wide universe to suffer a gruesome wound. They take to one another readily, and in some of their interactions, it is evident that Ahab feels for Pip like a son.

The foreshadowing of disaster is abundant in the chapters that detail Pequod's interaction with the other whaling ships in the region. It is evident to the reader that a meeting with Moby Dick is imminent and likely to be disastrous. Of particular note is the 'baptism' of the Pequod by the splash of water from the burial of a sailor who was killed during the hunt for the white whale.

The battle with Moby Dick is an epic one, Ahab fights the whale for three days and spends the nights rearming himself for the next encounter. Moby Dick unlike the other whales written about in the book behaves with intelligence and an aim to punish the sailors. As the conflict progresses Ahab too becomes aware of his inevitable failure but he continues to pursue the whale for he is driven by the prophecy now. When Starbuck in the end attempts to reason with Ahab one last time, Ahab replies that he doesn't think but is now merely a lieutenant of the fates.