Moby Dick Chapters 61-80
Chapters 61-80
During a lazy day in an inactive region of the ocean, Ishmael and the other sailors on the masthead sight a sperm whale lazily floating near the ship. The whaleboats are immediately lowered but as the whale is as yet unaware of the chase, everyone is silent. The whale dives into the water and resurfaces close to the boat of Stubbs. Tashtego lays his harpoon into her, and the whale shoots away with its head held out of the water, pulling the whaleboat along at a dizzying speed. The whale finally slows down and Stubbs commands the boat to be brought closer to the animal and begins to carefully stab the animal with his lance. The ocean around the whale becomes a red pool as life streams out of the animal, and Stubbs soon concludes that the animal has died.
The whaleboats drag the dead carcass of the animal ever so slowly towards the boat where it is secured to the ship. Ahab had been active during the hunt but now has an air of disappointment, while Stubbs is ecstatic with the hunt. Starbuck leaves Stubbs in charge, and Stubbs orders a steak drawn from the whale. The sharks feast on the dead as well, and Stubbs criticizes the black cook aboard the vessel for overcooking his steak and gives him instructions about the various parts of the animal he'd like harvested for eating the following day when the whale will be processed by the crew.
The whole crew of the Pequod is involved in the butchering of the whale, a blubber hook is lowered to the whale. The hook is secured into the animal, and the rest of the hands aboard the ship use a windlass to rip the blubber off the whale in ‘blanket pieces. Ishmael compares it to peeling an orange. The ripped blubber is stored in the blubber room where more sailors carefully process it.
The stripped and decapitated body of the whale is released from the boat as it continues on its way. The sharks and the birds feast on the remains of the animal. The head of the whale is decapitated from the whale and depending on its size, it is either hauled up into the boat or to its side where it yet remains slightly submerged in the water. Ahab comes onto the deck when all the sailors have finished their work, he addresses the hanging head of the whale and asks it to divulge the secrets of the deepwater world. Just then, one of the lookouts raises a call after sighting a sail in the distant ocean.
The sighted ship is a whaling ship called Jeroboam from Nantucket, as identified by the unique sign that it offers upon Pequod's signal. Captain Mayhew of the whaler approaches the Pequod on a boat and refuses to board due to the epidemic that is raging on his ship. Stubbs recognizes one of the sailors in the boat from a tale he had heard from the members of the ship Town-ho. That sailor was Gabriel, a mad man who had boarded the ship as a greenhorn but had then declared himself to be the archangel Gabriel and forced this belief on the superstitious sailors aboard the ship. Ahab questions the captain about Moby Dick and discovers that the ship had indeed encountered the whale and lost the first mate when he had attempted to kill the beast. Gabriel had declared the whale to be an incarnation of the quaker god and had forbidden everyone from hunting the animal before the hunt. Gabriel curses Ahab with death as he discovers that he wishes to hunt and kill the beast. The boat departs back to its ship under the direction of Gabriel.
As the Pequod sails into yet another part of the ocean inhabited by the right whales, an order is given for the hunting of one. Stubbs and Flask head out on their boats when the whale is sighted, and after an intense circuit chase around the Pequod, they kill the whale. Stubbs is confused about their hunting a right whale, but Flask explains that hanging a sperm whale head on one side and a right whale head on the other side, creates a powerful charm that keeps the ship from capsizing. A charm that he had heard from Fedallah, but Stubbs is particularly wary of the old man and compares him often to the devil, he also swears to keep a close watch on the suspicious man. The right whale is treated in much the same way as the Sperm Whale and the head of the whale is soon hanging on the other side of the ship.
Ishmael compares the two heads of the whales and declares the head of the sperm whale to have a more noble character. The head of the sperm whale is an important resource, from whose jaws are extracted ivory teeth, and the lower jaw is used to create a multitude of things such as canes. Queequeg helps in the pulling of the teeth and butchering the lower jaw into smaller portions.
He describes the head of the right whale next, which differs significantly from the head of the sperm whale. It is crowned by green barnacles where crabs reside, it doesn't have teeth like the sperm whale but instead has brush-like teeth that help it trap small fish. The lower lip of the animal lends it a pout for an expression and Ishmael suspects that the animal whose head hangs from the ship may have been stoic in life.
Ishmael is fascinated by the forehead of the sperm whale, which is unique in that it is nearly impenetrable to even the sharpest of harpoons. The forehead is yet devoid of bone and quite a far way from the cranium bone. It contains the most delicate oil in the animal and Ishmael suspects that it functions as a bladder of air that helps the whale emerge and submerge to and fro deeper depths of the water.
The head of the sperm whale forms nearly a third of its body and can be divided into two. The part of the head that contains the most valuable spermaceti is called the case and is very carefully tapped.
Tashtaego jumps onto the head and carefully taps the head in a place that he deems to contain the most oil, once a hole has been opened in that head, a bucket is lowered into it much like a well. It is then pulled out and its milky white contents are emptied into a cistern. After about the twentieth bucket, Tashtego falls into the hole that he had made for the bucket. Daggoo attempts to aid him but one of the hooks that hold the head in place gets ripped out and the head begins to swing about wildly. Tashtego is eventually rescued from drowning in the spermaceti by Queequeg who uses a boarding sword to open the whale's head as it falls into the ocean and begins to sink.
Analysis
Ishmael provides deep and precise information about the process of whaling and the various tools that are employed in its practice. Such chapters lend the novel a unique feeling in that it sometimes reads like a documentary or an encyclopedia rather than a book of fiction.
The interaction between Stubbs and the cook is supposed to be a form of comic relief, and how the cook addresses the shark is indeed very humorous, but the interaction is marred by the racist and repugnant treatment of the old black cook by the second mate.
Ishmael and Queequeg's relationship is yet again compared to a marital bond, as the pair of them are locked together by the monkey rope. According to the practice, if one of them were to fall, the other would be required to follow in the fall instead of severing the rope, very much like the 'till death do us part' vow of the Christain wedding ceremony. This harkens back to the time Ishmael and Queequeg had shared a bed in the Spouter-Inn, there too the author had drawn comparisons between their relationship and that of holy matrimony.
