Moby Dick; Or, The Whale

KAPITEL 44. The Chart.

This chapter reveals Captain Ahab’s methodical approach to hunting Moby Dick. After a wild squall, Ahab retreats to his cabin where he spreads out large wrinkled sea charts and begins plotting courses across the oceans. He studies these charts almost every night, tracing pencil lines over spaces that were previously blank, consulting piles of old log-books that record where sperm whales were captured or seen on previous voyages. The chapter explores the science of whale migration, Ahab’s obsessive vengeance, and the psychological toll of his monomaniacal pursuit.

Ahab’s Cabin

Following a violent squall on the night after Ahab secured his crew’s ratification to hunt the white whale, the captain descends into his cabin. The heavy pewter lamp suspended above his screwed-down table rocks with the ship’s motion, casting shifting gleams and shadows across Ahab’s deeply lined brow. This setting establishes the cabin as Ahab’s private domain where he conducts his obsessive preparations away from the crew.

The Wrinkled Charts

Ahab retrieves a large wrinkled roll of yellowish sea charts from a locker in the transom. He spreads these charts before him on his table, examining the various lines and shadings with intense concentration. The charts appear aged and weathered, bearing the marks of extensive use and study.

Pencil and Log-Books

With slow but steady pencil, Ahab traces additional courses over spaces that were previously blank. Beside him, piles of old log-books contain records of seasons and places where sperm whales had been captured or seen on former voyages of various ships. These documents serve as his reference materials for calculating the whale’s movements.

The Maze of Currents

With charts of all four oceans spread before him, Ahab threads a maze of currents and eddies. He calculates the driftings of the sperm whale’s food and studies the regular, ascertained seasons for hunting in particular latitudes. His methodical approach transforms what might seem an absurdly hopeless task—finding one solitary creature in the unhooped oceans—into a calculated pursuit grounded in maritime knowledge.

Whale Migrations

The chapter emphasizes the remarkable periodicity of sperm whale migrations, comparable to herring-shoals or the flights of swallows. Hunters have attempted to construct elaborate migratory charts, and notably, Lieutenant Maury of the National Observatory issued a circular in 1851 describing such a chart dividing the ocean into five-degree squares with twelve monthly columns and lines tracking whale sightings.

The Veins of the Ocean

When migrating between feeding grounds, sperm whales swim in what sailors call “veins”—ocean paths of remarkable precision. These whales continue along given ocean-lines with undeviating exactitude, surpassing even the most carefully plotted ship courses by a fraction. Though each whale travels in a straight line, the vein it follows generally encompasses several miles in width, never exceeding the visible range from a whale-ship’s mast-heads.

Between Feeding Grounds

Ahab’s expertise allows him to position himself not only at substantiated feeding grounds but also during the wide crossings between them. Through his art and knowledge of currents, he places and times himself so as not to be wholly without prospect of encountering his prey even while traversing the expanses between known whale territories.

The Shifting Herds

While sperm whales have regular seasons for particular grounds, the same herds do not necessarily return to the same locations each year. Although some instances prove otherwise, in general the whales found at a given latitude or longitude one season differ from those found there the preceding season. Moby Dick’s appearances at places like the Seychelle ground or Volcano Bay were merely casual stopping-places, not prolonged abodes.

Season-on-the-Line

The critical time and place in Ahab’s calculation is what mariners call the “Season-on-the-Line”—the equatorial Pacific where, for several consecutive years, Moby Dick had been periodically descried. There, most deadly encounters with the white whale had occurred, and there Ahab himself had lost his leg. The waves themselves are storied with his deeds at this location.

The Pequod’s Schedule

The Pequod sailed from Nantucket at the very beginning of the Season-on-the-Line, making it impossible to arrive at the equatorial Pacific in time. Ahab must wait for the next season, but the intervening year serves his purposes—allowing him to hunt opportunistically should Moby Dick turn up in other waters like the Persian Gulf, Bengal Bay, or China Seas, carried by any wind except the Levanter and Simoon.