Moby Dick; Or, The Whale

Ahab Silently Returns to the Pequod

Upon identifying the creature, Ahab says nothing. He turns his boat and sails back to the vessel, with the rest of the boats following silently.

Sperm Whalemen’s Superstitions Surrounding Squid Sightings

The source text explains that whatever superstitions sperm whalemen in general connect with the sight of this object, certain it is that the unusualness of such a glimpse has gone far to invest it with portentousness. So rarely is it beheld that, though one and all declare it to be the largest animated thing in the ocean, very few have any but the most vague ideas concerning its true nature and form.

Belief Squid Is Sperm Whales’ Primary Food

Sailors believe the giant squid furnishes the sperm whale’s only food. Though other species of whales find their food above water and may be seen by man in the act of feeding, the spermaceti whale obtains his whole food in unknown zones below the surface. Only by inference can anyone tell of what precisely that food consists. At times, when closely pursued, the sperm whale will disgorge what are supposed to be the detached arms of the squid—some exceeding twenty and thirty feet in length. Sailors fancy that the monster to which these arms belonged ordinarily clings by them to the bed of the ocean, and that the sperm whale, unlike other species, is supplied with teeth in order to attack and tear it.

Giant Squid Compared to Bishop Pontoppidan’s Kraken

There seems some ground to imagine that the great Kraken of Bishop Pontoppodan may ultimately resolve itself into Squid. The manner in which the Bishop describes it—as alternately rising and sinking, along with other particulars he narrates—corresponds in many ways to the giant squid. However, the source notes that much abatement is necessary regarding the incredible bulk the Bishop assigns to it.