Moby Dick; Or, The Whale

The White Whale

Ahab calls to Mayhew to come aboard the Pequod, but Gabriel interrupts to warn of yellow and bilious fevers and the “horrible plague.” When Ahab asks if the Jeroboam has sighted the White Whale, Gabriel warns of stoven whale boats and the whale’s deadly tail. Mayhew then tells Ahab the Jeroboam’s history with Moby Dick: after leaving port, the Jeroboam’s crew learned of Moby Dick’s destructive reputation, and Gabriel warned them against hunting the whale, claiming the White Whale was the Shaker God incarnate. Despite Gabriel’s repeated prophecies of doom, the Jeroboam’s chief mate Macey burned with desire to hunt the whale, and convinced five crew members to man a whale boat for the hunt, with the captain’s reluctant approval. Gabriel positioned himself on the main-royal masthead, hurling frantic prophecies of perdition for the “sacrilegious assailants” of his divine whale. As Macey stood in the bow of his boat poised to throw his lance, Moby Dick rose suddenly from the sea, the broad white shadow of his body temporarily knocking the breath out of the oarsmen. The whale then struck Macey bodily, sending him flying through the air in a long arc before he fell into the sea 50 yards away and drowned permanently. No part of the whale boat was damaged, nor were any of the oarsmen harmed, and when Macey’s body was later recovered, it bore no marks of violence, a type of fatal accident that is nearly as common as any other in the sperm whale fishery. Gabriel shrieked that his vial had been opened, and the terrified crew refused to hunt the whale further, cementing his total control over the Jeroboam.