Hailing the White Whale
When Ahab cries out asking if the stranger ship has seen the White Whale, the one-armed English captain responds by displaying his own sperm whale bone arm. The captain is a burly, good-natured man of about sixty, dressed in blue pilot-cloth. Ahab becomes impetuous, ordering his men to lower the boat so he can board the stranger vessel and learn more about the whale.
The One-Armed Captain
The English captain, later identified as Captain Boomer of the Samuel Enderby, reveals his friendly, good-humored nature. He wears a spacious roundabout jacket with one empty arm sleeve streaming behind him like a hussar’s surcoat. Unlike Ahab’s obsessive pursuit of Moby Dick, Boomer shows a more practical outlook, having already experienced the whale’s destructive power once and being content not to pursue him again.
Hoisting Ahab Aboard
When Ahab attempts to board the English ship, he faces difficulty because his artificial leg cannot be used with the stranger vessel’s ordinary rigging. His condition reduces him to “a clumsy landsman again” as he struggles with the uncertain height between boat and ship. The English captain quickly perceives the problem and offers the ship’s cutting-tackle, originally used for hauling whales, to help hoist Ahab aboard. Ahab slides his thigh into the curved blubber-hook and pulls himself up hand-over-hand.
Exchanging Ivory Limbs
Once aboard, the two captains immediately recognize their shared condition. Ahab thrust forth his ivory arm while the English captain offered his own, the two prostheses crossing “like two sword-fish blades.” Ahab cries out to shake “bones together—an arm and a leg!—an arm that never can shrink, d’ye see; and a leg that never can run.” This moment establishes the kinship between them through their mutual dismemberment by the same whale.
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