Ahab’s Latitude Calculation and Soliloquy
Having taken his sight, Ahab quickly calculates his latitude upon his ivory leg. Yet he falls into reverie, addressing the sun directly: “Thou sea-mark! thou high and mighty Pilot! thou tellest me truly where I am—but canst thou cast the least hint where I shall be?” He questions whether the sun can reveal where Moby Dick swims at this very instant, wondering if his eyes and the sun’s eye behold the same whale together. His frustration with the quadrant’s limitations becomes apparent as he ponders its “numerous cabalistical contrivances.”
Ahab Destroys Quadrant, Declares New Navigation
Ahab’s frustration erupts into condemnation of his instrument. He denounces the quadrant as a “foolish toy! babies’ plaything of haughty Admirals,” which tells only where it happens to be on the planet but cannot predict the future. Cursing science and the heaven that scorches man’s eyes, he dashes the quadrant to the deck and tramples it beneath his feet. He declares he will no longer be guided by this “paltry thing”; instead, he will navigate by the ship’s compass and dead-reckoning through log and line. “Thus I split and destroy thee!” he cries.
Pequod’s Course Adjustment
As Ahab speaks and tramples the quadrant with both living and dead feet, the Parsee’s face shows a mixture of sneering triumph and fatalistic despair. The seamen cluster awestruck on the forecastle. Troubledly pacing the deck, Ahab shouts orders: “To the braces! Up helm!—square in!” The yards swing round as the Pequod half-wheels upon her heel, her three masts erectly poised like “the three Horatii pirouetting on one sufficient steed.”
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