Moby Dick; Or, The Whale

Ishmael Meets Captain Peleg

Ishmael Meets Captain Peleg Inside the queer wigwam-like tent, Ishmael finds an elderly seaman of authority, who is brown, brawny, and rolled up in blue Quaker-style pilot-cloth, with a fine net-work of wrinkles around his eyes from years of sailing hard gales and always looking to windward. Ishmael asks if this is the Captain of the Pequod. The man, Captain Peleg, demands to know what Ishmael wants. When Ishmael says he is thinking of shipping, Peleg questions him sharply—mocking his lack of whaling experience, sneering at the merchant service, and accusing him with half-humorous innuendo of being a pirate, a murderer of officers, and a stove-boat Nantucketer. Peleg reveals his insular, Quaker Nantucketer prejudice, distrustful of all aliens not from Cape Cod or the Vineyard. Peleg then quizzes Ishmael on his reasons for going a-whaling and tests his nerve, demanding to know if he would be the man to pitch a harpoon down a live whale’s throat and then jump after it. When Ishmael equivocates, Peleg sends him to the weather bow to report what he sees. Ishmael, determined, reports only water and monotonous horizon, and a possible squall. Peleg, in a strange challenge about whether the world can be seen from where one stands, presses him further. Ishmael, although staggered, stands firm in his resolve to go a-whaling, declares the Pequod as good a ship as any and the best, and expresses his determination to ship. Peleg, seeing him so decided, agrees to sign him on and leads the way below deck to the cabin to complete the paperwork.