Moby Dick; Or, The Whale

Historical Whale Authors and Sperm Whale Supremacy

The chapter catalogs the many who have written of whales, from the Authors of the Bible through Aristotle, Pliny, Aldrovandi, Sir Thomas Browne, Gesner, Ray, Linnæus, and numerous others up to the Rev. T. Cheever. The narrator notes that only those following Owen ever saw living whales, and but one was a real professional whaleman: Captain Scoresby. However, Scoresby knew nothing of the great sperm whale. The narrator argues that the Greenland whale has long usurped the throne of the seas, being neither the largest nor truly the monarch, yet owing to historical ignorance and prior claims, this usurpation has been complete. The narrator declares a new proclamation: the Greenland whale is deposed, and the great sperm whale now reigneth.

Existing Sperm Whale Literature

The narrator identifies only two books that attempt to portray the living sperm whale: those of Beale and Bennett, both surgeons to English South-Sea whale-ships and both exact and reliable men. While their original matter on the sperm whale is necessarily small, it is of excellent quality. Yet the narrator concludes that the sperm whale, whether scientific or poetic, lives not complete in any literature—it remains an unwritten life above all other hunted whales.

Proposed Cetology Systematization

The narrator proposes to create a popular comprehensive classification of whale species, promising nothing complete since any human thing supposed complete must be faulty. He will not provide minute anatomical descriptions but rather seeks to project the draught of a systematization. He acknowledges the ponderous nature of this task, comparing it to groping among the very foundations of the world. Despite the fearfulness of the endeavor and the tauntings in Job, he is in earnest and will try. There are preliminaries to settle first.