Chapter 22 Summary

The Pequod sets sails on a cold Christmas morning. Captain Ahab still hasn’t appeared, and Bildad and Peleg pilot the ship out the port. The two men appear sad to leave the ship with Bildad pacing up and down the deck and Peleg taking a philosophical view of the departure. They finally get on a waiting sailboat and go back to land while the Peduod “plunge[s] like fate into the lone Atlantic.”

Chapter 23 Summary

The man steering the ship turns out to be Bulkington, whom Ishmael had met earlier at Peter Coffin’s inn. He watches the man at the wheel and thinks of him as a fearless pioneer, destined to die at sea. He thinks how “in landlessness alone resides the highest truth, shoreless, indefinite as God,” and thus it is preferable to die at sea than on land. An honorable death is better than a cowardly life. In an imaginary address to Bulkington, he declares that death at sea will transform him into a god.

Chapter 24 Summary

Ishmael defends the profession of whaling and asserts its significance against the allegations of many on the land who consider this as an “unpoetical and disreputable pursuit.” He states how the industry is economically critical and how sailors expand their geographical knowledge through expeditions. The involvement of several noble families in whaling also attests to the nobility of this profession. Further, the Bible mentions the whale several times. Ishmael also refers to Cetus, a constellation in the shape of a whale in the southern sky, and declares that anything worthwhile that he might accomplish can be credited to his time spent on a whaling ship, which is his “Yale” and “Harvard.”

Chapter 25 Summary

Ishmael continues his defense of whaling and says that sperm whale oil is used for anointing kings as it’s “the sweetest of all oils.”

Chapter 26 Summary

In the first of the two chapters called “Knights and Squires,” Ishmael meets the first mate of the Pequod—Starbuck. A Nantucker and a Quaker, Starbuck is sober and pragmatic, who reveres the sea and the huge animals they are hunting. Ishmael appreciates this attitude and points out that an utterly fearless man is more dangerous a comrade than a coward. He also finds evidence of God in even the “meanest mariners” and states that he will frequently ignore people’s faults to emphasize their “democratic dignity.”

Chapter 27 Summary

Ishmael meets the other officers on the ship. Stubb, the pipe-smoking second mate, is a good-natured man, always calm in the face of danger, and possesses “impious good humor.” The third mate Flask is short and resembles a wooden post, and is nicknamed “King-Post.” He appears to be aggressive with no reverence for the great whale. The three mates are each responsible for a harpoon boat and each chooses his own harpooner, or “squire.” Starbuck has chosen Queequeg as his harpooner. Stubb chooses Tashtego, an Indian from Martha’s Vineyard, and Flask’s harpooner is Daggoo, an enormous African who has a noble deportment.

Ishmael notes that only the officers are Americans, as they mostly are, whereas the rest of the crew is international. He concludes that “the native American liberally provides the brains, the rest of the world as generously supplies the muscles.” He also meets Pip, a poor black boy from Alabama who beats a tambourine on the ship.

Chapter 28 Summary

Captain Ahab still doesn’t appear, which bothers Ishmael and reminds him of Elijah’s warnings. After a few days of the ship sailing, Ahab finally emerges. He is a grim-looking man, and in addition to a missing leg, he has a vivid white scar running across his face. He has an ivory peg leg made from the jaw of a whale, which he thrusts into a hole bored into the deck for the purpose. Rumor has it that the scar suddenly appeared during some “elemental strife at sea.” From that morning on, Ahab is seen more frequently by his crew.

Chapter 29 Summary

Ishmael notes in this chapter that along with his frightful appearance, Ahab might be suffering psychologically too. He is a complete dictator on the ship and is a brooding presence. One evening, Ahab is pacing up and down the deck in his peg leg, which is making a loud noise on the wood which can be heard throughout the ship. Stubb emerges from below and jokingly suggests that the captain swaddle his leg so that the sailors below can go to sleep. Ahab turns on Stubb ferociously and abuses him, calling him a dog. Stubb tries to defend his honor, and Ahab threatens to wipe the world of his presence. Stubb retreats seeing Ahab’s intense fury and wonders (to himself) whether the captain is sane.

Chapter 30 Summary

Once Stubb leaves, Ahab calls for his stool and pipe. He then decides that smoking will not calm his tempestuous mind and throws the pipe into the water, resuming his obsessive pacing.

Chapter 31 Summary

The next day, Stubb recounts a dream he had to Flask. In the dream, Ahab kicked Stubb with his ivory leg, but when Stubb tried to kick back the captain, his own leg fell off. Then an old merman appeared and told Stub that it was futile to fight against Ahab because of the captain’s strong temperament. He also told Stubb that he should consider it an honor to be kicked by Ahab’s noble ivory leg. Flask dismisses the dream as nonsense, but Stubb resolves to stay away from the unpredictable captain. As Stubb finishes his story, Captain Ahab calls out for all men to watch out for whales. The Pequod’s work has finally started.

Chapters 22–31 Analysis

These chapters introduce the crew of the Pequod. Melville does a brilliant job of describing all the important crew members, adding layers, personality traits to each of them, which make for a colorful bunch of characters. The disparate nature of the crew, comprising men from various nations and races, isn’t an obstacle to the smooth running of the ship. The sense of harmony on the Pequod is in stark contrast with the racially divided nineteenth-century American society on land. The hierarchy on the ship though is clearly in favor of the white men, who are American officers, whereas the sailors are from the South Sea Islands, Gay Head, Africa, and other remote corners of the globe. While these pairings are complicated—each white officer paired with a non-white harpooner—and reflect larger social structures, these are also relationships that are much more interdependent than simple master-slave or boss-worker exchanges. These men depend on each other for the success of their mission, and even their lives. Ishmael’s comment about America providing the “brains” and the rest of the world giving the “muscle” can be interpreted as his understanding of global brotherhood, of working together for a common mission despite the superficial differences.

Ishmael’s defense of the whaling profession, though a departure from the storyline, is a significant speech about the dignity of whaling, which gives the characters of the story its purpose, a purpose that is moral, honorable, and worth dying for. Moby Dick is a timeless classic in American literature for its stylistic ambition—the novel comprises a wide range of genres and shifts in and out of them while interrupting the narrative. This argumentative essay serves to equate whaling with something larger and more significant through its allusions to Louis XVI and Jonah. The multiple references to the whale as a Leviathan are critical politically too, where the reader recalls the title of the famous political tract by Thomas Hobbes in which he calls the machinery of the state a “Leviathan.” These allusions add significance to the whaling mission, imbuing it with political and social connotations that will become clearer as the novel progresses. Ishmael’s appreciation of the crew also reveals his deep appreciation of the working class and of the men who risk their lives daily in this deadly hunt.

The chapters establish Captain Ahab as a force who will not be denied. “[M]oody stricken Ahab [stands] before [his crew] with a crucifixion in his face”—he is charismatic, absolutely dictatorial, and wildly temperamental. Unlike the rest of the crew, he is hard to fathom and is a loner, obsessed with his pursuit. Stubb’s dream emphasizes the god-like stature of Ahab, where to be kicked by him can be construed as an honor. His ivory leg is a significant aspect of his character—it demonstrates his somewhat inhuman personality as well as shows how the whale is inseparable from his persona, where it is literally attached to his body.

These chapters mark Ishmael’s peculiar style of narration. The chronological, plot-driven story is frequented with digressions, character descriptions, and rhetorical exercises. Chapter 29, for example, is presented as a scene in a play. The narration also gives way to foreboding language and foreshadowing—the Pequod “plunge[s] like fate,” Ahab has a “crucifixion in his face,” and Stubb speaks of something strange going on in the hold. The descriptions seem to hint at the fate that Ahab is heading toward and the natural consequences of his monomania.