Chapters 82–83 Summary

Ishmael recounts the noble history of whaling, citing Greek mythology, popular British legend, the Judeo-Christian Bible, and Hindu mythology, considering himself honored to participate in such a glorious occupation. In the next chapter, he discusses the Biblical story of Jonah and the whale and argues against the comments made by an old Sag Harbor whaleman who questioned the story’s credibility.

Chapter 84 Summary

Queequeg oils the bottom of his harpoon boat so that it can travel faster on water. Later that day, the Pequod spots a few whales. Tashtego manages to harpoon one, but the whale still tries to escape. Stubb employs a process called “pitchpoling”—spearing the whale with a long, sharp lance—to capture it finally.

Chapters 85–86 Summary

Ishmael tries to give a scientific explanation of the whale’s spout. He considers that it is possibly connected to the beast’s breathing. In the next chapter, he discusses the whale’s tail—one of the most dangerous body parts—and describes how fine and delicate it is. He considers the whale to have no face.

Chapter 87 Summary

The Pequod sails through several Indonesian ports, stopping at none. They encounter a herd of sperm whales in the straits of Sunda. While the ship chases these, a Malay pirate ship also pursues the Pequod. However, the Pequod manages to escape and launches harpoon boats for whaling. A harpooned whale flounders in pain, causing panic among the herd. After many adventures, risking their lives, the crew succeeds in capturing a whale.

Chapter 88 Summary

Ishmael explains several whaling terms. “School” refers to a group of whales that comprises a single male whale along with his female “harem.” Sailors hunt for the females and the calves as the males are more dangerous. As the male whale ages, it tends to leave the school, moving around ill-tempered and solitary. Ishmael states that the female whales are more nurturing where they will even sacrifice their lives to help a fallen comrade, which the males don’t do.

Chapter 89 Summary

Ishmael continues explaining whaling terms like “fast-fish” (the party which has first laid claim to a whale), “loose-fish” (a fish which is unclaimed and fair game to all), and “waifing” (marking a whale in one encounter, thus being able to claim it in a future encounter).

Chapter 90 Summary

Ishmael comments on the strange whaling laws of England where any whale caught on its coast is considered “fast.” If a whale is captured, the law mandates that the head will go to the king, the tail to the queen, with the sailor left with almost nothing. He tells the story of a poor whaleman who lost all the profits of whaling to the Duke of Wellington.

Chapter 91 Summary

Two weeks later, the Pequod meets the foul-smelling French ship called the Bouton de Rose. The ship is towing two dead whales, which had died of illness; hence, the foul smell emanating from it. Stubb persuades a sailor to convince the inexperienced French captain of that ship to let go of the dead whales, one of which is then towed by the Pequod. The cunning Stubb discovers a valuable substance called ambergris inside the belly of this whale.

Chapter 92 Summary

Ambergris is a cheese-like substance found only in whales’ intestines, which is valued for its sweet smell and is used for perfume-making. Ishmael comments on how whaling ships are considered smelly. He thinks a live whale gives a pleasant musky smell, which he compares to an attractive woman.

Chapters 82–92 Analysis

Chapters 82 and 83 describe all the classical mentions of the whale and how whaling is steeped in glory. The story of Jonah also exposes how texts can be misread. While this story is central to Father Mapple’s sermon in Chapter 9, where he gleans what is important in a story to understand its underlying wisdom, Sag Harbor, in contrast, is so lost in extraneous details and technical objections that he misses the symbolic meaning of the Jonah story.

When the Pequod doesn’t land on any of the Indonesian ports, the reader is aware of how whaling can be a self-isolated activity. Further, as the ship chases the whales and is itself given a chase by the pirates, the reader sees how life at sea is open to numerous threats all the time, where even a hunter can end up being hunted; hence, lending a more philosophical perspective to the Pequod’s voyage.

Ishmael continues to define whaling terms, adding to the reader’s knowledge about the industry. When he describes the school, it’s an exercise in anthropomorphizing where he describes the male whale along with its harem and attributes to the female whale the human female’s ideal of sacrifice and nurture.