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Chapters
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Moby-Dick has 136 chapters.
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Chapters136 items
Loomings
The narrator introduces himself as Ishmael and explains why he goes to sea. He's restless, broke, and drawn to the ocean in a way he can't fully explain.
The Carpet-Bag
Ishmael travels from Manhattan to New Bedford, the first stop on the way to Nantucket. He arrives at night in an unfamiliar town, tries to find cheap lodging, and stumbles into a…
The Spouter-Inn
Ishmael arrives at the inn run by Peter Coffin and is told he'll have to share a bed with a harpooner. He spends time studying a strange, dark oil painting on the wall that he can…
The Counterpane
Ishmael wakes up to find Queequeg's tattooed arm wrapped around him in a way that reminds him of a childhood memory involving a supernatural hand holding his own.
Breakfast
Ishmael and Queequeg come down for breakfast at the Spouter-Inn and join the other sailors. Ishmael is surprised by how quiet and reserved the harpooners are at the table, expecti…
The Street
Ishmael walks through New Bedford and observes the strange mix of people flooding the port town. Sailors from every corner of the world fill the streets, and Ishmael marvels at ho…
The Chapel
Ishmael visits a seamen's chapel in New Bedford before the voyage. The chapel is filled with marble tablets memorializing sailors lost at sea, and Ishmael sits among other whalers…
The Pulpit
Father Mapple, a former whaleman turned preacher, enters the chapel and climbs to his pulpit by pulling up a rope ladder behind him.
The Sermon
Father Mapple preaches on the story of Jonah and the whale. He retells the biblical story in vivid, sailor-friendly language, emphasizing Jonah's attempt to flee God, his punishme…
A Bosom Friend
Back at the inn, Ishmael returns to find Queequeg sitting alone and carving a small idol. Rather than keeping his distance, Ishmael decides to get to know him.
Nightgown
Ishmael and Queequeg lie in bed together on a cold morning, warm under the covers and talking. It's a short, intimate chapter that slows the plot down on purpose.
Biographical
Queequeg tells Ishmael his backstory. He is a prince from the Pacific island of Kokovoko who left home deliberately to see the Christian world, hoping to learn from it.
Wheelbarrow
Ishmael and Queequeg travel together toward Nantucket. Along the way, Queequeg tells a story about the first time he used a wheelbarrow, not knowing what it was for, and Ishmael c…
Nantucket
This is a brief, almost lyrical chapter that describes Nantucket itself: a small, sandy island with almost nothing on it except the sea and the people who go out onto it.
Chowder
Ishmael and Queequeg arrive in Nantucket and check into the Try Pots inn, recommended by Peter Coffin. The inn is run by a woman named Mrs.
The Ship
Ishmael and Queequeg go to the Pequod to sign on. Ishmael meets the ship's owners, Peleg and Bildad, two retired Quaker whalers who haggle over pay and grill Ishmael about his exp…
The Ramadan
Queequeg spends an entire day fasting and meditating in his room as part of a religious observance. Ishmael, worried, eventually breaks the door down and finds Queequeg sitting pe…
His Mark
Queequeg signs his whaling contract by drawing his personal tattoo mark instead of writing his name. Peleg and Bildad are briefly suspicious about whether a non-Christian can be t…
The Prophet
Just after signing on, Ishmael and Queequeg are stopped outside the Pequod by a ragged stranger who calls himself Elijah.
All Astir
The Pequod is being loaded and made ready for sea. Ishmael watches the activity on deck and around the ship as supplies, equipment, and crew come aboard.
Going Aboard
Ishmael and Queequeg head to the Pequod before dawn and find a sleeping sailor on watch. They board and settle in.
Merry Christmas
The Pequod finally departs on Christmas Day. Bildad and Peleg, the ship's owners, oversee the departure with a mix of bluster and sentiment before leaving the ship in a small boat.
The Lee Shore
This is one of the shortest chapters in the novel and one of the most philosophical. It focuses on Bulkington, a sailor briefly introduced in New Bedford, who has just returned fr…
The Advocate
Melville steps back from the story entirely to defend whaling as a profession. Speaking through Ishmael, he argues that whalers are unsung heroes whose work has shaped history, fu…
Postscript
This is a very short follow-up to The Advocate. Ishmael adds one more piece of evidence for whaling's dignity: whale oil was used to anoint kings at coronations.
Knights and Squires
Melville introduces Starbuck, the chief mate of the Pequod. Starbuck is a Nantucket Quaker, lean and serious, whose courage comes from careful calculation rather than recklessness.
Knights and Squires (continued)
The second mates and harpooneers are introduced. Stubb is the second mate, easy-going and fatalistic.
Ahab
Ahab finally appears on deck. He has been below since the Pequod left Nantucket, and the crew has only heard about him.
Enter Ahab; to Him, Stubb
Ahab begins pacing the deck at night, keeping the crew awake with the sound of his ivory leg on the boards. Stubb politely asks him to muffle the noise.
The Pipe
Ahab takes out his pipe and tries to smoke, as he often did before the voyage. He finds no comfort in it.
Queen Mab
Stubb tells Flask about a strange dream he had after Ahab kicked him. In the dream, a merman tells Stubb that being kicked by Ahab's ivory leg is actually an honor.
Cetology
Ishmael pauses the narrative to deliver a long, systematic classification of whale species. He organizes them like books in a library, by size and type, and admits the whole proje…
The Specksnyder
Ishmael explains the old Dutch whaling rank of specksnyder, the chief harpooner who once held great authority on a ship.
The Cabin-Table
Ishmael describes the strict hierarchy of meals in Ahab's cabin. The three mates eat in tense silence while Ahab presides, and then the harpooners eat the leftovers in a completel…
The Mast-Head
Ishmael describes the experience of standing watch at the top of the mast, high above the ocean. He traces the history of mast-head standing from ancient times to the present.
The Quarter-Deck
Ahab finally reveals his true mission to the crew. He nails a gold doubloon to the mast and promises it to whoever first spots the white whale.
Sunset
This is a brief dramatic monologue from Ahab's point of view, delivered as he watches the sun go down from his cabin window.
Dusk
Another short dramatic monologue, this time from Starbuck. He watches the same sunset Ahab just watched and processes what happened on the quarter-deck.
First Night-Watch
A very short chapter, again in dramatic monologue form, this time from Stubb, the second mate. He is cheerful and fatalistic about the whole situation.
Midnight, Forecastle
The chapter shifts to the crew below decks, written as a full dramatic scene with multiple voices. Sailors from different countries drink, sing, fight, and generally carry on.
Moby Dick
This chapter is the first full account of the white whale himself. Ishmael pieces together the legend of Moby Dick from sailor gossip, ship logs, and Ahab's own obsession.
The Whiteness of the Whale
Ishmael takes a full chapter to ask why the color white terrifies him more than anything else about Moby Dick. He works through examples from religion, nature, and culture where w…
Hark!
A very short chapter. Two sailors on night watch, Stubb's steward Flask and another, whisper about strange sounds coming from below decks.
The Chart
Ahab studies his charts alone at night, trying to calculate where Moby Dick will be at a given time of year based on whale migration patterns and the logs of other ships.
The Affidavit
Ishmael steps back from the story to make a direct argument to the reader: everything in this book about whale behavior, whale attacks on ships, and the danger of the hunt is true…
Surmises
Ahab thinks through how to keep the crew motivated toward the whale hunt without letting his obsession alienate them.
The Mat-Maker
Ishmael and Queequeg weave a sword-mat together on a quiet afternoon, and Ishmael falls into a long meditation on fate, free will, and chance.
The First Lowering
The crew lowers the whaleboats for the first time in actual pursuit of whales. It is chaotic and dangerous.
The Hyena
After surviving the night adrift, Ishmael has a darkly comic reaction: he laughs. He decides that life at sea is so absurd and death so random that the only sane response is to tr…
Ahab's Boat and Crew. Fedallah
Melville steps back to explain who Fedallah and his men are and how Ahab got them aboard without anyone knowing. Fedallah is a Parsee, a fire-worshipper from the East, and he func…
The Spirit-Spout
The Pequod sails into the Indian Ocean, and at night a mysterious white spout appears in the distance, seeming to lead the ship onward.
The Albatross
The Pequod passes another ship, the Goney, in the open ocean. Ahab tries to hail the captain to ask about the white whale, but the speaking trumpet falls into the sea before any r…
The Gam
Ishmael pauses the narrative to explain what a gam is: a social meeting between two ships at sea, where crews exchange news, letters, and company.
The Town-Ho's Story
Ishmael tells the story of the Town-Ho, another whaling ship, as if recounting it later to friends in Lima. On the Town-Ho, a sailor named Steelkilt led a near-mutiny against a br…
Of the Monstrous Pictures of Whales
Ishmael surveys the history of whale illustrations and paintings, finding nearly all of them inaccurate or absurd. He argues that no artist has ever captured what a whale actually…
Of the Less Erroneous Pictures of Whales, and the True Pictures of Whaling Scenes
Ishmael continues his survey of whale art, now shifting from the worst offenders to images he considers closer to accurate.
Of Whales in Paint; in Teeth; in Wood; in Sheet-Iron; in Stone; in Mountains; in Stars
Ishmael expands his catalog of whale representations to cover nearly every medium humans have used: scrimshaw carved by sailors on whale teeth, wooden carvings, sheet-iron weather…
Brit
The Pequod sails into vast fields of brit, the tiny yellow plant matter that right whales feed on. Ishmael uses the sight to open a meditation on the sea itself: beautiful on the…
Squid
A pale, formless mass rises to the surface near the Pequod, and the crew initially mistakes it for the White Whale. It turns out to be a giant squid, rarely seen and poorly unders…
The Line
Ishmael gives a detailed explanation of the whale line, the rope attached to the harpoon that runs through the boat during a chase.
Stubb Kills a Whale
The Pequod's first successful whale hunt plays out in full. Stubb leads his boat crew in pursuit of a sperm whale, and the chapter follows the chase from the initial rowing throug…
The Dart
This short chapter steps back from the action to explain a technical problem with whaling: the harpooner has to row as hard as anyone during the chase, and then is expected to thr…
The Crotch
Another short technical chapter, this one explaining the crotch, a forked wooden rest in the bow of a whaleboat that holds spare harpoons.
Stubb's Supper
After the kill, Stubb wants to eat whale steak and has the cook, Fleece, prepare it for him on the spot. Stubb is demanding and critical of the cooking.
The Whale as a Dish
Melville steps back again for a short essay on the history of humans eating whale meat. He surveys different cultures and time periods where whale was considered a delicacy or a s…
The Shark Massacre
While the crew works to secure the dead whale alongside the ship overnight, sharks swarm and tear into the carcass. Sailors are sent down to beat them back with spades, but the sh…
Cutting In
The crew begins the process of stripping blubber from the whale. It's industrial and precise.
The Blanket
Ishmael steps back from the action to examine whale blubber as a subject in itself. He describes its thickness, its texture, and the faint lines that run across it.
The Funeral
After the blubber is stripped, the whale's carcass is cut loose and left to drift. Ishmael watches it float away and describes the scene as a kind of funeral.
The Sphynx
Ahab goes to the side of the ship and speaks directly to the severed head of the sperm whale, which has been hoisted up and hangs there.
The Jeroboam's Story
The Pequod meets the Jeroboam, another whaling ship, and learns it has been taken over by a delusional prophet figure who has convinced the crew he is the Archangel Gabriel.
The Monkey-Rope
Ishmael describes the monkey-rope, a line that ties him physically to Queequeg while Queequeg works on the whale carcass in the water below.
Stubb and Flask Kill a Right Whale; and Then Have a Talk Over Him
On Fedallah's advice, Ahab orders the crew to hunt and kill a right whale to hang its head alongside the sperm whale head already on the ship.
The Sperm Whale's Head—Contrasted View
Ishmael examines the sperm whale's head in detail and uses it to think about perception and knowledge. The sperm whale's eyes are on opposite sides of its head, meaning it sees tw…
The Right Whale's Head—Contrasted View
Ishmael turns to the right whale's head and compares it to the sperm whale's. Where the sperm whale seemed powerful and mysterious, the right whale strikes Ishmael as more stoic a…
The Battering-Ram
Ishmael examines the sperm whale's forehead, arguing that its massive, blunt front is not a face at all but a solid wall of bone and blubber.
The Great Heidelburgh Tun
Ishmael turns to the upper part of the whale's head, the case, which holds a large reservoir of spermaceti oil. He compares it to a famous German wine cask.
Cistern and Buckets
Tashtego falls into the open spermaceti case while harvesting oil from the whale's head. He nearly drowns inside the whale.
The Prairie
Ishmael tries to read the sperm whale's face the way a physiognomist would read a human face. He concludes it cannot be done.
The Nut
Ishmael examines the sperm whale's skull and brain, noting that the brain is tiny relative to the whale's enormous size.
The Pequod Meets the Virgin
The Pequod encounters a German ship called the Jungfrau, or Virgin, whose captain rows over to beg for lamp oil because his ship has caught nothing.
The Honor and Glory of Whaling
Ishmael steps back from the action to make a case that whalers deserve the same respect as ancient heroes. He runs through a list of mythological and historical figures he claims…
Jonah Historically Regarded
Ishmael reports a debate among sailors about whether the biblical story of Jonah is literally true. A skeptical old sailor named Sag-Harbor raises practical objections: a whale's…
Pitchpoling
Stubb demonstrates pitchpoling, a technique where a long lance is thrown like a javelin into a fleeing whale to slow it down.
The Fountain
Ishmael devotes this chapter to the whale's spout, asking what it actually is: water, mist, or something else. He reviews competing theories and admits no one really knows.
The Tail
Ishmael spends this chapter studying the whale's tail as a physical object and as something that resists full understanding.
The Grand Armada
The Pequod encounters a massive school of whales in the waters near Java. The crew launches boats and chases the herd, but the whales panic and begin circling in a tight mass.
Schools and Schoolmasters
Ishmael classifies whale social groups. He describes how male sperm whales organize into schools led by a dominant male he calls the schoolmaster, and how younger males eventually…
Fast-Fish and Loose-Fish
Ishmael explains the legal rules of whaling: a fast-fish belongs to whoever has a line attached to it, and a loose-fish is fair game for anyone.
Heads or Tails
Ishmael describes an old English law that gave the Crown the head of any beached whale and the tail to the Queen. He uses a specific legal case involving a poor English fisherman…
The Pequod Meets the Rose-Bud
The Pequod encounters a French ship called the Rose-Bud that is towing two dead, rotting whales. The French crew has no idea the whales may contain ambergris, a valuable substance…
Ambergris
Ishmael steps back from the action to give a detailed explanation of ambergris: what it is, where it comes from, and why it's so valuable.
The Castaway
Pip, the young Black cabin boy, falls overboard during a whale hunt and is left alone in the open ocean for a terrifying stretch of time before being rescued.
A Squeeze of the Hand
The crew processes spermaceti, the waxy oil from the sperm whale's head, by squeezing it by hand to break up the lumps before it solidifies.
The Cassock
Ishmael describes the mincer, the crew member responsible for cutting whale blubber into thin strips for the try-pots.
The Try-Works
Ishmael watches the try-works, the onboard furnaces used to render whale blubber into oil, blazing through the night.
The Lamp
This is a very short chapter. Ishmael notes that whalemen sleep in the best light of any sailors because they are surrounded by the very oil they harvest.
Stowing Down and Clearing Up
After the try-works are done, the crew cleans the ship from top to bottom. The Pequod, which had been black with soot and grease, is scrubbed back to its original condition.
The Doubloon
Ahab nailed a gold doubloon to the mast at the start of the voyage as a reward for whoever first spots Moby Dick. In this chapter, various crew members look at the coin and each i…
Leg and Arm. The Pequod, of Nantucket, Meets the Samuel Enderby, of London
The Pequod encounters the Samuel Enderby, a British whaling ship. Its captain, Boomer, lost his arm to Moby Dick and has a prosthetic made from whale bone, mirroring Ahab's lost l…
The Decanter
The Pequod meets the Samuel Enderby, a British whaling ship, and Ahab boards her to interrogate the captain about Moby Dick.
A Bower in the Arsacides
Ishmael recalls a visit he once made to the Arsacides islands, where a whale skeleton had been taken over by the jungle and turned into a kind of temple by the local people.
Measurement of the Whale's Skeleton
Ishmael presents the actual dimensions of the sperm whale skeleton he examined in the Arsacides. He goes through the numbers methodically: length of the spine, number and size of…
The Fossil Whale
Ishmael extends his meditation on whale size by going back in geological time, discussing fossil whales and what they suggest about the species' ancient origins.
Does the Whale's Magnitude Diminish?—Will He Perish?
Ishmael asks two direct questions: has hunting made whales smaller over time, and could whales be hunted to extinction?
Ahab's Leg
Ahab's ivory leg has cracked, and the ship's carpenter is tasked with making a new one. The chapter pauses the chase to examine how Ahab's body has been worn down by his obsession.
The Carpenter
This chapter is a character study of the Pequod's carpenter, a man who fixes everything on the ship and seems to have no inner life beyond his work.
Ahab and the Carpenter
Ahab comes to the carpenter to have a new leg made. Their conversation is strange and darkly comic.
Ahab and Starbuck in the Cabin
Starbuck comes below to report an oil leak in the hold that needs immediate attention. Ahab initially refuses to stop for repairs, putting the mission above the ship's cargo and s…
Queequeg in His Coffin
Queequeg falls seriously ill, apparently from a fever caught while working in the hold during the oil leak repairs. He seems to be dying.
The Pacific
Ishmael describes the Pequod entering the Pacific Ocean for the first time. The mood shifts into something almost dreamlike as the vast, calm expanse of the Pacific washes over th…
The Blacksmith
This chapter steps away from the hunt to give the backstory of Perth, the Pequod's blacksmith. Perth was once a prosperous man with a family, but alcoholism destroyed everything h…
The Forge
Perth is at work forging a harpoon for Ahab, who has designed a special weapon specifically meant to kill Moby Dick. Ahab has the barbs made from his own razors and then baptizes…
The Gilder
The Pequod sails through a calm, golden stretch of ocean. Ishmael, Ahab, and Starbuck each reflect on the sea's beauty and what it means to them.
The Pequod Meets the Bachelor
The Pequod encounters another ship, the Bachelor, which is heading home after a wildly successful voyage with a full hold of whale oil.
The Dying Whale
Ahab watches a harpooned whale die at sunset, and instead of satisfaction he feels something closer to grief. The whale turns toward the sun as it dies, and Ahab reads this as a k…
The Whale Watch
Ahab and a boat crew spend the night in the water after a whale chase, waiting to be picked up by the Pequod. Alone in the dark ocean, Ahab has a long night of thought.
The Quadrant
Ahab uses the quadrant to take a noon sighting of the sun and calculate the ship's position. Then, in a sudden rage, he smashes the instrument and throws it overboard.
The Candles
A massive electrical storm hits the Pequod, and the masts and rigging glow with St. Elmo's fire.
The Deck Towards the End of the First Night Watch
This is a very short chapter, almost a dramatic scene rather than a narrative one. Ahab stands on deck late at night.
Midnight.—The Forecastle Bulwarks
Stubb and Flask talk quietly at the ship's rail late at night while the storm still hangs over everything. Flask is rattled; Stubb tries to keep things light, but even he can't fu…
Midnight Aloft.—Thunder and Lightning
This is one of the shortest chapters in the book: a single sailor high up in the rigging during the storm, talking to himself and to the lightning.
The Musket
Starbuck goes to Ahab's cabin to report a problem and finds a loaded musket within reach. For a moment, he seriously considers killing Ahab to save the ship and the crew.
The Needle
After the storm, the crew discovers that the Pequod's compass needles have been reversed by the lightning. The ship has been sailing in the wrong direction without knowing it.
The Log and Line
The ship's log and line, used to measure speed, are old and worn out. When they try to use them, the line snaps.
The Life-Buoy
A sailor falls from the mast at night and drowns before anyone can save him. The life-buoy thrown to him sinks too, waterlogged and useless.
The Deck
A short, almost theatrical chapter written as a script-like exchange between Ahab and the carpenter, who is finishing the coffin-life-buoy.
The Pequod Meets the Rachel
The Pequod encounters the Rachel, a ship whose captain is desperately searching for a lost whaleboat. His young son was aboard it.
The Cabin
Ahab summons Pip to his cabin and keeps the boy close to him. Pip has been mentally broken since his abandonment in the ocean, and Ahab seems genuinely moved by him.
The Hat
Ahab has a special basket seat rigged so he can be hoisted to the top of the mainmast himself to watch for Moby Dick.
The Pequod Meets the Delight
The Pequod crosses paths with a ship called the Delight, which has just been wrecked by Moby Dick. The Delight's captain shows Ahab a shattered whaleboat as proof of the White Wha…
The Symphony
The day before the final chase, the weather turns calm and beautiful. Ahab has a rare moment of reflection, sitting quietly and watching the sea.
The Chase—First Day
Moby Dick is spotted. Ahab himself smells the whale before anyone sees it, and he's the one who calls it from the masthead.
The Chase—Second Day
The Pequod finds Moby Dick again the next morning. The boats go down again, and again the whale destroys them, this time more completely.
The Chase—Third Day
The third day begins and Moby Dick is found again. The boats go out.
Epilogue
Ishmael explains how he alone survived the wreck of the Pequod. After the ship sank and the crew was pulled under by the vortex, Ishmael was kept afloat by Queequeg's coffin, whic…
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