Moby-Dick: Chapter 103 Summary & Analysis

Ishmael notes that the Tranque sperm whale’s skeleton measured about 72 feet in length, and that this skeleton did not really do justice to the actual bulk of the whale, since a layer of blubber and skin would cover this skeleton. Ishmael states that, in some sense, the skeleton shows only the shadow of the greatness and sublimity of the whale itself. And once again returning to the topic of the whale’s spine, Ishmael says that the largest whale vertebra was about three feet wide—the shortest, so small that it was stolen by some of the priest’s children and used as a “toy.”