Moby-Dick: Chapter 28 Summary & Analysis

Ishmael notes that the Pequod goes out into the Atlantic for several days, and still no one in the ship sees Ahab, who hides in his quarters. Ishmael wonders to himself if Elijah’s prophecies weren’t true—if Ahab isn’t a cursed, mysterious man. One morning, Ishmael goes onto the quarterdeck, where the captain stands, and sees Ahab there. Ishmael notes that Ahab is a powerful, middle-aged man, with a large white scar running down the side of his body, “like a seam.” Ahab also stands on a white leg made of polished sperm-whale bone, taken from a whale’s jaw.

Ishmael reports also that Ahab stands in a sort of “pivot-hole” worn into the deck of the Pequod, where he can rest his white leg while steadying his body and being able to turn around 360 degrees. Ishmael notes that Ahab seems preoccupied and has little to do with the day-to-day operations of the ship, as they are mostly setting out a due course into the Atlantic and south, and the whale-boats have not yet been “lowered” in pursuit of whales.