Moby-Dick: Chapter 29 Summary & Analysis

Ahab often walks the quarterdeck at night, when only the night-watch sailors are about, since he cannot sleep well in the evenings. The Pequod is drawing toward the Equator and Quito (capital of Ecuador), and the night-air has turned warmer and more pleasant. As Ahab paces the quarterdeck, his ivory leg scrapes against the wood and often wakes the sailors. But when Stubb goes above to tell Ahab, gently, that this is the case, Ahab curses him, calls him a dog, and tells him to “sleep in his grave” below the deck. Stubb takes umbrage at being called a dog, but Ahab again shouts him down, and Stubb retreats to the belowdecks.

Stubb, talking to himself as he walks back to sleep, says that Ahab is the strangest captain he has ever seen. Stubb also repeats what another sailor has told him: that Ahab’s bunk is often disturbed the morning after he sleeps, indicating that Ahab tosses and turns the whole night long. Stubb wonders what must be wrong with the old man, and vows to find out at some point during the voyage.