- description
- # CHAPTER 117. The Whale Watch.
## Overview
This is a section titled "CHAPTER 117. The Whale Watch." from the novel *Moby-Dick; or, The Whale*, spanning lines 19030 to 19088 of the source file, [moby_dick.txt](arke:01KG89J198KE6FY8WPVJQQRCZ6). It is of the type "section".
## Context
This section is part of [BOOK III. (_Duodecimo_), CHAPTER III. (_Mealy-mouthed Porpoise_)](arke:01KG8AK83BA227D6NY5BT040FM) from the novel *Moby-Dick; or, The Whale*, and is included in the [Melville Complete Works](arke:01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW) collection. It is preceded by [CHAPTER 116. The Dying Whale.](arke:01KG8AMBF3C6FHG6W1GXHFDFMC) and followed by [CHAPTER 118. The Quadrant.](arke:01KG8AMBF5WRFGRY9PW889V5NY).
## Contents
This section depicts a night scene following the slaying of four whales. It focuses on Ahab and the Parsee, who are awake in Ahab's boat beside one of the slain whales. The Parsee delivers a prophecy to Ahab, stating that neither hearse nor coffin can be Ahab's at sea until two hearses are seen, one not made by mortal hands and the other made of American wood. The Parsee also foretells that he will go before Ahab as his pilot, and that "hemp only can kill thee," which Ahab interprets to mean he is immortal on land and sea. The section concludes with the coming of dawn and the crew's return to the ship with the dead whale.
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- CHAPTER 117. The Whale Watch.
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- CHAPTER 117. The Whale Watch.
The four whales slain that evening had died wide apart; one, far to
windward; one, less distant, to leeward; one ahead; one astern. These
last three were brought alongside ere nightfall; but the windward one
could not be reached till morning; and the boat that had killed it lay
by its side all night; and that boat was Ahab’s.
The waif-pole was thrust upright into the dead whale’s spout-hole; and
the lantern hanging from its top, cast a troubled flickering glare upon
the black, glossy back, and far out upon the midnight waves, which
gently chafed the whale’s broad flank, like soft surf upon a beach.
Ahab and all his boat’s crew seemed asleep but the Parsee; who
crouching in the bow, sat watching the sharks, that spectrally played
round the whale, and tapped the light cedar planks with their tails. A
sound like the moaning in squadrons over Asphaltites of unforgiven
ghosts of Gomorrah, ran shuddering through the air.
Started from his slumbers, Ahab, face to face, saw the Parsee; and
hooped round by the gloom of the night they seemed the last men in a
flooded world. “I have dreamed it again,” said he.
“Of the hearses? Have I not said, old man, that neither hearse nor
coffin can be thine?”
“And who are hearsed that die on the sea?”
“But I said, old man, that ere thou couldst die on this voyage, two
hearses must verily be seen by thee on the sea; the first not made by
mortal hands; and the visible wood of the last one must be grown in
America.”
“Aye, aye! a strange sight that, Parsee:—a hearse and its plumes
floating over the ocean with the waves for the pall-bearers. Ha! Such a
sight we shall not soon see.”
“Believe it or not, thou canst not die till it be seen, old man.”
“And what was that saying about thyself?”
“Though it come to the last, I shall still go before thee thy pilot.”
“And when thou art so gone before—if that ever befall—then ere I can
follow, thou must still appear to me, to pilot me still?—Was it not so?
Well, then, did I believe all ye say, oh my pilot! I have here two
pledges that I shall yet slay Moby Dick and survive it.”
“Take another pledge, old man,” said the Parsee, as his eyes lighted up
like fire-flies in the gloom—“Hemp only can kill thee.”
“The gallows, ye mean.—I am immortal then, on land and on sea,” cried
Ahab, with a laugh of derision;—“Immortal on land and on sea!”
Both were silent again, as one man. The grey dawn came on, and the
slumbering crew arose from the boat’s bottom, and ere noon the dead
whale was brought to the ship.
- title
- CHAPTER 117. The Whale Watch.