Plot Summary
Chapter 22 of Moby-Dick takes place on Christmas Day as the Pequod finally departs Nantucket. After Aunt Charity delivers her last gifts—a nightcap for Stubb and a spare Bible for the steward—the two retired captains, Peleg and Bildad, take command of the ship's departure as its licensed pilots. Captain Ahab remains unseen below deck, reportedly still recovering. The crew heaves up the anchor and sets sail into the cold Atlantic, with Bildad taking the first watch as pilot. Eventually, once the ship reaches open water, both pilots reluctantly board a small boat to return to shore, leaving the Pequod to plunge alone into the ocean.
Character Development
Peleg and Bildad dominate this chapter, revealing contrasting temperaments in a scene rich with comic energy. Peleg is profane, physical, and commanding—he swears furiously, kicks Ishmael in the rear, and drives the crew with explosive impatience. Bildad, by contrast, sings hymns and psalms at the bow, leading off with pious psalmody even as the sailors roar bawdy songs about "the girls in Booble Alley." Their farewell reveals unexpected emotional depth: Bildad lingers on deck, pacing anxiously and grasping Peleg's hand with a lantern raised, while Peleg tries to maintain a philosopher's composure but betrays a tear in his eye. Bildad's parting speech—a rambling mix of spiritual blessings and anxious reminders about spare staves, molasses, cheese, and butter prices—is both comic and deeply human. Captain Ahab's conspicuous absence heightens anticipation and reinforces his mysterious, almost mythic status aboard the ship.
Themes and Motifs
The chapter's Christmas Day setting carries strong symbolic weight. Just as the birth of Christ inaugurates a new spiritual journey, the Pequod's departure marks the beginning of a voyage fraught with destiny and peril. The motif of piety versus profanity runs throughout: Bildad forbids profane songs yet tolerates them, while Peleg swears and kicks with abandon. This tension between religious idealism and worldly reality reflects the broader moral ambiguity of the whaling enterprise. The theme of departure and farewell also emerges powerfully—the reluctance of Bildad and Peleg to leave the ship underscores the enormity of the voyage and foreshadows its dangers. Ishmael's meditation on hope, prompted by Bildad's hymn about "sweet fields beyond the swelling flood," provides a rare moment of optimism before the ship heads into unknown waters.
Literary Devices
Melville employs vivid imagery throughout the chapter, particularly in the description of the freezing night at sea: "the freezing spray cased us in ice, as in polished armor" and "vast curving icicles depended from the bows" like "the white ivory tusks of some huge elephant." These similes transform the Pequod into something both martial and bestial, foreshadowing the violence to come. The chapter's ironic title, "Merry Christmas," undercuts the holiday spirit with bitter cold, hard labor, and physical abuse. Melville uses comic juxtaposition masterfully in the contrast between Bildad's hymn-singing and Peleg's violent profanity, and in Bildad's farewell speech that mixes spiritual benediction with penny-pinching advice. The final sentence—"blindly plunged like fate into the lone Atlantic"—employs a powerful simile that encapsulates the voyage's themes of predestination, isolation, and the unknown.