Plot Summary
While sailing on, the Pequod spots a distant whale-ship and exchanges signals, identifying her as the Jeroboam of Nantucket. When the Jeroboam lowers a boat, Captain Mayhew refuses to board the Pequod because a malignant epidemic rages among his crew. The two ships hold a shouted conversation across the waves, frequently interrupted by violent swells that push the Jeroboam’s boat away.
Gabriel the False Prophet
Among the Jeroboam’s crew sits Gabriel, a former Neskyeuna Shaker who announced himself the archangel Gabriel shortly after leaving port. Through a combination of wild charisma and genuine delirium, he won the terrified obedience of most of the crew, who refused to let the captain expel him. When the epidemic broke out, Gabriel claimed the plague was under his personal command, raising his influence still higher.
The Death of Macey
Captain Mayhew relates that Macey, the Jeroboam’s chief mate, insisted on hunting Moby Dick despite Gabriel’s frantic warnings that the White Whale was the Shaker God incarnate. Macey managed to fasten an iron to the whale, but Moby Dick rose and struck him bodily from his boat, hurling him fifty yards through the air to his death. Not a chip of the boat nor a hair on any oarsman was harmed. Gabriel seized the moment, shrieking “The vial! the vial!” and calling off all further pursuit, his prophetic authority now seemingly confirmed.
The Undelivered Letter
Ahab asks Mayhew whether the Jeroboam’s captain intends to hunt Moby Dick again; Mayhew’s silence and Gabriel’s dire warnings answer for him. Ahab then recalls a letter in his ship’s letter-bag addressed to “Mr. Harry Macey”—the dead mate. As Starbuck tries to pass the mouldy letter across on a cutting-spade pole, Gabriel snatches it, impales it on a boat-knife, and flings it back at Ahab’s feet. The Jeroboam’s boat then rows rapidly away, leaving the Pequod’s crew to whisper darkly about the omen.