In chapter 100 the Pequod runs into another ship called Samuel Enderby. Ahab asks the captain if he had heard of Moby Dick ( just as he asks all of the captains from the ships The Pequod encounters) and finally someone has. The captain of the Samuel Enderby is an englishman by the name of Boomer. He shares with Ahab that he does indeed know of the white whale-and well. The white whale is the reason he that he has no arm. Ahab and Boomer seem to bond over their lack of limbs and they do a toast to their missing apendages. I don’t really know what to think about this scene because part of it seems kind of funny- two captains toasting their ‘war wounds’ but on the other I feel bad thinking its funny when they are both injured “mutilated.” Boomer describes who the white whale got to his arm  which was discgusting and scary. His arm wasn’t biten off by the whale either, after he was hit by a harpoon trying to reach Moby Dick his wound grew infected and had to be amputated. The more we learn about Moby Dick the more insane it seems that Ahab and his boat are chasing after him. Even the other captain Boomer happened to see Moby Dick another time but after his first experience knows better than to try and mingle with Moby again. Ahab starts desperatly asking for information about his whale and the other crew begins to make fun of him and believing him to be crazy. The next few chapters were boring, Ishmael is trying to learn even more details about whales by measuring their bones. He is amazed by the imenseness of whales and belives that there is a huge whale out there that weighs more than an entire city. Finally by chapter 105 Ishmael gives up on describing the whale becuase he relizes how hard it is to make a good representation of one. I hope this means for the rest of the book Ishmael is done ranting about whales…but I highly doubt it. After Ahab returned from the Samuel Enderby he is so angry he stomps his boots around so much that he feels like he has to have a new one becuase the one he has is no longer sturdy. Its extremley interesting that Ahab’s leg is made out of whale bone becuae it just adds to his obsession, he literally is part whale.

I found chapter 88 to be a typical Ishmael chapter. He is informing the reader about schools of whales. Although I am tired of all of the whale information I did find it funny when Ishmael says, ” For like certain other omnivorous roving lovers that might be named, my Lord Whale has no taste for the nursery, however much for the bower; and so, being a great traveller, he leaves his anonymous babies all over the world; every baby an exotic.”  Apart from the humor of this I liked the quote because I always assumed that whales travelled in pods-mother,father and baby now that it says that male whales don’t travel with the family. I like penguins better than whales. Chapter 89, Fast-Fish and Loose-Fish was Ishmael defining “the laws and regulations of the whale fishery, of which the waif may be deemed the grand symbol and badge.” He states that the Fast-Fish belongs to the group who first lays a claim on the whale and a Loose-Fish is free to be hunted by anyone. Ishmael uses these whaling terms to compare to greater things such as nations. ” What was America in 1492 but a Loose-Fish, in which Columbus..”  In chapter 91 The Pequod comes across another ship by the name of the Rose-bud. When the crew first sees the boat they immediately can tell that there are whales on board from a horrible smell coming from one of the dead whales. One of the whales died from indigestion and had no oil left. Stubb convinces the captain of the Rose-bud that the whale has an infectious disease. The Rose-bud lets go of the dead whale and as soon as they are out of sight. The Pequod picks up the whale for the substance in its intestine called Ambergris. Ambergris is ” a very curious substance.” I was extremely surprised and a bit disgusted to find out that the dirty substance from the intestines of a sick whale  was used by “fine ladies and gentlemen” as some type of perfume. I also felt bad for poor Pip in this chapter because at one point Tashtego wants to kill him. Then to make everything worse for him they put him in one of the row boats and he is so scared of the whale that he jumps out of the boat. The crew then has to cut him loose and release the whale to save him. I feel bad for Pip but at the same time I would probably become really annoyed especially after he jumped out of the boat again. To punish him this time they leave him in the middle of the ocean. After they finally picked him up it seems that he has lost it ” The sea had jeeringly kept his finite body up, but drowned the infinite of his soul.”

In chapter 73 Stubb and Flask kill another whale. This time however, it is a right whale which has little value in the whaling world. I don’t understand why they would have killed the whale if it was not worth anything. They then bring the head of the whale onto the ship and place it on the other side of the boat (opposite the giant sperm whale’s head.) This balances out the boat. I don’t see the point of saving the whale’s heads, if they didn’t have them on the ship the boat would move much faster and there would be more room. The next two chapters I found once again to be boring as Ishmael is only giving a ‘contrasted view’ of the sperm whale and the right whale. Nothing more interesting happens until chapter 78. The men are trying to get the sperm out of the whale by tapping its head when Tashtagoo falls into the huge case. The line breaks and the head falls back into the ocean. At this point I really thought that Tashtagoo would have died because of all the ‘death omens’ that Melville mentions. Luckily for Tashtagoo, Queequeg jumps and and saves him. I didn’t understand chapter 80. I know that he is discussing if people and animals were judged by their spinal cord instead of their brain but that is all I really got from the chapter.

After Stubb finally catches a whale he decides that he wants to have a nice steak prepared. He asks that the African American cook Fleece prepares his meal. At the same time sharks begin devouring the whale carcas that is tied to the boat. Stubb then becomes angry with Fleece because he compares him to a shark. ” Wish, by gor! whale eat him, ’stead of him eat whale. I’m bressed if he ain’t more of shark dan Massa Shark hisself.”  Another kind of funny part of the chapter was when Stubb tells the cook to make the sharks stop eating the whale carcass, so the cook starts swearing at the sharks to leave. Stubb’s response is to tell the cook to stop swearing and speak to “‘em gentlemanly.” The next morning the sharks are still there devouring the carcass so the men try to get them to stop. One of the sharks practically bits off one of poor Queequeg’s hands but I guess there are worse things that can happen to whalers. Chapter 67 was gross because Ishmael describes how they peel the blubber off of the whale. However, I am happy that this was a short chapter because i’m sure that Ishmael could of written pages after pages about peeling whale blubber. I thought chapter 69 was interesting because after they gather everything that they need from the whale they let it go for a funeral but instead of the men on the boat being the mourners the sharks become them. Chapter 70 shows once again how crazy Ahab is. He starts talking to the head of the whale like it was a real person. In chapter one the Pequod encounters another ship called The Jeroboam. The other boat warns them about the plague but Ahab is so desperate to hear news of the white whale that he ignores this and tells the captain to come aboard. The captain then tells Ahab how his boat spotted the white whale once and decided to hunt it. During their hunt the white whale flips the harpooner over board and he drowns. So far in the book every time they mention the white whale it always leads to death. At this point i think it is incredibly selfish of Ahab to lead his crew into such danger.

I thought that both chapters 55 and 56 were incredibly boring. I did not like how Ishmael went on and on about the description of a whale. He then discussed the artwork of whales and decided that the French artists depicted the whales the best. This is strange because France has never been a whaling nation. Chapter 58 was all about what the whales eat, a strange yellow substance called Brit. I tried to look up a picture of Brit but could not find one. Chapter 59 starts off exciting, Daggoo believes that he spotted the infamous white whale near the coast of Java. The men go out in the little row boats to try and catch Moby Dick. Unfortunetly for Ahab, what Daggoo saw turned out to be a giant squid. Ishmael and the other men on the boat believe that the giant squid was a bad omen. Chapter 60 was all about the line that is used by the harpooners to try and catch the whale. The harpoon is the only thing tied to the rope. The other end of the boat wraps around the rowers. This method sounds a bit dangerous because if they do catch a whale and the whale tries to swim down to deep waters then the whole rowboat would be taken with it. Contrary to the original perception of the giant squid as a bad Omen, Queequeg decides that it was a good omen becausue finally all the way in chapter 61 they finally catch a whale.  Chapters 62 and 63  are about the techniques of harpooning. Ishmael introduces the dart system and the crotch and decides that the methods that they have been using for harpooning are inefficient.

One of the funniest things to occur in the book so far happened in chapter 43. The image of two men trying to balance on top of each other on a tiny row boat is pretty hysterical. In chapter 44 Ishmael decided that it was time to revise his will, after capsizing in the water from an attempted whale capture. He appoints Queequeg as his ” lawyer, executor, and legatee” which is humorous considering that Queequeg probably has no knowledge of anything regarding laws or wills. Ishmael also says that the reader may find it strange that a sailor would be ‘tinkering’ with their wills. I did not find this strange at all, in fact there have been so many foreshadows of death I was wondering when Ishmael would bring up writing his will- which he’s a pro at since he’s already done it four times. Over the next few weeks, there are whale sightings at night and the whole crew has to get up to try and attack the whale-without success. Melville also introduces the mysterious stowaways from the deck. There’s Fadellah who works on Ahab’s boat. At this point I’m still a little confused whether Ahab knew that the five stowaways were on the ship ? However the crew seems to embrace them because they could use all of the help that they could get. Another thing I found interesting was in Ishmael’s definition of a gam. He says, ” A social meeting of two (or more) Whale-ships, generally on a cruising-ground; when, after exchanging hails, they exchange visits by boat’s crews:the two captains remaining, for the time, on board of one ship, and the two chief mates on the other.” Then at the bottom of page it says that his definition was written based off of another book and that it did not match the experiences of The Pequod in the book.