Of the four whales killed, one is too far away from the ship, and Ahab's boat spends a night watching. Fedellah predicts he will die before Ahab, and that rope will be what kills Ahab. Ahab takes all these as signs of his immortality, and laughs. He uses a quadrant, a kind of viewer, to check his place with the sun, then curses the thing for not being able to tell him what will come of the future, and destroys it. The Pequod is tossed into a Typhoon.
Lightning strikes down and lights the tops of the masts on fire.
Ahab stands before them and calls for a blessing to hunt the whale. Ahab's harpoon is lit on fire as well. Ahab blows out the blaze, but the crew shrinks away from him in fear. Click for our Privacy Policy and Terms of Service .