July 22, 2019 - Chapters Seventy-seven and Seventy-eight


After a brief chapter telling us where and how in a sperm whale’s head the spermaceti (sperm oil) is stored, we return to the narrative in the second chapter for today. Here, Tashtego drills down into the whale’s head with his harpoon to harvest the spermaceti but ultimately falls inside the head. He is ultimately rescued by Queequeg, who drills into the head from the other side and pulls Tashego out – an operation called “obstetric” by the narrator. This near-death experience is the second of the novel, following the first whale chase in which the whaling boat is stranded for the better part of a day.

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