July 4, 2019 - Chapters Fifty, Fifty-one, and Fifty-two

In these three short chapters, there are ta few short details worth noting. First is Ishmael’s observations about Fedallah, likening him to the kind of man from “when though, according to Genesis, the angels indeed consorted with the daughters of men, the devils also, add the uncanonical Rabbins, indulged in mundane amours.” The reference here is to the Nephilim of Genesis, from whom “giants in the earth” were eventually fathered. These beings were destroyed in the Great Flood of Noah, but Ishmael imagines Fedallah is what one of them would be like.

Second is the mysterious ghost-like spout that Fedallah sees repeatedly as the Pequod heads further into the Atlantic. Once closer to the Cape of Good Hope, the spout disappears, but Fedallah and Ahab both remain resolute in their purpose, to the detriment of the other men on the ship.

Third is the Albatross -- the near-ghost ship that the Pequod meets as it heads into the Indian Ocean after rounding the Cape. If our literary references mean anything, we most conclude that the boat is an omen, but since we've already had Coleridge mentioned, it is probably a bad omen.