When it comes to rumors, people often go out of their way to exaggerate or downplay the situation at hand. These rumors do not have to come from land or be about anything that’s on land; there are rumors circulating in and about the ocean as well. We have to ask ourselves this: are these rumors actually true? How bad is it compared to what is really happening? In Moby Dick, Herman Melville asks us to consider the accuracy of these rumors while drawing attention to the effects of the ocean on the mind. In open water, isolation can shape the mind and make us naĩve to such assumptions.

In chapter 41, Ishmael learns of the white whale Captain Ahab and his crew are going to hunt, but he goes to great lengths to ruminate on the rumors spread by the whalemen that paint the whale as this fierce and formidable foe. Regarding the rumors, he writes:

“…not only do fabulous rumors naturally grow out of the very body of all surprising terrible events … but, in maritime life, far more than in that of terra firma, wild rumors abound, wherever there is any adequate reality for them to cling to. And as the sea surpasses the land in this matter, so the whale fishery surpasses every other sort of maritime life, in the wonderfulness and fearfulness of the rumors which sometimes circulate there.” (Melville 195)

This is a very meaty passage, but it highlights an important difference between how rumors spread over the ocean and how they spread on land, or in his words, “terra firma.” The ocean takes up much more space on Earth than on land, and it is much more sparse. Because of its openness, there are less people who can verify these “wild” and “fabulous” rumors, since they are mostly grounded on personal experiences. Without anyone nearby to back up (or refute) their claims in this isolatory environment, these rumors are allowed to run rampant.

There is something “supernatural” about the whale that whalemen constantly make rumors about, yet there is seemingly no one in the ocean who can stop these rumors from spreading. The White Whale is a very large creature, and it would take a lot of harpoons to take it down. Its size, along with the many “deaths” it has caused, instills a great terror among those who have encountered it, including those who were exposed to the rumors and have yet to encounter it. The whaling industry, as Melville notes, basks “in the wonderfulness and feafulness of the rumors which sometimes circulate there.”

Why is it, then, that we come to accept these “wonderful” and “fearful” rumors? Why do we welcome them even if we know that they come from some crazy whalemen who know whales no better than we do? Continuing in chapter 41, Ishmael answers these questions:

“Alone, in such remotest waters, that though you sailed a thousand miles, and passed a thousand shores, you would not come to any chiseled hearth-stone, or aught hospitable beneath that part of the sun; in such latitudes and longitudes, pursuing too such a calling as he does, the whaleman is wrapped by influences all tending to make his fancy pregnant with many a mighty birth.” (Melville 195-196)

This implies that in a more isolated space, people find comfort in these rumors, acting like a sort of coping mechanism for them. Melville uses the motherly comparison in the phrase “to make his fancy pregnant with many a mighty birth” to illustrate the malleability of the mind–about how our minds are constantly preoccupied with the ocean’s vastness. This vastness is the “influence” to the mind; we are isolated, and without anyone to talk to, this isolation makes us submissive. Our mind made malleable, we are willing to accept any “wonderful,” “fearful” rumors that we come across “in such remotest waters.”

In conclusion, Moby-Dick by Herman Melville is a novel that ruminates on isolation and how our minds are shaped by the ocean. Chapter 41 gives us a taste of the rumors fishermen spread throughout the ocean, then shows us how we eventually give in to these rumors. All alone in the ocean, its openness is all you can think about. Eventually, it makes you submissive, ready to accept the rumors and spread them to anyone nearby.