In chapter 133, our crew finally comes face to face with Moby Dick, their deadly foe. In the skirmish that ensues with him, Ahab and other mariners fall into the sea after Moby Dick bites their boat in half, and then he starts circling them. In page 599, Melville writes, “Meanwhile Ahab half smothered in the foam of the whale’s insolent tail, and too much of a cripple to swim,–though he could still keep afloat, even in the heart of such a whirlpool as that; helpless Ahab’s head was seen, like a tossed bubble which the least chance shock might burst.” Our captain, this indomitable force of revenge and hate, seems fragile. In this passage, Melville brings to our attention two important points: Ahab is old and he is missing a leg. While these things have been discussed in the story before, they were really never liabilities, but now they have completely humanized Ahab for us and even made him seem weak. The picture Melville paints for us of old Ahab struggling to stay afloat in the water undercuts the image of the powerful and maniacal sea captain we have been getting up until now. Ahab’s element is sailing the sea, but being in the water itself has made him vulnerable like never before. He is tragically unequipped for this environment although he has spent his life in it. Not only do we realize that Ahab’s greatness has limits because of his physical condition, but because he is a mere human. The phrase, “helpless Ahab’s head was seen, like a tossed bubble which the least chance shock might burst” prompts us to think about the littleness and inadequacy of man in the face of nature. Even great Ahab is helpless in the sea and his head in the water is compared to a bubble. What is a bubble in the vastness of the ocean? This moment is prompting us to juxtapose the previous idea we had of Ahab, of supernatural power, with his current helplessness brought about by nature. The indomitable spirit of man (or his obsessive hatred) is nothing in the face of the natural world. Our power is an illusion that bursts like a bubble as soon as we touch the water. Melville destroys our previous perception of Ahab and uses imagery to illustrate a larger truth about humanity, that when faced with the savageness of nature, our greatness and power are revealed to be constructs of our own creation, and that though it might be easy for us to forget, nobody can tame the sea.