At last, we have found whales within the deep! Chapter 48 sees the introduction of a few new characters, such as the individuals acting as Ahab’s contingency plan against mutiny, as well as a first look at what whaling entails for the crew. Nathaniel Philbrick’s comment about how Moby-Dick could allow aliens to understand 1800’s whaling makes sense, at last!

I feel the need to make a point that it is very clear that Ishmael has a type – first his loving descriptions of Queequeg, then the way that he described Daggoo and Flask on the whaling ship:

“But the sight of little Flask mounted upon the gigantic Daggoo was yet more curious; for sustaining himself with a cool, indifferent, easy, unthought of, barbaric majesty, the noble negro to every roll of the sea harmoniously rolled his fine form. On his broad back, the flaxen-haired Flask seemed a snow-flake. The bearer looked nobler than the rider. Though, truly, vivacious, tumultuous, ostentatious little Flask would now and then stamp with impatience; but not one added heave did he thereby give to the negro’s lordly chest. So I have seen Passion and Vanity stamping the living magnanimous earth, but the earth did not alter her tides and her seasons for that.” (241)

While Flask is described as one might describe a princess or a child – impatient, little, ostentatious – Daggoo is described with words synonymous with nobility – indifferent, lordly, majesty, noble. While Flask is the leader of the boat, the one that is urging the men and calling the shots, Daggoo is painted as the reliable, quick thinking, and sturdy man that ensures it continues.

It seems that any moment we meet a new character with darker skin, we find ourselves given an in-depth description of the way that they carry themselves and the continence of their brow. Yet many of the cast that are white or in power remain faceless within the crew of the Pequod, save Ahab. This reinforces the narrative that Melville was presenting us – that whiteness is absence, that the war that was building at the time was senseless, and that slavery exists for little men to feel as though they have power beyond themselves.