
"The Sperm Whale is in some cases sufficiently powerful, knowing, and judiciously malicious, as with direct aforethought to stave in, utterly destroy, and sink a large ship; and what is more, the Sperm Whale has done it."
Musing: This is a tricky part of the book for me. Ishmael does a great job of describing Ahab's growing madness. Ahab is aligned with Prometheus and linked to fire. We believe Ahab is mad. What whale would purposefully hurt one man in particular? What revenge could Ahab even exact against a dumb whale? But in this chapter, and others, Ishmael tells us that it could happen. A whale could knowingly come after a person. So if that is the case - that Moby Dick went after Ahab in patciluar, then is it reasonable for Ahab to be angry and want revenge? Or is that madness?