Moby-Dick: Chapter 100 Summary & Analysis

Ahab spots another whaling ship, this time an English one called the Samuel Enderby, and pulls up alongside it. When Ahab notes that the captain of this ship, named Boomer, has a white ivory arm and has seen the White Whale, Ahab immediately gathers Fedallah and has him and the “Manilla men” row him to the “Sammy,” which Ahab then boards as best he can, given his ivory leg. Ahab wants to hear Boomer’s story about the White Whale. In contrast to Ahab, Boomer seems in fairly high spirits, despite having lost this arm and not having caught Moby Dick.

Boomer tells Ahab that the Sammy pulled up alongside Moby Dick along the Line (the equator), and noting that the White Whale was large and full of sperm oil, they did their best to lance it. But Boomer was not able to hold Moby Dick on his line, and fell out of his boat—his own harpoon then tore into the flesh of his arm, and though Moby Dick did not bite it off, the White Whale was the cause of the deep wound, which necessitated that the ship doctor cut off Boomer’s arm. Ahab asks if Boomer knows where Moby Dick is now, but Boomer has no information for Ahab, and wonders why someone would seek out a whale that is clearly so dangerous to man. But Ahab, in a huff, leaves Boomer, who is confused as to Ahab’s anger, stating that the whale is just a whale, and that there is no reason to hunt it as though one holds a grudge against it.