CHAPTER 99: THE DOUBLOON

It has been Ahab's habit to moodily pace the deck, eyeing the compass on the binnacle and the doubloon nailed to the mainmast, as if hoping that one or the other will lead him to Moby-Dick. One morning he halts in front of the doubloon. Minted in Ecuador, it shows three peaks of the Andes. From one shoots a flame, on another stands a tower, and on the third a rooster crows. In the sky are the signs of the zodiac, with the sun entering Libra, the scales.

Ahab tries to understand the doubloon's symbolism. To him the peaks are as proud as Lucifer (the archangel who became Satan), as proud as Ahab. (Notice how Ahab compares himself to the greatest rebel against God.) They stand for courage and victory.

Starbuck wanders up when Ahab is through. To him the three peaks represent the Christian Trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, with the sun a symbol of God's righteousness. Next, Stubb sees a jolly prediction of a happy life. Flask sees only a coin worth nine hundred and sixty cigars. The fire-worshipping Fedallah sees something to which he must bow.

NOTE: THE DOUBLOON

Melville expects you to look closely at the objects on board the Pequod, for as Ishmael says here, "some certain significance lurks in all things." But the question is, what is that significance? Each man aboard the Pequod sees something different when he looks at the doubloon. Once again you're reminded of the difficulty of interpreting the world. Here, too, we see for the first time that Pip's madness does contain wisdom. His reaction-"I look, you look, he looks"- is a description of the way each man sees something different in the doubloon. His final mutterings are more ominous: "Ha ha old Ahab! The White Whale; he'll nail ye." Pip has become another of Moby-Dick's prophets of doom.