MOby Dick, Hero of the Sea

Some people have asked what Ahab's problem with Moby Dick was. I, too, do not see why Ahab wanted vengeance on Moby Dick for merely biting off Ahab's leg.

One of the main rules of all good ethical systems is that people are people no matter what species of intelligent beings they belong to. And since there is not guarantee that present day society has correctly identified each and every species of intelligent beings on other planets or even here on Earth, there is a degree of uncertainty about which entities are people with full Human (and non Human) rights and which are be mere objects or animals without those rights.

And all good people will treat all uncertain cases as if they were absolutely certain that they were people with full rights, and all evil persons will treat all uncertain cases as if they were absolutely certain that they were mere animals or objects without rights. That is one of the main ways to tell the difference between good and evil persons.

And present day science believes that Cetacians in general and sperm whales in particular are extremely intelligent and extremely social beings who. like the great apes and elephants, should be considered only very, very slightly sub human and only very, very slightly less than full people. So obviously there is a possibllity that cetecians in general and sperm whales in particular might be just very, very slightly more intelligent and social beings than present day science thinks they are, which would make them exactly as intelligent and social as Humans and exactly as much people with full Human rights as Human beings.

Thus nobody can possibly be absolutely certain that whales in general and sperm whales in particular are not people with full rights. And therefore everyone must treat whales as if they were absolutely certain that whales were people with full rights.

Suppose that you were certain that sperm whales were people with the full rights of intelligent beings. Then you would have to view all the Human characters in the novel was evil, vile, ruthless killers who slaughtered and butchered other people in order to sell products derived from the body parts of their victims for a profit. They would be very, very little better than cannibals who kill people to eat because they like the taste, - and not because extreme starvation drives them to it - and in order to sell some of the Human meat to other cannibals for a profit.

But Moby Dick would be the great hero of the novel, if unintended by the Author. He alone, of all the characters, never attacked anyone who was not attacking him or others of Moby's people. He alone never killed any person except in self defense or in defense of others.

Have you ever heard of sperm whales smashing any small boats except for whale boats which were attacking whales? have you ever heard of sperm whales sinking any ships which were not whaling ships whose boats were out attacking whales at the time?

If it was common for sperm whales to smash and sink boats and ships which were harmless to whales, to you think that any Humans would ever have dared to sail out of sight of land? If sperm whales aggressively attacked all boats and ships they encountered, would Madagascar, Australia, Tasmania, New Zealand, Polynesia, Japan, or Iceland ever have been settled by Humans? Would there have been a shipbuilding industry in Medieval Spain capable of building the ships of Columbus if sailing out of sight of land was suicide?

I'm not certain how Captain Ahab lost his leg. I think that Moby Dick smashed his whale boat and bit off Ahab's leg when Ahab was in the water. Have you ever considered how slight the resistance a human leg would make to a biting sperm whale's mouth, and how little the whale would feel or notice that minor resistance? When people or animals are excited or in pain they take many minor actions without being aware of them. And biting hard on nothing seems to be a reaction to pain or stress in Humans.

So I say that Ahab should not have made a big deal about an excited whale who he may have seen bite a boat in half unconsciously biting down very slightly in the middle of a fight.

Remember that Ahab and some of the other whalers on his boat survived the destruction of their boat - Ahab even survived despite losing a leg and may have been helped to stay afloat by another whaler until another boat came to pick them up.

Suppose a sailor dumped into the sea saw a shark about seven or eight feet long nearby. He would be afraid the shark might attack him, since most people attacked, or killed, or eaten by sharks are attacked by sharks about that size.

Suppose that a shark about seven or eight feet long - large enough to be a human killer - noticed a large great white shark about twice its length and over eight times its weight nearby. That smaller shark would certainly react by trying to minimize the danger that the great white shark might attack and eat it, which would be a realistic thing for the smaller shark to fear.

Killer whales have been known to attack and kill great white sharks, so even a large great white shark might be afraid if it noticed a killer whale nearby.

Intelligent animals like killer whales probably have dreams and nightmares, and if they do they may very well have nightmares abut being chased or attacked by sperm whales.

But Moby Dick was no ordinary sperm whale, he was THE GREAT WHITE WHALE, a super giant bull sperm whale who might have been the largest carnivore in the whole world at the time, and he was almost infinitely more powerful and deadly than an ordinary potentially man-eating shark that would terrify any swimmer who noticed it nearby.

So Ahab and the other whalers in the sea with him at the time he lost his leg were totally at the mercy of Moby Dick, who was almost infinitely more dangerous than the smallest sea monster that could have killed or eaten one or more of them.

So after being rescued Ahab should have gone down on his knees and thanked the mercy of God for his survival with only the loss of a leg, and the survival of his comrades in the water with him. And he should also have thanked the mercy of Moby Dick the boat-eater for only killing as many whalers as was necessary in defense, and not bothering to kill the whalers in the water as he could have done so very, very, easily.