<P> As the Pequod approaches the Equator, Ahab scolds his quadrant for telling him only where he is and not where he will be . He dashes it to the deck . That evening, an impressive typhoon attacks the ship . Lightning strikes the mast, setting the doubloon and Ahab's harpoon aglow . Ahab delivers a speech on the spirit of fire, seeing the lightning as a portent of Moby Dick . Starbuck sees the lightning as a warning, and feels tempted to shoot the sleeping Ahab with a musket . Next morning, when he finds that the lightning disoriented the compass, Ahab makes a new one out of a lance, a maul, and a sailmaker's needle . He orders the log be heaved, but the weathered line snaps, leaving the ship with no way to fix its location . </P> <P> The Pequod is now heading southeast toward Moby Dick . A man falls overboard from the mast . The life buoy is thrown, but both sink . Now Queequeg proposes that his superfluous coffin be used as a new life buoy . Starbuck orders the carpenter take care it is lidded and caulked . Next morning, the ship meets in another truncated gam with the Rachel, commanded by Captain Gardiner from Nantucket . The Rachel is seeking survivors from one of her whaleboats which had gone after Moby Dick . Among the missing is Gardiner's young son . Ahab refuses to join the search . Twenty - four hours a day, Ahab now stands and walks the deck, while Fedallah shadows him . Suddenly, a sea hawk grabs Ahab's slouched hat and flies off with it . Next, the Pequod, in a ninth and final gam, meets the Delight, badly damaged and with five of her crew left dead by Moby Dick . Her captain shouts that the harpoon which can kill the white whale has yet to be forged, but Ahab flourishes his special lance and once more orders the ship forward . Ahab shares a moment of contemplation with Starbuck . Ahab speaks about his wife and child, calls himself a fool for spending 40 years on whaling, and claims he can see his own child in Starbuck's eye . Starbuck tries to persuade Ahab to return to Nantucket to meet both their families, but Ahab simply crosses the deck and stands near Fedallah . </P> <P> On the first day of the chase, Ahab smells the whale, climbs the mast, and sights Moby Dick . He claims the doubloon for himself, and orders all boats to lower except for Starbuck's . The whale bites Ahab's boat in two, tosses the captain out of it, and scatters the crew . On the second day of the chase, Ahab leaves Starbuck in charge of the Pequod . Moby Dick smashes the three boats that seek him into splinters and tangles their lines . Ahab is rescued, but his ivory leg and Fedallah are lost . Starbuck begs Ahab to desist, but Ahab vows to slay the white whale, even if he would have to dive through the globe itself to get his revenge . </P> <P> On the third day of the chase, Ahab sights Moby Dick at noon, and sharks appear, as well . Ahab lowers his boat for a final time, leaving Starbuck again on board . Moby Dick breaches and destroys two boats . Fedallah's corpse, still entangled in the fouled lines, is lashed to the whale's back, so Moby Dick turns out to be the hearse Fedallah prophesied . "Possessed by all the fallen angels", Ahab plants his harpoon in the whale's flank . Moby Dick smites the whaleboat, tossing its men into the sea . Only Ishmael is unable to return to the boat . He is left behind in the sea, and so is the only crewman of the Pequod to survive the final encounter . The whale now fatally attacks the Pequod . Ahab then realizes that the destroyed ship is the hearse made of American wood in Fedallah's prophesy . The whale returns to Ahab, who stabs at him again . The line loops around Ahab's neck, and as the stricken whale swims away, the captain is drawn with him out of sight . Queequeg's coffin comes to the surface, the only thing to escape the vortex when Pequod sank . For an entire day, Ishmael floats on it, and then the Rachel, still looking for its lost seamen, rescues him . </P>

Who did captain ahab know opposed his pursuit of the great white whale