Chapter 88 — Schools and Schoolmasters

Not all sperm whales travel in great armadas like the one the Pequod has just passed through. More commonly they travel in smaller groups of two kinds: schools of females under a dominant male, and bachelor schools of young males traveling together. Ishmael describes the schoolmaster — the dominant bull attending his harem — as a figure of considerable vanity and nervousness, never entirely at ease, always the last to flee in the event of danger (his evolutionary function being to cover the retreat of his females), yet surrounded by such a surplus of the good things of life that his nervousness seems almost comic.

The bachelor schools of young males, by contrast, are energetic, aggressive, and in whalemen's experience far more likely to smash a boat. They lack the composure of the schoolmaster and the maturity of the solitary old bulls. They are, Ishmael observes, at the stage of life where there is everything to prove and nothing yet lost.

The most interesting figure in sperm whale society, from the whaler's perspective, is the solitary old bull — the animal expelled from his harem when younger and stronger males finally displace him. These animals travel alone, in deep water, far from the main whaling grounds. They are the most dangerous whales in the ocean: old, strong enough from years of survival, and entirely unburdened by the need to protect females. Ishmael notes that these are the animals most likely to turn and fight rather than flee. Moby Dick, it goes without saying, fits this description precisely.