As Ishmael takes to the sea, the style of narrative changes. On land a somewhat ecstatic, idiosyncratic narrator, at sea a man of ceremony, classification, strategy, ologies. He takes to the sea to escape a kind of death. On the Pequod he is outside of himself, even omniscient. Here too he brings us his text-within-text, his cetology (whose own form ‘quarto’ and ‘folio’ are noted just as the whales inside).

Ishmael notes the order of the Pequod, describes its society and stratifications at length. Just as the ship has unspoken orders, the ship brings order to our Ishmael.