Upon entering the inn, Ishmael is fascinated by a large, obscure oil painting. Eventually he decides that the subject is a ship foundering in a hurricane as a leaping whale is about to impale itself on the craft’s three mastheads. After supper, finding no private beds available, Ishmael chooses to sleep on a bench, but that proves to be much too uncomfortable. Upon the urging of Mr. Coffin, the proprietor, Ishmael agrees to share a bed with a harpooner who is out attempting to sell an embalmed human head that the man obtained in the South Seas. Concerned but very weary, Ishmael retires. As he is nodding off, he is startled by the return of Queequeg, the harpooner who seems to Ishmael to be a monstrous cannibal. Queequeg is also surprised to find someone in his bed. Fearing for his life, Ishmael desperately hollers for the landlord’s help.
