As the Pequod's crew works on the whale, another Nantucket whaling ship, named the Jeroboam, approaches. Its captain and some of the crew come nearby in an open boat. There is a "malignant epidemic" aboard the Jeroboam so the captain refuses to board Ahab's vessel. In addition, the stranger ship seems almost under the control of a raving Shaker prophet who thinks he is the archangel Gabriel. Gabriel believes that Moby Dick is the incarnation of the Shaker God and warns against confronting the White Whale.
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