One quiet night while working near the rear of the ship, one of the seamen hears a mysterious sound, perhaps a human cough, beneath the hatches of a part of the ship where the crew never is allowed. The source of the sound remains unidentified. Meanwhile, Ahab spends his evenings poring over charts of the world's oceans, searching for patterns in the movement of whales. Ishmael feels it is time to swear certain facts to the reader so that we might believe the story that he is telling us.
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