[The Scene] Following Starbuck’s final unanswered appeal, the third day of the pursuit brings Ahab and the Pequod into their last confrontation with Moby Dick. As the whaleboats close upon their quarry, the enormous white whale turns against the Pequod, striking her hull and inflicting mortal damage upon the ship. Ahab witnesses the destruction unfolding around him, yet even the impending loss of his vessel and crew cannot turn him from his purpose. Raising the specially forged harpoon, he makes one final attack, driving the iron into the whale. As the line races out, it catches around his throat and drags him violently from the boat into the sea. Ahab’s obsessive pursuit ends in his own death, while the mortally wounded Pequod and her surviving crew face the catastrophe he has brought upon them. [Verse 1] The third dawn lifts above a broken sea, And brings the white shape back in sight of me. Starbuck's last plea still echoes from the rail, Yet every thought returns to that one whale. [Verse 2] The whaleboat leaps; I grip the timbered side, The oars bite deep against the rising tide. I raise the iron fashioned for this day, And watch that whiteness gather through the spray. [Chorus] My last iron, tempered for this hour, I lift it with the remnant of my power. The wound is mine, the choice remains with me, One strike shall write my answer on the sea. [Verse 3] He turns away and cleaves the foaming deep, Then strikes the ship I swore that I would keep. His bulk drives hard against her wooden side, I see her wounded hull yield to the tide. [Verse 4] I hear my sailors calling through the foam, And see the ship that should have brought them home. One look tells me the cost of all I've done, Yet still I seek the whale beneath the sun. [Chorus] My last iron, tempered for this hour, I lift it with the remnant of my power. The wound is mine, the choice remains with me, One strike shall write my answer on the sea. [Verse 5] He turns once more, his whiteness fills my sight, I feel the buried wound in me ignite. The hammer of the forge rings in my ear, I grip the iron; all I sought is here. [Chorus] My last iron, tempered for this hour, I lift it with the remnant of my power. The wound is mine, the choice remains with me, One strike shall write my answer on the sea. [Verse 6] The Pequod reels, her broken timbers bend, I see the ship I captained near its end. I cast my last iron from the boat, The line whips round and closes on my throat!
