The White Whale and the Whale's Jaws

Ahab, furious with this tantalizing vicinity of his foe, placed him all live and helpless in the very jaws he hated. Frenzied with all this, he seized the long bone with his naked hands and wildly strove to wrench it from its grip. The frail gunwalls bent in, collapsed and snapped as both jaws, like an enormous shears, sliding further aft,. bit th craft completely in twain and lock themselves fast again in the sea midway between the two floating wrecks.