Moby Dick

why are some whales called "schoolmasters"

chapter 88 and 89

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They are the male whales who lead the pod of which they are a part, although these whalers use the word school to describe the whale group consisting of one male and a number of females, the haren. The schoolmaster is the lone male who eventually, as he ages, will go ahead and leave the school and go off to be a hermit, ill tempered and hard to find.