Meaning: Destruction and enlightenment.
Depiction: Anonymous sailor falling off the mast-head of the Pequod into the sea, in the early hours of the morning.
Text: Chapter 126 - The Life-Buoy
But the bodings of the crew were destined to receive a most plausible confirmation in the fate of one of their number that morning. At sun-rise this man went from his hammock to his mast-head at the fore; and whether it was that he was not yet half waked from his sleep (for sailors sometimes go aloft in a transition state), whether it was thus with the man, there is now no telling; but, be that as it may, he had not been long at his perch, when a cry was heard—a cry and a rushing—and looking up, they saw a falling phantom in the air; and looking down, a little tossed heap of white bubbles in the blue of the sea.
Comments: This was another very easy card to think of, since it almost matches a scene in the book (minus the lightning). The meaning of destruction is (naturally) the sailor's fall and disappearance in the waves; enlightenment comes from the fact that the crew realizes a new lifebuoy must be created as the old one simply sunk.
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