"pequod" is not unlike ahab in this respect, since many of the rest of these missing elements have been replaced by the bones of the whales she hunts. she is not a new vessel, and with age would usually come some veneration and respect, which ishmael tries to convey by using several historical references in his description of her. but in "pequod"s case this has been negated by the thick veneer of barbarity that has been overlaid onto the ship in the form of fantastic scrimshaw embellishment. far from enjoying mere utilitarian replacements out of available whalebone, she has been ornately decorated, even to the whale teeth set into the railing that now resemble an open jaw. like a fingerbone necklace on a cannibal, these adornments are clear evidence of "pequod"s success as a hunter and killer of whales.