Not P but Moby-Dick (5)

[Mike Jing]

The following excerpt is from Chapter 22:

Ship and boat diverged; the cold, damp night breeze blew between; a
screaming gull flew overhead; the two hulls wildly rolled; we gave three
heavy-hearted cheers, and blindly plunged like fate into the lone Atlantic.

Does the last sentence mean that we blindly plunged like fate does?

Some of the previous translations interpreted "like fate" as "as if
determined by fate" or "as if resigned to fate", but neither seems right to
me. The former may be implied, but probably shouldn't be made explicit,
while the latter just seems wrong.