SparkNotes: Moby-Dick: Plot Overview Plot Overview Context Character List Ishmael, the narrator, announces his intent to ship aboard a whaling vessel. He has made several voyages as a sailor but none as a whaler. He travels to New Bedford, Massachusetts, where he stays in a whalers’ inn. Since the inn is rather full, he has to share a bed with a harpooner from the South Pacific named Queequeg. At first repulsed by Queequeg’s strange habits and shocking appearance (Queequeg is covered with tattoos), Ishmael eventually comes to appreciate the man’s generosity and kind spirit, and the two decide to seek work on a whaling vessel together. They take a ferry to Nantucket, the traditional capital of the whaling industry. There they secure berths on the Pequod, a savage-looking ship adorned with the bones and teeth of sperm whales. Peleg and Bildad, the Pequod’s Quaker owners, drive a hard bargain in terms of salary. They also mention the ship’s mysterious captain, Ahab, who is still recovering from losing his leg in an encounter with a sperm whale on his last voyage.

The Pequod leaves Nantucket on a cold Christmas Day with a crew made up of men from many different countries and races. Soon the ship is in warmer waters, and Ahab makes his first appearance on deck, balancing gingerly on his false leg, which is made from a sperm whale’s jaw. He announces his desire to pursue and kill Moby Dick, the legendary great white whale who took his leg, because he sees this whale as the embodiment of evil. Ahab nails a gold doubloon to the mast and declares that it will be the prize for the first man to sight the whale. As the Pequod sails toward the southern tip of Africa, whales are sighted and unsuccessfully hunted. During the hunt, a group of men, none of whom anyone on the ship’s crew has seen before on the voyage, emerges from the hold. The men’s leader is an exotic-looking man named Fedallah. These men constitute Ahab’s private harpoon crew, smuggled aboard in defiance of Bildad and Peleg. Ahab hopes that their skills and Fedallah’s prophetic abilities will help him in his hunt for Moby Dick. The Pequod rounds Africa and enters the Indian Ocean.

A few whales are successfully caught and processed for their oil. From time to time, the ship encounters other whaling vessels. Ahab always demands information about Moby Dick from their captains. One of the ships, the Jeroboam, carries Gabriel, a crazed prophet who predicts doom for anyone who threatens Moby Dick. His predictions seem to carry some weight, as those aboard his ship who have hunted the whale have met disaster. While trying to drain the oil from the head of a captured sperm whale, Tashtego, one of the Pequod’s harpooners, falls into the whale’s voluminous head, which then rips free of the ship and begins to sink. Queequeg saves Tashtego by diving into the ocean and cutting into the slowly sinking head. During another whale hunt, Pip, the Pequod’s black cabin boy, jumps from a whaleboat and is left behind in the middle of the ocean. He goes insane as the result of the experience and becomes a crazy but prophetic jester for the ship. Soon after, the Pequod meets the Samuel Enderby, a whaling ship whose skipper, Captain Boomer, has lost an arm in an encounter with Moby Dick.

The two captains discuss the whale; Boomer, happy simply to have survived his encounter, cannot understand Ahab’s lust for vengeance. Not long after, Queequeg falls ill and has the ship’s carpenter make him a coffin in anticipation of his death. He recovers, however, and the coffin eventually becomes the Pequod’s replacement life buoy. Ahab orders a harpoon forged in the expectation that he will soon encounter Moby Dick. He baptizes the harpoon with the blood of the Pequod’s three harpooners. The Pequod kills several more whales. Issuing a prophecy about Ahab’s death, Fedallah declares that Ahab will first see two hearses, the second of which will be made only from American wood, and that he will be killed by hemp rope. Ahab interprets these words to mean that he will not die at sea, where there are no hearses and no hangings. A typhoon hits the Pequod, illuminating it with electrical fire. Ahab takes this occurrence as a sign of imminent confrontation and success, but Starbuck, the ship’s first mate, takes it as a bad omen and considers killing Ahab to end the mad quest.

After the storm ends, one of the sailors falls from the ship’s masthead and drowns—a grim foreshadowing of what lies ahead. Ahab’s fervent desire to find and destroy Moby Dick continues to intensify, and the mad Pip is now his constant companion. The Pequod approaches the equator, where Ahab expects to find the great whale. The ship encounters two more whaling ships, the Rachel and the Delight, both of which have recently had fatal encounters with the whale. Ahab finally sights Moby Dick. The harpoon boats are launched, and Moby Dick attacks Ahab’s harpoon boat, destroying it. The next day, Moby Dick is sighted again, and the boats are lowered once more. The whale is harpooned, but Moby Dick again attacks Ahab’s boat. Fedallah, trapped in the harpoon line, is dragged overboard to his death. Starbuck must maneuver the Pequod between Ahab and the angry whale. On the third day, the boats are once again sent after Moby Dick, who once again attacks them. The men can see Fedallah’s corpse lashed to the whale by the harpoon line.

Moby Dick rams the Pequod and sinks it. Ahab is then caught in a harpoon line and hurled out of his harpoon boat to his death. All of the remaining whaleboats and men are caught in the vortex created by the sinking Pequod and pulled under to their deaths. Ishmael, who was thrown from a boat at the beginning of the chase, was far enough away to escape the whirlpool, and he alone survives. He floats atop Queequeg’s coffin, which popped back up from the wreck, until he is picked up by the Rachel, which is still searching for the crewmen lost in her earlier encounter with Moby Dick. More Help Questions - SeaLordsAMJR Questions Critical Thinking Literary Analysis 1. Do you admire, despise or pity Captain Ahab? Explain. I pity Captain Ahab because he lost everything his legs, pride, crew, even his own mind and finally his life in the pursuit of a being that was called unstoppable to others. 2. (a) What does Ahab offer to the crew member who spots Moby-Dick? (b) Why does Ahab feel it necessary to offer this incentive to his crew?

(a) Ahab offer a large golden coin to any crew member that spots Moby Dick. (b) Ahab feels it's necessary to pay the ferryman for passage to the after life. 3. (a) What happened to Ahab in his previous encountered with Moby Dick? (b) What does Ahab's obsession with Moby Dick reveal about his character? (c) In what ways is Starbuck different from Ahab? (a) Ahab lost his leg and ship during the previous encounter with Moby Dick. (b) He is obsessed with the whale, obsessed to the point he willingly and knowingly leads his ship and entire ship to death. Showing his insanity and obsession to the point where only death will save him. (c) Starbuck cares for the crew, not insane and is the voice of reason. 4. (a) How does Starbuck interpret Ahab's obsession with Moby Dick? (b) Why does Starbuck obey Ahab even though he disagrees with him? (a) Starbuck believes that Ahab's obsession is emotionally impulsive and suicidal. (b) It's because he knows Moby Dick is worth a lot of money 5.

(a) What happens to Ahab, Moby Dick, and the Pequod at the end? (b) What does the final paragraph indicate about the relationship between humanity and nature? (a) Moby Dick kills Ahab and sinks the Pequod killing everyone other except Ishmael. (b) Nature doesn't care about lives of people or their deaths. Death's will not change and always stagnant for it can't be controlled 6.(a) What is Moby Dick's reaction when the Pequod first approaches his flank?(b) How does Moby Dick's reaction to the ship illuminate the differences between the whale in reality and in Ahab's imagination? (a) Moby Dick attacks the ship. (b) Ahab, Moby Dick becomes the cause and target of all he has ever went threw, even the humans throughout his time. 7.(a) What does Ahab mean when he says, " Ahab never thinks; he only feels, feels, feels; that's tingling enough for mortal man! to think's audacity." (b) Do you think Ahab's beliefs about human nature are true? Explain. (a) His quest was emotionally. He admits to irrationality.

(b) Yes, Ahab was a frustrated old man who blamed a force of Moby Dick for the loss of his leg. If somebody goes whale-hunting, they should be prepared to accept the what's going to happen when going against something more powerful than them. 8. This novel has been called a "voyage of the soul." Would you agree or disagree with that assessment? Explain. I would agree, this story has shown the true emotions of a human being, conflict with sanity and insanity, the immortal feeling of depression knowing that it is their fate to die by a beast. They would chase forever it showed past the rage and insanity of Ahab into the soul of trapped man in his own body by the obsession that will continue to control his body until death. 1. (a) What omens appear as Ahab's whaleboat pulls away from the Pequod? and (b) when Moby Dick surfaces? (c) What is Ahab's reaction to these omens? (a) White flames appear at the top of three masts and his harpoon is also on fire. (b) Sharks appear when Moby Dick surfaced.

(c) His reaction was that he prays that he can survive the storm and Moby Dick won't eat his crew. 2. The color white is often used as a symbol for innocence, as well as for absence and death. What contradictory symbolic meanings does the whale's whiteness convey? Moby Dick's whiteness symbolizes death or pacifically the white of a ghost. 3. If the crew of the Pequod symbolizes humanity and Moby Dick symbolize nature, what do you think the voyage symbolizes? The voyage symbolize deceptiveness of fate 4. (a) Use a chart like the one shown to compare and contrast the characters of Starbuck and Ahab. (b) What theme is Melville expressing through these contrasting characters? Starbuck is Ahab's right-hand man. Captain Ahab is pinned all his rage for Moby Dick, and he's going to destroy it. As Melville reminds us, Ahab's methods are sane, but his motive is crazy. Starbuck is the complete opposite. He cares for the crew and thinks before doing unlike Ahab. 5.Considering the journey's symbolic meaning and its terrible outcome, speculate about the novel's overall theme, or central idea.

Nature doesn't care, it cannot be moved or stop. It's uncontrollable. Moby Dick is the aspect of nature. Ahab is a foolish man who tries to control nature, but like many others, he fails. 6. Identify events, dialogue, or descriptions that lead you to recognize Moby Dick as a symbol of (a) nature's beauty, (b) nature's power, and (c) nature's immortality. Explain your reasoning. (a) Moby Dick symbol of nature beauty is "see nature's profound beauty; it's a sign of nature's goodness." (b) Moby Dick his power is his strength, he destroy many ship and injured many people. (c) Moby Dick can't be defeated; he can't die. 7. How does this statement by Ishmael suggest a way to look at the symbolic nature of the events he describes: "Ah, ye admonitions and warnings! why stay ye not when ye come? But rather are ye predictions than warnings, ye shadows! Yet not so much predictions from without, as verifications of the foregoing things within." Ishmael loves to look and watch nature. Doesn't matter what is happening or about to happen, he would watch. 8.

(a) With what goals are people obsessed with today? (b) In what cases, if any, are obsessions helpful? (a) People might have the goal to be happy, might even be obsessed with achieving it. (b) Obsessions maybe helpful in this case, being obsess with being happy, might make a person strive to get it and maybe achieve it. The Most Famous Ships That Never Were The Most Famous Ships That Never Were Recently I participated in a discussion on famous fictional ships. Given enough space, it is an easy task to list all of the noteworthy fictional ships in history. But what if you were space-limited, or could only pick a fixed number -- ten or twelve? What would you pick? I finally generated my list of the ten most famous fictional ships, after considerable thought. It is a task that is harder than one might think -- try it yourself. The list that follows considers only ships appearing in novels -- no ships appearing in ancient works, poetry, plays, or movies. This eliminates such worthy contenders as the Argo, Mary Gloster, or HMS Pinafore, but it served as a necessary boundary to keep the list down to a reasonable size.

Besides, how does one balance the merits of The Nancy Bell against the Pequod against the Pinafore? Also, real ships that were used in novels were not considered. HMS Centurion, USS Bon Homme Richard, and RMS Queen Mary appear in many outstanding novels, but they are not fictional ships. Given these guidelines my top ten list (with my justification) includes: Pequod: Captain Ahab's whaler in the Herman Melville novel Moby Dick. C'mon folks. Is there a more famous nautical novel than Moby Dick? Think of how many English students have suffered through it, and how many nautical enthusiasts have enjoyed it. Nautilus: Not the REAL submarine -- Jules Verne's vessel from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. A classic SF tale that is also a sea story. Hispaniola: The ship used to seek Captain Flint's treasure in Robert Louis Stevenson's novel Treasure Island. Set in the golden age of buccaneering, this novel is surprisingly young -- it was written in 1883. While written for children, it is a delightful tale for kids of all ages.

It is one of my favorites, and has spawned more movies, plays and second author sequels than any other nautical novel. Ghost: Wolf Larson's sealing schooner in Jack London's novel The Sea Wolf. Another classic tale of men against the sea, and perhaps London's finest nautical novel. USS Caine: The four-piper destroyer converted to a minelayer in Herman Wouk's The Caine Mutiny. Wouk's classic tale of the importance of duty produced one of the most memorable ships in history, to say nothing of a great Bogart movie and other theatrical reinterpretations. HMS Compass Rose: WWII "Flower"-class corvette in Nicholas Monsarrat's novel The Cruel Sea. Even people that have read the novel are surprised when you remind them that the Compass Rose disappeared in the middle of the novel. Do you remember the name of the second corvette? USS Walrus: The US Navy submarine that nails "Bungo Pete," in Ned Beach's classic submarine novel Run Silent, Run Deep. Other submarine tales have been written before and since, but none as memorable.

We're Here: The Gloucester schooner in Captains Courageous which recovers Harvey Cheyne from the ocean, and upon which he achieves manhood. Another "children's" novel that can be enjoyed by everyone. Also made into countless movies. My favorite is the one with Karl Mauldin as Disko Troop. HMS Lydia: Horatio Hornblower's command in the first Hornblower novel that C.S. Forester wrote -- The Happy Return (or Beat to Quarters). This was the frigate in which Hornblower beats the two-decker Natividad -- twice. HMS Surprise: Jack Aubrey's favorite frigate, and star of several of Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin series, both as a Royal Navy ship and a privateer. While there was a real HMS Surprise during the period, the real ship was a 36. Jack Aubrey's Surprise was a 28. What ships were culled from this list? Quite a few notable ships. The list below gives ships I considered for the Top Ten, but eventually rejected. Honorable Mentions: HMS Ulysses (HMS Ulysses), USS Reluctant (Mr.

Roberts), HMS Hyperion and HMS Phalarope (Bolitho series), HMS Calypso (Ramage series), HMS Indomitable and Rights of Man (Billy Budd), Dawn Treader (Voyage of the Dawn Treader), Arabella (Captain Blood stories), Polar Star (Arkady Renko novel), USS San Pablo (The Sand Pebbles). So what do you think? What would you include in a top ten list? What would you drop? Of course, if you want to do this task justice, you really need to do some research -- like reading all of the books just one more time . . . to make sure you have things right. Ah well, any sacrifice in the name of nautical books. Mark Lardas Captain Ahab in Moby-Dick (Click the character infographic to download.) Meet The Dude Whose Name Is Synonymous With Revenge Captain Ahab: one of the best whaling captains in Nantucket, the commander of the Pequod, and definitely a bit odd. He's got an Oldboy -style vendetta against a dang whale, after all.

Late in the novel, Ahab begins to reminisce about how stark and lonely his life has been: he’s spent forty years working his way up on whaling ships, and only after he’s reached the far side of fifty does he marry. When he does get married (to a lady much younger than he is) he only gets to sleep with her once before he has to get right back out there into the ocean, leaving her a "whaling widow" with a child he’s never seen. As if this weren’t sad enough, on his previous voyage the infamous Moby Dick managed to chomp Ahab’s leg off... leaving him with a peg leg made of whalebone ivory and an overwhelming desire for revenge. Obsession: It’s Not Just A Calvin Klein Fragrance Anymore Recuperating on board his previous ship and sick with fever after he’s lost his leg, Ahab gradually goes crazier and crazier, eventually blaming Moby Dick for everything bad that has ever happened to any human being ever since the beginning of time. (Really—we’re not making that up.

That’s just how Melville describes him.) After several months, he’s able to get most of his insanity under some kind of control, but it’s still festering right under the surface. Ahab behaves (sort of) like a sane man, but his motives are entirely insane. He resolves to use everything in his power to revenge himself on the White Whale, and agrees to be the captain of the Pequod in order to get an opportunity to pursue his vendetta. Once the Pequod is too far away from Nantucket’s harbor to turn back easily, Ahab reveals his diabolical purpose to the crew, forcing them to swear that they’ll aid him in his ungodly revenge quest. And he’s got another surprise up his sleeve: before departing, Ahab smuggles his own harpooneer, Fedallah, and his own boat crew on board the Pequod... just in case the regular crew don’t want to risk their lives by being in a whaling boat captained by a lunatic.

Melville likes to describe Ahab as a "monomaniac," an interesting word because it suggests two things: first, that Ahab’s insanity focuses itself obsessively on a single thing (Moby Dick), and second, that he’s only insane when it comes to that one —he can be rational about just about everyone else. Oh, The Tragedy! In the democratic framework of a novel that likes to remind us just how egalitarian it is, Ahab, this rough, old Nantucket seaman, can be just as much of a tragic hero as Oedipus or King Lear. Like King Lear, Ahab’s madness drives him out into the storm (at least, metaphorically), where he is aided only by his "fool," his jester, who is both crazier and saner than he is. These "fools" manage to give their respective tragic heroes excellent advice embroidered with snatches of songs and strange puns. Ahab’s "fool" is Pip, the young African-American man who goes mad when he leaps out of Stubb’s whaling ship in fear and is left to float alone in the open sea for half an hour.

Pip and Ahab become a strangely appropriate pairing: the monomaniac who’s losing his soul to his vengeance and the crazy boy who’s lost his sense of self because of his cowardice. But it's not just ol' Lear that Ahab is emulating. He can be read as a mash-up of about a zillion different tragic heroes. He's part Oedipus (Ahab has a peg leg and Oedipus had a cane; both Ahab and Oedipus are worried about the amount of control they have over their own fate), part Narcissus and even part (gulp) Satan. Hey, There’s A Man In The Bible Named Ahab Like Ishmael, Ahab’s name has Biblical echoes that Melville exploits to add depth to his character. Ahab’s story is in 1 Kings 21 ; he’s the king who covets Naboth’s vineyard, which Naboth won’t give to him. In the end, Queen Jezebel sets Naboth up by falsely accusing him of a crime. Naboth ends up getting stoned to death unjustly, as a result of which Ahab gets that vineyard he’s been wanting.

But after all of this nefariousness, Elijah (check out Moby-Dick Chapter 19) prophesies that King Ahab’s blood will wind up in the same place as Naboth’s blood. Freaky, eh? So what’s all this supposed to mean for our analysis of Ahab’s character in Moby-Dick? Well, like the Biblical Ahab, we expect him to desire something that he isn’t entitled to and that isn’t good for him to have, to end up getting it by foul means, and then to get his comeuppance in the form of an ironic reversal of his own evil deed. Considering the way Ahab dies (Moby Dick drags him to his death) we think the name fits pretty nicely—talk about building your own gallows! Wait A Minute, You’re Telling Me The Awesome Yet Obsessive Captain Doesn’t Win? Yes, that's what we're telling you.

Moby Dick Summary | GradeSaver Moby Dick Summary Buy Study Guide The novel Moby Dick by Herman Melville is an epic tale of the voyage of the whaling ship the Pequod and its captain, Ahab, who relentlessly pursues the great Sperm Whale (the title character) during a journey around the world. The narrator of the novel is Ishmael , a sailor on the Pequod who undertakes the journey out of his affection for the sea. Moby Dick begins with Ishmael's arrival in New Bedford as he travels toward Nantucket. He rests at the Spouter Inn in New Bedford, where he meets Queequeg , a harpooner from New Zealand who will also sail on the Pequod. Although Queequeg appears dangerous, he and Ishmael must share a bed together and the narrator quickly grows fond of the somewhat uncivilized harpooner. Queequeg is actually the son of a High Chief who left New Zealand because of his desire to learn among Christians.

The next day, Ishmael attends a church service and listens to a sermon by Father Mapple , a renowned preacher who delivers a sermon considering Jonah and the whale that concludes that the tale is a lesson to preacher Truth in the face of Falsehood. On a schooner to Nantucket, Ishmael and Queequeg come across a local bumpkin who mocks Queequeg. However, when this bumpkin is swept overboard, Queequeg saves him. In Nantucket, Queequeg and Ishmael choose between three ships for a year journey, and decide upon the Pequod. The Captain of the Pequod, Peleg , is now retired, and merely owns the boat with another Quaker, Bildad . Peleg tells them of the new captain, Ahab, and immediately describes him as a grand and ungodly man. Before leaving for their voyage, Ishmael and Queequeg come across a stranger named Elijah who predicts disaster on their journey. Before leaving on the Pequod, Elijah again predicts disaster. Ishmael and Queequeg board the Pequod, where Captain Ahab is still unseen, secluded in his own cabin.

Peleg and Bildad consult with Starbuck , the first mate. He is a Quaker and a Nantucket native who is quite practical. The second mate is Stubb , a Cape Cod native with a more jovial and carefree attitude. The third is Flask , a Martha's Vineyard native with a pugnacious attitude. Melville introduces the rest of the crew, including the Indian harpooner Tashtego , the African harpooner Daggoo . Several days into the voyage, Ahab finally appears as a man seemingly made of bronze who stands on an ivory leg fashioned from whalebone. He eventually gets into a violent argument with Stubb when the second mate makes a joke at Ahab's expense, and kicks him. This leads Stubb to dream of kicking Ahab's ivory leg off, but Flask claims that the kick from Ahab is a sign of honor. At last, Ahab tells the crew of the Pequod to look for a white-headed whale with a wrinkled brow: Moby Dick, the legendary whale that took Ahab's leg.

Starbuck tells Ahab that his obsession with Moby Dick is madness, but Ahab claims that all things are masks and there is some unknown reasoning behind that mask that man must strike through. For Ahab, Moby Dick is that mask. Ahab himself seems to recognize his own madness. Starbuck begins to worry that the ship is overmatched by the mad captain and knows that he will see an impious end to Ahab. While Queequeg and Ishmael weave a sword-mat for lashing to their boat, the Pequod soon comes upon a whale and Ahab orders his crew to their boats. Ahab orders his special crew, which Ishmael compares to "phantoms," to their boats. The crew attacks a whale and Queequeg does strike it, but this is insufficient to kill it. Among the "phantoms" in the boat is Fedallah , a sinister Parsee. After passing the Cape of Good Hope, the Pequod comes across the Goney (Albatross), another ship on its voyage. Ahab asks whether they have seen Moby Dick as the ships pass one another, but Ahab cannot hear his answer.

The mere passing of the ships is unorthodox behavior, for ships will generally have a 'gam,' a meeting between two ships. The Pequod does have a gam with the next ship it encounters, the Town-Ho. Ishmael interrupts his narration to tell a story that was told to him by the crew of the Town-Ho, just as he would tell it to a circle of Spanish friends after his journey on the Pequod. The story concerns the near mutiny on the Town-Ho and its eventual conflict with Moby Dick. The Pequod does vanquish the next whale that it comes across, as Stubb strikes a whale with his harpoon. However, as the crew of the Pequod attempts to bring the whale into the ship, sharks attack the carcass and Queequeg nearly loses his hand while fending them off. The Pequod next comes upon the Jeroboam, a Nantucket ship afflicted with an epidemic. Stubb later tells a story about the Jeroboam and a mutiny that occurred on this ship because of a Shaker prophet, Gabriel , on board. The captain of the Jeroboam, Mayhew, warns Ahab about Moby Dick.

After vanquishing a Sperm Whale, Stubb next also kills a Right Whale. Although this is not on the ship's agenda, the Pequod pursues a Right Whale because of the good omens associated with having the head of a Sperm Whale and a head of a Right Whale on a ship. Stubb and Flask discuss rumors that Ahab has sold his soul to Fedallah. The next ship that the Pequod meets is the Jungfrau (Virgin), a German ship in desperate need of oil. The Pequod competes with the Virgin for a large whale, and the Pequod is successful in defeating it. However, the whale carcass begins to sink as the Pequod attempts to secure it and thus the Pequod must abandon it. The Pequod next finds a large group of Sperm Whales and injures several of them, but only captures a single one. Stubb concocts a plan to swindle the next ship that the Pequod meets, the French ship Bouton-de-Rose (Rosebud), of ambergris.

Stubb tells them that the whales that they have vanquished are useless and could damage their ship, and when the Rosebud leaves these behind the Pequod takes them in order to gain the ambergris in one of them. Several days after encountering the Rosebud, a young black man on the boat, Pippin , becomes frightened while lowering after a whale and jumps from the boat, becoming entangled in the whale line. Stubb chastises him for his cowardice and tells him that he will be left at sea if he jumps again. When Pippin (Pip) does the same thing again, Stubb remains true to his word and Pip only survives because a nearby boat saves him. Nevertheless, Pip loses his sanity from the event. The next ship that the Pequod encounters, a British ship called the Samuel Enderby, bears news of Moby Dick but its crewman Dr. Bunger warns Ahab to leave the whale alone. Later, Ahab's leg breaks and the carpenter must fix it. Ahab behaves scornfully toward the carpenter. When Starbuck learns that the casks have sprung a leak, he goes to Ahab's cabin to report the news.

Ahab disagrees with Starbuck's advice on the matter, and becomes so enraged that he pulls a musket on Starbuck. Although Ahab warns Starbuck that there is but one God on Earth and one Captain on the Pequod, Starbuck tells him that he will be no danger to Ahab, for Ahab is sufficient danger to himself. Ahab does relent to Starbuck's advice. Queequeg becomes ill from fever and seems to approach death, so he asks for a canoe to serve as a coffin. The carpenter measures Queequeg for his coffin and builds it, but Queequeg returns to health, claiming that he willed his own recovery. Queequeg keeps the coffin and uses it as a sea chest. Upon reaching the Pacific Ocean, Ahab asks Perth the blacksmith to forge a harpoon to use against Moby Dick. Perth fashions a harpoon that Ahab demands be tempered with the blood of his pagan harpooners, and he howls out that he baptizes the harpoon in the name of the devil.

The next ship that the Pequod meets is the Bachelor, a Nantucket ship whose captain denies the existence of Moby Dick. The next day, the Pequod slays four whales, and that night Ahab dreams of hearses. He and Fedallah pledge to slay Moby Dick and survive the conflict, and Ahab boasts of his own immortality. Ahab must soon decide between an easy route past the Cape of Good Hope back to Nantucket and a difficult route in pursuit of Moby Dick. Ahab easily chooses to continue his quest. The Pequod soon comes upon a typhoon on its journey in the Pacific, and while battling this storm the Pequod's compass moves out of alignment. When Starbuck learns this and goes to Ahab's cabin to tell him, he finds the old man asleep. Starbuck considers shooting Ahab with his musket, but he cannot move himself to shoot his captain after he hears Ahab cry in his sleep "Moby Dick, I clutch thy heart at last." The next morning after the typhoon, Ahab corrects the problem with the compass despite the skepticism of his crew and the ship continues on its journey.

Ahab learns that Pip has gone insane and offers his cabin to the poor boy. The Pequod comes upon yet another ship, the Rachel, whose captain, Gardiner, knows Ahab. He requests the Pequod's help in searching for Gardiner's son, who may be lost at sea, but Ahab flatly refuses when he learns that Moby Dick is nearby. The final ship that the Pequod meets is the Delight, a ship that has recently come upon Moby Dick and has nearly been destroyed by its encounter with the whale. Before finally finding Moby Dick, Ahab reminisces about the day nearly forty years before in which he struck his first whale, and laments the solitude of his years out on the sea. He admits that he has chased his prey as more of a demon than a man. The struggle against Moby Dick lasts three days. On the first day, Ahab spies the whale himself, and the whaling boats row after it. Moby Dick attacks Ahab's boat, causing it to sink, but Ahab survives the ordeal when he reaches Stubb's boat. Despite this first failed attempt at defeating the whale, Ahab pursues him for a second day.

On the second day of the chase, roughly the same defeat occurs. This time Moby Dick breaks Ahab's ivory leg, while Fedallah dies when he becomes entangled in the harpoon line and is drowned. After this second attack, Starbuck chastises Ahab, telling him that his pursuit is impious and blasphemous. Ahab declares that the chase against Moby Dick is immutably decreed, and pursues it for a third day. On the third day of the attack against Moby Dick, Starbuck panics for ceding to Ahab's demands, while Ahab tells Starbuck that "some ships sail from their ports and ever afterwards are missing," seemingly admitting the futility of his mission. When Ahab and his crew reach Moby Dick, Ahab finally stabs the whale with his harpoon but the whale again tips Ahab's boat. However, the whale rams the Pequod and causes it to begin sinking. In a seemingly suicidal act, Ahab throws his harpoon at Moby Dick but becomes entangled in the line and goes down with it.

Only Ishmael survives this attack, for he was fortunate to be on a whaling boat instead of on the Pequod. Eventually he is rescued by the Rachel as its captain continues his search for his missing son, only to find a different orphan. Moby Dick Summary - eNotes.com Moby Dick Summary Trivia Moby Dick Summary In Moby Dick, Ishmael tells the story of Captain Ahab and the white whale. Ahab, the grizzled captain of the whaling boat the Pequod, has become obsessed with the white whale that eludes him. Ahab's relentless pursuit of the whale results in tragedy. Ishmael joins the crew of the Pequod, a whaling ship helmed by Captain Ahab. There, he befriends a fellow shipmate, Queequeg. Captain Ahab reveals that the white whale, Moby Dick, bit off his leg and that this is why he has a peg leg. Ahab continuously seeks information from other boats as to the white whale's location. In a deadly confrontation, the entire crew of the Pequod is killed except for Ishmael, who lives to tell this story.

link Link Summary of the Novel Ishmael, the narrator of the story, explains that he goes to sea whenever he is depressed. In the port of New Bedford, he stays at the Spouter Inn. He is at first frightened by Queequeg, his tattooed, tomahawk-toting bedmate, who has been out selling shrunken heads. Queequeg soon becomes Ishmael’s bosom friend. Ishmael attends a service at the Whaleman’s Chapel where Father Mapple gives a sermon about Jonah and the whale. The next day, Queequeg and Ishmael set out for Nantucket where they sign onto a whaler. On the ferry ride to the island, a young man mocks Queequeg. Later, this same young man falls overboard and is saved by Queequeg. While Queequeg performs his rites of Ramadan in the room at the Try Pots, Ishmael signs onto the whaler Pequod owned by the Quaker captains, Bildad and Peleg. The heathen Queequeg must prove his skill as a harpooner before he is accepted.

As the two friends are about to board the Pequod, they are accosted by the crazed Elijah, who utters vague warnings about Ahab and the voyage. In the mist, they see four or five shadowy figures go aboard. The ship sets sail on Christmas day. The chief mate, Starbuck, chooses Queequeg for his harpooneer; the second mate, Stubb, chooses the Indian, Tashtego; and the third mate, Flask, chooses the African, Daggoo. Several days after the ship sets sail, Ahab finally appears on deck. His appearance sends shivers through Ishmael. A white scar runs from his hairline, over his face, and down his neck beneath his clothing. He stands upon an artificial leg made of whale bone. Ahab calls all men on deck. He hammers a gold doubloon to the mast and tells the men that the first to spot Moby Dick, the white whale, will win the coin. Ahab admits that it was Moby Dick that took off his leg.

When the first whale is sighted and the boats are lowered, the sailors are surprised to see Ahab in his own boat with a mysterious crew who had been hidden below deck. The exotic Fedallah is his harpooner. A squall comes up during the chase. Ishmael's boat capsizes and is later nearly rammed by the Pequod. After rounding the Cape of Good Hope, the ship has its first of many gams, or meetings with other ships. Ahab’s sole purpose in communicating with these ships is to get news of Moby Dick. Several of the ships have lost men to the whale. The Rachel has recently chased Moby Dick and is now searching for a lost boat. The young son of the captain is in that boat, but Ahab refuses to join the search. Starbuck confronts Ahab and tries to convince him to abandon his mission to get his revenge on Moby Dick. Stubb’s boat is the first to kill a whale. While Stubb eats his whale steak, Fleece, the cook, delivers a sermon to the sharks. During the cleaning of another whale, Tashtego falls into the tun, the forehead of the whale containing the spermaceti.

When the head breaks loose from the ship and falls into the water, Tashtego is rescued by Queegueg. Pip, the timid black boy, is temporarily abandoned in the sea during another whale chase which drives him to madness. Queequeg, stricken with fever and believing death is near, has the ship’s carpenter build him a coffin. Ahab has the blacksmith fashion a special harpoon, tempered in the blood of the heathen harpooners. During a storm, Ahab holds the harpoon above his head and it is struck by lightning. Later, Ahab has a dream, which is interpreted by Fedallah. The Parsee predicts that he will die before Ahab, that only hemp can kill Ahab, and that before he dies, Ahab will see two hearses upon the sea. At last, Moby Dick is sighted by Ahab. The chase lasts three days. Fedallah dies, lashed by tangled lines to the body of the great beast. Ahab thrusts his harpoon into Moby Dick, but his line runs afoul and catches him around the neck; he is pulled down to the depths.

Moby Dick smashes into the bow of the Pequod, and Queequeg’s coffin shoots out of the whirlpool created by the sinking ship. The only survivor, Ishmael, clings to this strange life buoy and is later rescued. Estimated Reading Time Reading time will improve as the reader becomes accustomed to Melville’s style. In an hour’s sitting, 30 to 35 pages could be covered. The book could be completed in 20 to 25 hours. More Content: Summary (hide) link Link Ishmael is a schoolmaster who often feels that he must leave his quiet existence and go to sea. Much of his life has been spent as a sailor, and his voyages are a means of ridding himself of the restlessness that frequently seizes him. One day, he decides that he will sign on a whaling ship, and packing his carpetbag, he leaves Manhattan and sets out, bound for Cape Horn and the Pacific. On his arrival in New Bedford, Ishmael goes to the Spouter Inn near the waterfront to spend the night. There he finds he can have a bed only if he consents to share it with a harpooner.

His strange bedfellow frightens him when he enters the room, for Ishmael is certain that he is a savage cannibal. After a few moments, however, it becomes evident that the native, whose name is Queequeg, is a friendly person, for he presents Ishmael with an embalmed head and offers to share his fortune of thirty dollars. The two men quickly become friends and decide to sign on the same ship. Eventually they sign on the Pequod, a whaler out of Nantucket, Ishmael as a seaman, Queequeg as a harpooner. Although several people seem dubious about the success of a voyage on a vessel such as the Pequod, which is reported to be under a strange man, Captain Ahab, neither Ishmael nor Queequeg has any intention of giving up their plans. They are, however, curious to see Captain Ahab. For several days after the vessel has sailed, there is no sign of the Captain, as he remains hidden in his cabin.

The running of the ship is left to Starbuck and Stubb, two of the mates, and though Ishmael becomes friendly with them, he learns very little more about Ahab. One day, as the ship is sailing southward, the Captain strides out on deck. Ishmael is struck by his stern, relentless expression. In particular, he notices that the Captain has lost a leg and that instead of a wooden leg, he now wears one cut from the bone of the jaw of a whale. A livid white scar runs down one side of his face and is lost beneath his collar, so that it seems as though he were scarred from head to foot. For several days, the ship continues south looking for whale schools. The sailors take turns on masthead watches to give the sign when a whale is sighted. Ahab appears on deck and summons all his men around him. He pulls out a one ounce gold piece, nails it to the mast, and declares that the first man to sight the great white whale, known to the sailors as Moby Dick, would get the gold.

Everyone expresses enthusiasm for the quest except Starbuck and Stubb, Starbuck especially deploring the madness with which Ahab has directed all his energies to this one end. He tells the Captain that he is like a man possessed, for the white whale is a menace to those who would attempt to kill him. Ahab lost his leg in his last encounter with Moby Dick; he might lose his life in the next meeting, but the Captain does not listen to the mate’s warning. Liquor is brought out and, at the Captain’s orders, the crew drinks to the destruction of Moby Dick. Ahab, from what he knows of the last reported whereabouts of the whale, plots a course for the ship that will bring it into the area where Moby Dick is most likely to be. Near the Cape of Good Hope, the ship comes across a school of sperm whales, and the men busy themselves harpooning, stripping, melting, and storing as many as they are able to catch. When the ship encounters another whaling vessel at sea, Captain Ahab asks for news about the white whale.

The captain of the ship warns him not to attempt to chase Moby Dick, but it is clear by now that nothing can deflect Ahab from the course he has chosen. Another vessel stops them, and the captain of the ship boards the Pequod to buy some oil for his vessel. Captain Ahab again demands news of the whale, but the captain knows nothing of the monster. As the captain is returning to his ship, he and his men spot a school of six whales and start after them in their rowboats. While Starbuck and Stubb rally their men into the Pequod’s boats, their rivals are already far ahead of them. The two mates, however, urge their crew until they outstrip their rivals in the race, and Queequeg harpoons the largest whale. Killing the whale is only the beginning of a long and arduous job. After the carcass is dragged to the side of the boat and lashed to it by ropes, the men descend the side and slash off the blubber. Much of the body is usually demolished by sharks, who stream around, snapping at the flesh of the whale and at each other.

The head of the whale is removed and suspended several feet in the air, above the deck of the ship. After the blubber is cleaned, it is melted in tremendous try-pots and then stored in vats below deck. The men are kept busy, but their excitement increases as their ship nears the Indian Ocean and the probable sporting grounds of the white whale. Before long, they cross the path of an English whaling vessel, and Captain Ahab again demands news of Moby Dick. In answer, the captain of the English ship holds out his arm, which from the elbow down consists of sperm whalebone. Ahab demands that his boat be lowered at once, and he quickly boards the deck of the other ship. The captain tells him of his encounter and warns Captain Ahab that it is foolhardy to try to pursue Moby Dick. When he tells Ahab where he had seen the white whale last, the captain of the Pequod waits for no civilities but returns to his own ship to order the course changed to carry him to Moby Dick’s new feeding ground.

Starbuck tries to reason with the mad Captain, to persuade him to give up this insane pursuit, but Ahab seizes a rifle and in his fury orders the mate out of his cabin. Meanwhile, Queequeg has fallen ill with a fever. When it seemed almost certain he would die, he requests that the carpenter make him a coffin in the shape of a canoe, according to the custom of his tribe. The coffin is then placed in the cabin with the sick man, but as yet there is no real need for it. Queequeg recovers from his illness and rejoins his shipmates. He uses his coffin as a sea chest and carves many strange designs upon it. The sailors had been puzzled by the appearance early in the voyage of the Parsee servant, Fedallah. His relationship to the Captain cannot be determined, but that he is highly regarded is evident. Fedallah prophesies that the Captain will die only after he has seen two strange hearses for carrying the dead upon the sea, one not constructed by mortal hands and the other made of wood grown in America. He also says that the Captain himself will have neither hearse nor coffin for his burial. A terrible storm arises one night.

Lightning strikes the masts so that all three flame against the blackness of the night, and the men are frightened by this omen. It seems to them that the hand of God is motioning them to turn from the course to which they had set themselves and return to their homes. Only Captain Ahab is undaunted by the sight. He plants himself at the foot of the mast and challenges the god of evil, which the fire symbolizes for him. He vows once again his determination to find and kill the white whale. A few days later, a cry rings through the ship. Moby Dick has been spotted. The voice is that of Captain Ahab. None of the sailors, alert as they had been, had been able to sight the whale before their captain. Boats are lowered and the chase begins, with Captain Ahab’s boat in the lead. As he is about to dash his harpoon into the side of the mountain of white, the whale suddenly turns on the boat, dives under it, and splits it into pieces. The men are thrown into the sea, and for some time the churning of the whale prevents rescue.

At length, Ahab orders the rescuers to ride into the whale and frighten him away, so he and his men could be rescued. The rest of that day is spent chasing the whale, but to no avail. The second day, the men start out again. They catch up with the whale and bury three harpoons into his white flanks, but he so turns and churns that the lines become twisted, and the boats are pulled every way, with no control over their direction. Two of them are splintered, and the men hauled out of the sea, but Ahab’s boat has not as yet been touched. Suddenly, it is lifted from the water and thrown high into the air. The Captain and the men are quickly rescued, but Fedallah is nowhere to be found. When the third day of the chase begins, Moby Dick seems tired, and the Pequod’s boats soon overtake him. Bound to the whale’s back by the coils of rope from the harpoon poles, they see the body of Fedallah. The first part of his prophecy had been fulfilled. Moby Dick, enraged by his pain, turns on the boats and splinters them.

On the Pequod, Starbuck watches and turns the ship toward the whale in the hope of saving the Captain and some of the crew. The infuriated monster swims directly into the Pequod, shattering the ship’s timbers. Ahab, seeing the ship founder, cries out that the Pequod—made of wood grown in America—is the second hearse of Fedallah’s prophecy. The third prophecy, Ahab’s death by hemp, is fulfilled when rope from Ahab’s harpoon coils around his neck and snatches him from his boat. All except Ishmael perish. He is rescued by a passing ship after clinging for hours to Queequeg’s canoe coffin, which had bobbed to the surface as the Pequod sank. link Link Moby Dick: Or, The Whale is Melville’s masterpiece, the book in which he most thoroughly used his experiences in the South Seas to examine the human condition and the metaphysical questions that were at the center of the author’s troubled worldview. From the novel’s famous opening line, “Call me Ishmael,” the reader is addressed directly by the book’s youthful but embittered narrator.

Unlike many of Melville’s youthful narrators, Ishmael is not presented as a young innocent, although he does face an initiation into the ways of the world. Instead, he is depicted as a young man with a past, who takes to the sea to avoid taking some more drastic action in response to the difficulties he has faced. Ishmael comes to New Bedford, Massachusetts, to sign on to a whaling ship, but before sailing he is confronted with comic and foreboding events that suggest the broad range of the novel. First, Ishmael shares a bed with a tattooed South Seas islander named Queequeg. Despite his initial comic horror, Ishmael demonstrates his open-mindedness by overcoming his fears and becoming friends with the cannibal. Ishmael also attends the famous whaleman’s chapel, where he hears Father Mapple deliver a sermon based on the story of Jonah and the whale, a sermon that emphasizes the dangers of human pride. After selecting the Pequod, a ship named after an Indian tribe that was massacred by the Puritans, the narrator and his new pagan companion are confronted by a strange old man who warns them of dangers to come.

The Pequod sails on Christmas, but Captain Ahab remains in his cabin for many days. Meanwhile, the ship is managed by the three mates, Starbuck, Stubb, and Flask. Ishmael describes the careful hierarchy of the ship, whose ethnically diverse crew composes a microcosmic vision of the world. When Ahab does reveal himself to the crew, his scarred face and whalebone peg leg present a sobering image of a physically and mentally damaged man. Ishmael, who is reflective and open to all ideas, provides the reader with a wealth of information regarding whales, whaling, and whaling ships. His approach to the gathering of knowledge is eclectic, ranging from scientific classification to imaginative association. As the Pequod’s crew hunts for whales and Ahab hunts for Moby Dick, Ishmael hunts for meaning. In the pivotal chapter, titled “The Quarter-Deck,” Ahab reveals his purpose to the men. In a masterful display of persuasive oratory, he stirs the crew to dedicate themselves to assist him in his vengeful pursuit of the white whale and nails a gold doubloon to the mast as the prize to the man who sights Moby Dick.

When Starbuck, whose name suggests his struggle against fate, questions Ahab’s personal pursuit of vengeance against a dumb animal, Ahab reveals his belief that the world is operated by a malicious force that works through visible objects. Thus, Ahab’s quest is not only a matter of individual vengeance but an effort to strike at the controlling force of nature. During the journey around the Cape of Good Hope and across the Indian Ocean, the Pequod’s crew lowers boats to pursue whales. Ahab then reveals the special boat led by the demonic Fedallah, which he has kept hidden. The Pequod also meets other vessels. Before the novel is over, the Pequod has met nine other ships (Goney, Town-Ho, Jereboam, Jungfrau, Bouton-de-rose, Samuel Enderby, Bachelor, Rachel, and Delight), and each meeting adds perspective to Ahab’s mad quest. As he begins to hear direct testimony about the white whale from sailors on other ships, Ahab’s obsession intensifies. He orders his men to ignore opportunities to capture other whales and frantically studies his charts.

Before the final, tragic confrontation, the African American cabin boy, Pip, is lost overboard and goes insane before he is finally rescued by the Pequod. Touched by the lad’s condition, Ahab takes Pip under his personal care, and Pip returns Ahab’s kindness with an innocent devotion that almost distracts Ahab from his vengeful course. It is clear that in order to persevere in his quest, Ahab must sever all ties of human affection. In the end, the crew of the Pequod wages a three-day battle against Moby Dick, a struggle that concludes with the whale’s destruction of the ship and all the crew except Ishmael. The narrator ironically escapes aboard Queequeg’s coffin and survives to tell the tale. Moby Dick is an expansive book in which Melville uses diverse styles. The book incorporates a wide range of dialects and rhetorical models as different as the new sermon and the tall tale. As in Typee and other earlier novels, Melville inserts autonomous chapters, such as the chapter on cetology, that interrupt the narrative; in Moby Dick, however, the interrelation of these chapters to the themes of the book is closer.

Moreover, most of the autonomous chapters in Moby Dick use a particular subject, object, or event to present Ishmael’s musings on the meaning of experience. SparkNotes: Moby-Dick: Chapters 115–125 Chapters 115–125 Chapters 115–125, page 2 page 1 of 3 Chapter 115: The Pequod Meets the Bachelor The somber Pequod, still on the lookout for Moby Dick, encounters the Bachelor, a festive Nantucket whaler on its way home with a full cargo. The captain of the Bachelor, saying that he has heard stories of the White Whale but doesn’t believe them, invites Ahab and the crew to join his party. Ahab declines, and the two ships go their separate ways as Ahab contemplates a vial of Nantucket sand that he has been carrying in his pocket. Chapter 116: The Dying Whale The next day, the Pequod kills several whales, and the way that one dying whale turns toward the sun inspires Ahab to speak to it in wondrous tones.

He notes that the whale, like man, worships the sun’s warmth. Ahab then hails the sea, calling its waves his “foster-brothers.” Chapter 117: The Whale Watch While keeping a night vigil over a whale that was too far away to take back to the ship immediately, Ahab hears from Fedallah the prophecy of his death. Before Ahab can die, he must see two hearses, one “not made by mortal hands” and one made of wood from America. Since it is unlikely that a hearse would be seen at sea, Ahab believes that he will not be killed on this voyage. Fedallah also tells him that he, Fedallah, will die before Ahab, and that only hemp can kill the captain. Ahab takes the latter prophecy to mean that he will be hanged, and again thinks his death unlikely to happen at sea. Chapter 118: The Quadrant Back on the ship, Ahab holds up a quadrant, an instrument that gauges the position of the sun, to determine the ship’s latitude. Deciding that it doesn’t give him the information that he wants, he tramples it underfoot. He orders the ship to change direction.

Starbuck finds Ahab’s ambitions petty and thinks that his behavior will end in mediocrity and failure. Stubb, on the other hand, respects Ahab for his willingness to “live in the game, and die in it!” Chapter 119: The Candles The next day, the Pequod is caught in a typhoon, and one of the harpoon boats is destroyed. The weird weather makes white flames appear at the top of the three masts, but Ahab refuses to let the crew put up lightning rods to draw away the danger. While Ahab marvels at the ship’s three masts lit up like three spermaceti candles, hailing them as good omens and signs of his own power, Starbuck sees them as a warning against continuing the quest for Moby Dick. When Starbuck sees Ahab’s harpoon also flickering with fire, he interprets it as a sign that God opposes Ahab. Ahab, however, grasps the harpoon and says, in front of a frightened crew, that there is nothing to fear in the enterprise that binds them all together.

He blows out the flame to “blow out the last fear.” Chapter 120: The Deck Towards the End of the First Night Watch In the next chapter, Starbuck questions Ahab’s judgment again, this time concerning the sails during the storm. Starbuck wants to take one of them down, but Ahab says that they should just lash it tighter. He complains that his first mate seems to think him incompetent. 1 Overview of Plot from Moby-Dick: Summary & Analysis Plot Summary of Moby-Dick written by: Peter Boysen • edited by: SForsyth • updated: 2/14/2012 Everyone knows the classic tale of a crazy captain's quest for a white whale. Review the main events in Melville's classic novel here.

slide 1 of 3 Meeting Ishmael and Boarding the Pequod The narrator, Ishmael, introduces himself to the reader and declares his desire to sail on a whaling ship, as all is not right with him -- he's a bit "hazy around the eyes." He goes to New Bedford, Massachusetts, to find a ship, and stays in an inn that is very full -- so full, in fact, that he has to share a room (and a bed) with Queequeg, a harpooner from New Zealand. This begins a relationship that takes on matrimonial terminology to describe its closeness. Together, the two men find work on the Pequod, a ship decorated ominously with teeth and bones from sperm whales. After negotiating a tiny salary with Bildad and Peleg, the owners of the ship, Ishmael is ready to go. slide 2 of 3 Meeting Captain Ahab Captain Ahab does not appear on deck until the cold December of Massachusetts is in the past, and the ship has reached warmer climes in the south.

He first appears with his ivory leg, and tells the crew the one purpose of this trip: to chase and kill the sperm whale Moby Dick, who had robbed Ahab of his leg at their last encounter. Ahab nails a golden doubloon to the ship's mast as a reward for the first crew member to see the whale. The Quest for the White Whale As the voyage progresses, the crew find and try to hunt other whales. Eventually, Ahab's secret crew, led by the Parsee (Fedallah), whose skills at whale-hunting and prophecy are Ahab's hope in finding the whale. As time goes by, and the ship goes around Africa into the Indian Ocean, the crew does catch some whales and starts to take them apart for their oil. Now and then, the Pequod will run into other ships that have seen Moby-Dick, and each time Ahab stops to get information from the captains of the ships. The first boat that they encounter, the Jeroboam, has an insane prophet named Gabriel foretelling doom for those who pursue the great white whale.

The negative prophecies start to find fruit: the harpooner Tashtego falls into a whale's head while the crew is trying to drain the oil from it. The head falls off and into the ocean, and Queequeg has to dive into the ocean and cut Tashtego out. The Pequod also encounters the Samuel Enderby, whose captain had lost an arm to Moby-Dick, and is amazed that Ahab would go back for more after having lost a leg to the monster. slide 3 of 3 Ahab's Fatal Obsession with Moby-Dick Not to be deterred, even when threatened with mutiny from Starbuck, Ahab presses on with his goal of finding the whale. He has a new harpoon forged, and he sprinkles the blood of his three harpooners on it. The crew hunt and kill several more whales. More Predictions Fedallah makes a prophecy about Ahab's death, claiming that he will see two hearses, the second of which will be made from American wood, and that a rope made of hemp will kill him. Ahab is pleased, because he believes there are no hearses or hangings at sea.

When an electrical storm lights up the entire ship, Ahab believes that he has received a positive omen. However, at the end of the storm, one of the crew falls off the masthead and dies. The three climactic days of the novel are the three in which the Pequod chases Moby-Dick. Despite the fact that the harpooners strike the whale, he only seems to get stronger. Fedallah gets caught in the harpoon line and is drowned; on the third day, the same fate befalls Captain Ahab himself. In a rage, Moby Dick charges the Pequod and sinks it. Because Ishmael was thrown off early during the chase on the third day, he is far enough away to avoid the vortex made by the sinking ship. He floats on Queequeg's unused coffin until the crew of another ship saves him. Whew... we're done Moby Dick is an exciting read and a personal favorite of mine. I hope this summary will assist you in understanding the flow of the novel. It's definitely not the easiest read out there, though well worth the effort!

◄ ● ● ● ► Study Guide for "Moby-Dick" This study guide will assist high school and college students with the reading and understanding of Herman Melville's classic American novel.

Question: In which novel does the ship the Pequod appear?
Answer: Moby Dick