Moby Dick

A restless young sailor who calls himself Ishmael signs on with the *Pequod*, a whaling ship out of Nantucket, in search of work and the sea air that calms his dark moods. Before the ship sails, he forms an unlikely friendship with Queequeg, a tattooed harpooner from a Pacific island who shares his bed at a New Bedford inn and his loyalty for the rest of the voyage. The *Pequod*'s captain is Ahab, a grim, ivory-legged man who lost his leg in the jaws of a great white whale called Moby Dick. Once at sea, Ahab reveals that this voyage is not about oil or money. He nails a gold coin to the mast and swears the crew to a single purpose: hunt and kill Moby Dick, no matter the cost.

Across two long years and three oceans the *Pequod* chases whales, processes oil, and meets other ships with their own news of the white whale. Ahab grows more obsessed; his first mate Starbuck warns him, prays for him, almost mutinies. The crew sees omens — a ghostly water spout, a Parsee harpooner Ahab smuggled aboard, a coffin that becomes a life-buoy. A boy named Pip is left adrift and comes back changed forever. Another captain, Gardiner of the *Rachel*, begs Ahab to help search for his lost son; Ahab refuses and sails on.

In the Pacific, Moby Dick is finally sighted. The chase lasts three days. The whale smashes the boats, drowns the Parsee, and on the third day rams the *Pequod* itself, sending her to the bottom with every man aboard — every man but one. Ishmael is kept afloat by Queequeg's coffin until the still-searching *Rachel* finds him, the only mouth left to tell the tale.