Pequod (Moby-Dick) Pequod (Moby-Dick) Pequod is a fictional 19th-century Nantucket whaling ship that appears in the 1851 novel "Moby-Dick" by American author Herman Melville. "Pequod" and her crew, commanded by Captain Ahab, are central to the story, which, after the initial chapters, takes place almost entirely aboard the ship during a three-year whaling expedition in the Atlantic, Indian and South Pacific oceans. Most of the characters in the novel are part of "Pequod"s crew, including the narrator Ishmael. Ishmael encounters the ship after he arrives in Nantucket and learns of three ships that are about to leave on three-year cruises. Tasked by
Queequeg Queequeg Queequeg is a fictional character in the 1851 novel "Moby-Dick" by American author Herman Melville. The son of a South Sea chieftain who left home to explore the world, Queequeg is the first principal character encountered by the narrator, Ishmael. The quick friendship and relationship of equality between the tattooed cannibal and the white sailor shows Melville's basic theme of shipboard democracy and racial diversity. Once aboard the whaling ship "Pequod" Queequeg becomes the harpooner for the mate Starbuck. At the end of the novel he "casts the runes", which say he will die. He therefore builds a coffin