Captain Ahab Captain Ahab Captain Ahab is a fictional character and the main protagonist in Herman Melville's "Moby-Dick" (1851). He is the monomaniacal captain of the whaling ship "Pequod". On a previous voyage, the white whale Moby Dick bit off Ahab's leg, and he now wears a prosthetic leg made out of whalebone. The whaling voyage of the "Pequod" ends up as a hunt for revenge on the whale, as Ahab forces the crew members to support his fanatical mission. When Moby Dick is finally sighted, Ahab's hatred robs him of all caution, and the whale drags Ahab to the bottom of
Nantucket (ship) oild but lost the Ship after carrying us safely over thousands of miles by water we left her upon the Rocks." Details of the ship come from Judith Navas Lund, whaling Masters and Whaling Voyages Sailing from American Ports. Almira's journal is quoted extensively in Joan Druett, "Petticoat Whalers, Whaling Wives at Sea 1820-1920". (University Press of New England, 2001). Nantucket (ship) The Nantucket was a 350-ton whaler built in Nantucket, Massachusetts in 1837. First master, David N. Edwards, 1837-40 (left ship, replaced by F. C. Sanford), then: George Washington Gardner, 1841–45; Benjamin C. Gardner, 1845–50; Richard C. Gibbs 1850-54